in a hurricane
Its Hurricane Season Whats Your Disaster Recovery Plan? Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines Disaster Recovery as The planning and implementation of procedures and facilities for use when essential systems are not available for a period long enough to have a significant impact on the business.For those of us in South Florida,louboutin daffodile, that means hurricane season. But it could be floods, earthquakes, anything that could disturb business as usual. And even the remote chance of a business outage due to natural disaster should trigger questions like how can I protect my business and what can be done to ensure quick recovery from a natural or man-made disaster?When it comes to protecting your business, you need to protect your most important assets. Electronic data is certainly an important asset. As a business owner protect that data is one of the most important decisions you can make because few businesses are in a position to survive prolonged information system inaccessibility. In fact, according to Iron Mountain, the global leader in data protection and information management, it is estimated that 60 percent of businesses that experience downtime of 48 hours or more will be out of business within three years.In addition to avoiding downtime or a delay of any kind, you must also protect your electronic data from getting in the wrong hands. Almost every business today is in possession of extremely sensitive data, including credit card numbers, social security numbers, financial data, etc. And its likely this data is loosely guarded or on portable devices, such as laptops or PDAs. Therefore, any disaster recovery plan that protects your data in the event of a natural disaster, should also take into consideration theft and data encryption.So where to start? Disaster Recovery plans come in many forms and at various price points. There are a variety of options and it becomes a matter of finding the right fit for your business. Its in your best interest to perform a risk analysis and implement preventative measure before you need them. For example, in a hurricane, if your roof is torn off and your server is destroyed, how long will it take before you can resume operations? Could a disgruntled employee download your customer database onto a flash drive and walk out the door? All your risks, (from the small to the large, the most common to the least likely) need to be addressed. Then you need to practice. Think of it as a fire drill. Perform routine preventative measures so that your staff knows exactly what to do and how long you might anticipate down time,louboutin wedding shoes. Then youll be able to put disaster recovery measures in place and be able to evaluate those measures when you perform a post-mortem analysis.Some additional food for thought includes installing data encryption software if sensitive data resides on portable devices or find applications with sophisticated security that disables the ability to download data. If most of your critical data resides on a server, then the most basic disaster recovery plan includes a routine, formalized tape backup procedure. Investing in a LTO (linear tape open) or DAT (digital audio tape) drive will allow you to store large amounts of data in a portable format. Tape drivers are relatively inexpensive and the media can be easily transported off site to a bunker facility, a safe,christian louboutin shoes, or even a datacenter.Although tape backup is a solution, this can still be a security risk,christian louboutin outlet, depending on how you take care of it. If the tape is taken off site it should be kept with a trusted employee or a trusted company. Giving the responsibility to just any person can put your company at risk for fraud and theft. Its recommended to remove the physical backups from the premises every night (just copying your database electronically on your hard drive does not protect you in case of a fire or hurricane).And remember, backups need to be checked. While most businesses already have servers with tape backup drives and backup software configured, an alarmingly high percentage of these businesses do not have formalized procedures in place to check the backups. Unfortunately, many small businesses dont realized how important backups are until its too late.You will want your system up and running as quickly as possible after a disaster. Even if your backup procedures work perfectly, there is down time in waiting for a new server if the old one is destroyed. Some businesses maintain dormant backup servers off site (with all critical software installed) so the backup can be restored on the dormant server and workstations rerouted. Other businesses maintain backup systems live at datacenters that have vault security systems in place to ensure 99.99 uptime,louboutin pumps. These solutions require an investment in high-speed data connections.Bottom line: make sure you have a disaster plan. Assess your risk and how debilitating several days of system outage could be. Test your disaster recovery plan frequently. If you would like to take preventative measure in the case of disaster, you can also talk with technology consulting firm to find out what is the best option for your business. Hurricane season is rapidly approaching. Take care of your bottom line as well as stocking up on candles and bottled water.Turn to Southeast Computer Solutions before disaster strikes. Ralph Ceccarelli and Southeast Computer Solutions have been helping business stay in business for more than 20 years.
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