Security Corner – Could your business survive if you lost access to your data for a week?

Ask yourself, "Will my business be able to recover all of it's data should a technological or natural disaster occur tomorrow?" Even if your answer is yes, how long will the restore take and will you be operating at 100% as quickly as you would like?

We are forever adjusting our business practices as technology grows, especially with all of the efforts by many clients to go "paperless" with invoicing, correspondence, and even contracts. The information that used to be filed away in cabinets and archives is now residing digitally on servers. It's easy for business owners to overlook the security of their intellectual property - the livelihood of businesses - when everything seems to be running fine.

When a hard drive or server dies, it does so instantly and often without warning. It is crucial to have a back up system tailored to the needs of your business.

Four things you need to know when evaluating your level of preparedness:

• 1 Restoration - Surprisingly, many backup solutions are limited in their ability to restore files from certain points in time. The data on a tape can be corrupted quite easily during the process of daily use and of moving the tapes offsite. The success rate of recovering what you need from a tape is around 75%; combine that with an average 20-30% failure rate on each individual backup and you have an incredibly "iffy" situation when it comes to getting the files or entire server back when you actually need it.
• 2 Business Continuity - Having your operation put on hold during a technological disaster is bad enough. The top priority becomes getting your systems restored ASAP and you are going to need a system that can get you up quickly and without a hassel. Most backup systems, even with redundancies and well-maintained tapes, can take up to three days or even more to get your systems running smoothly. With the productivity of you and your employess at a stand-still, can you afford the wait?
• 3 Disaster Recovery - In the event of a physical disaster, you should always have your backup data stored off the premises of your company. Putting those tapes in anyone's hands can prove to be an unreliable solution as they are still susceptible to the same kinds of disasters. We support and recommend backup systems that can transfer an encrypted copy of your data to multiple remote locations; so even an area-wide natural disaster will not affect the well-being of the information your business counts on.
• 4 Data Retention - In a Time of Employee Turnover and Layoffs have you considered the human factor?
  • What are we doing to ensure that business will be as usual when employees leave?
  • Is corporate data going to leave the company when the employee leaves or could they potentially sabotage critical data?
  • Are the terminated person's files, mail and contacts present so we easily pick up where he/she left off?
  • Is my business continuity solution going to be sufficient to protect the organization from the potential loss of data?
  • If I discover missing data 2 weeks or 2 months from now, will my backup solution be able to get it back?

Employee turnover has always been defined as an HR issue; but, in today's economic climate where workforce reductions are essential to an organization's survival, business continuity is becoming a major focus for IT. When employees are laid-off or leave, organizations must address both practical and behavorial concerns regarding their data.

The CEO who is trying to avoid risk must ask himself the following:

The goal of being prepared in any sense of the word is to not get caught off guard.

We at Dependable Computer Guys, Inc. we make it our business to ensure that our clients are positioned to recover fully and quickly from anything that could possibly happen to their data. We install and maintain backup systems for hundreds of businesses in Southern California. If you would like to have DCG review your company's Backup / Disaster Recovery plan, give us a call. We're here to help.

To learn more about us call at 818 541 9195. Mention this Executive Briefing and receive your first month's off-site storage of encrypted data for free.

About Brent Whitfield

Brent Whitfield is CEO of DCG Technical Solutions, Inc., which provides IT Support in the Los Angeles area since 1993. DCG exists to help our clients choose, implement, and manage IT and cloud solutions that are cost effective and reliable. DCG's pro-active approach to IT is ideally suited for companies who depend on reliable IT infrastructure, but don't want to spend a lot of money to keep it that way. DCG was recognized among the Top 10 Fastest Growing MSPs in North America by MSP Mentor. Brent has been featured in Fast Company, CNBC, Network Computing, Reuters, and Yahoo Business.