Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

It is officially one week until World Backup Day—the global occasion intended to raise awareness about the importance of backups and the proper maintenance and management of them. While we are in full support of this initiative, we also want to make something clear: data backup shouldn’t be an annual consideration, it needs to be a priority each and every day.

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that we rev the throttle on data backup a lot. This is because it can quite literally save your business and for something that valuable, it doesn’t come with a lot of cost. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses don’t always find the expense worth it. In the minds of many decision-makers, what are the chances that your business is hit with a situation that would necessitate a full system restore? 

We have all heard about disaster scenarios in which offices are struck by terrifying threats that put the organization on life support. However, the most devastating disasters don’t necessarily have to destroy your business’ office to really do measurable harm to your organization. All they have to do is disrupt your operations so profoundly that it can be a real challenge to recover.

It’s a known fact that businesses do not want to imagine what might happen under the absolute worst conditions, but it is something that comes with the territory of being a business owner. If you don’t plan for the worst, it could potentially place your company at risk. How can you prepare yourself for the struggles that come with disaster recovery?

Data breaches are a modern reality, and they’ll still be around in the new year. While it is obviously preferable for your business not to fall victim to one, that isn’t always something in your control. Therefore, it is better to have planned ahead, so that your operations can continue and you can more effectively keep your contacts apprised of the situation. Let’s discuss what you need to do.

The recent hack of Colonial Pipeline has led to no shortage of problems, chief among them gasoline shortages all across the east coast of the United States. The pipeline’s operations may have been restored, but the question still remains: what could have been done to stop it, what can we learn from this incident, and what changes can we expect to see as a result?

While nobody likes to presume the worst will happen in their business, it must be a point that comes into consideration. Statistics are statistics, as they are, and as such there is always the chance—a considerable chance, in fact—that your business will suffer from some form of disaster. Due to this, we always recommend that you have some means of protecting your data throughout, with a plan to respond to such events accordingly.

Your business’ data is its lifeblood, which means that one of your internal priorities should be protecting it. While we often discuss the importance of your cybersecurity to defend against data theft and similar issues, it is also important to consider what would happen if the data loss was caused due to damage to the infrastructure it was stored on.

It has been pretty difficult for most small business owners to stay positive lately. They’ve had to deal with more in the past few months than many have in their entire entrepreneurial careers. Today, as businesses are gearing up to get back to work, we thought it would be helpful to explain some ways that you can stay positive. 

Coronavirus is on everyone’s mind, from the public at large to businesses of all shapes and sizes. While the impact of COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on small businesses, corporations and enterprise businesses have also felt these changes. However, unlike small businesses, larger companies seem to be able to do much more than just survive.

We have almost made it through this year’s hurricane season, but unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that businesses will suddenly be safe again. Many businesses that are impacted by these kinds of disasters are unprepared, and so when push comes to shove, some ultimately close their doors after trying (and failing) to bounce back. We’re going to tell you how to help avoid this outcome for your business the next time there’s a disaster.

While it may not be fun to consider the worst-case scenario, it is important that you have a plan to ensure that your business will be able to survive when the chips are down. This plan to ensure that your business will continue is called (appropriately enough) a business continuity plan, and needs to address a few things that we will go over here.

Each organization has a different definition for how they define a disaster. One business might feel that they can get away with losing a few files here and there, while another might need every file to be secure and protected against data loss. Regardless, the importance of being able to define the severity of a disaster cannot be underestimated, as you will need to properly gauge just how much hot water your business has landed in before it can pull itself up by the bootstraps and push forward.

If there’s one concept that every business owner needs to be intimately familiar with, it’s business continuity. Boiled down, the concept tackles the question of how your business will carry on after a disaster situation has struck. While a business continuity plan is by no means a simplistic document, there are a few key points that all businesses should focus on.

The search for the perfect way to handle a data loss disaster has led many businesses to implement data backup and disaster recovery solutions, but the most challenging part of doing so is finding a solution that can minimize data loss and recovery time. Furthermore, there’s a specific need to understand the difference between data backup and disaster recovery, as the two are certainly not the same thing.

These days, businesses practically expect disaster. With so many high-profile hacking attacks in the news, people are paranoid and fear for their data. Yet, even more businesses don’t fear enough, which can lead to unexpected data loss from hackers, natural disasters, and even user error. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your organization is prepared to handle disasters of all kinds.

Business owners have many important decisions they must make pertaining to the continuation of their organization. Securing their company’s data may come off as yet another item on a to-do list, but, due to the critical role data plays in the day-to-day operations, this task should be a high priority for every modern business. Raising awareness of this critical issue is precisely why March 31st is World Backup Day!

For eons, the human species has sought to improve efficiency through the integration of new innovative technologies. We always push toward the bright new future, a garden filled with shimmering hardware and the sweet, sweet smell of silicon. Everything is running smoothly, just like music, until you hear a note that doesn’t belong. Instead of a chorus of heavenly angels serenading you as you open the door to your server room, you hear the sound of failure; hardware failure, to be specific; and it’s not pretty.

A thorough data backup is important for your business continuity plan, and so is a fast and efficient disaster recovery solution. What's that? Aren't those the same thing? Unfortunately, the two concepts are far from the same thing, but many business owners are still under the impression that their data backup is also a disaster recovery solution.

Your company's data is extremely valuable, which is why you have security measures in place in order to keep hackers out of your network. Although, it's easy to spend so much time focused on your network firewall that sometimes, securing your backed-up files gets overlooked. In the hands of a hacker, the copies of your backed up data can be just as valuable as breaching your network.