Outsourcing Disaster recovery planning
Disaster recovery plan is a very important thing for every company. Insurance problems, data backup, personnel training all of those and even more things are covered in a good disaster recovery plan. However, there is one problem human resources. In order to follow the plan, a company needs both people and their time. Unsurprisingly, the moment you start assigning duties, everyone seems to have a lot of work on his or her hands. What is even worse, many of them are really too busy and any change in their work timetable might be disastrous to company projects.
That’s why it is usually better to outsource the whole process of disaster recovery planning, using some staff finders to seek for right candidates. There already exist a number of companies specialized in finding staff capable of preparing and properly employing a disaster recovery plan.
Of course, outsourcing disaster recovery through staff finders is a completely different than finding new employees. First of all, you don’t look for an individual; you are interested in hiring a group of people who have already worked together in the past, or rather for a company that specializes in disaster recovery or business risk accounting. After you inform staff finders agencies about your requirements, all you need is to sit back and wait. People from such agencies start looking through their data bases searching for candidates that would be as close to your requirements as possible.
Usually after a few days you will be contacted by a staff finder company representative. He will show you the results of their searching with a bill for their services. According to their report you will now have to choose to whom entrusts planning of your company security. Of course, the report alone may not be enough. You might need to look for additional, more detailed information than you receive in the staff finders report. That’s why it is sometimes a good idea to contact more than one such agency. After you obtain reports from different staff finders, you are able to compare the information they have provided. That may give you and your company a better choice.
There are many arguments in favor of outsourcing disaster recovery planning. First of all, it allows normal work for your company, and second, people that you have found through staff finders are specialists; this is not their first time they will plan disaster recovery faster and more efficiently then any of your employees.
File recovery software – Disaster Recovery planning for IT environments
There are moments in your business life when you have to think about the future. The time to plan new strategies, review the old ones, and very important, to rethink current disaster recovery plan. A good plan covers many aspects of company activities it starts with a companies cars insurance, and ends with choosing proper file recovery software.
Recently, being able to access company information has became one of the most important qualities in business, especially in so-called IT environment. It is not a great surprise then that a great effort is made to make data recovery as accurate and fast as possible, thus making information safety one of the most important things in disaster recovery planning.
The whole process of planning disaster recovery, however, is no different in IT environment’s than it is in all the others even the need of fast and safe file recovery software is the same. You may distinguish four major parts in almost every disaster recovery plan:
- Finding company requirements. One recovery plan differs from another depending on differences in companies politics. An ideal plan for one company can be disastrous to another, making good file recovery software the only thing in common. In this step you actually predict what can happen to the company, and how to successfully bring everything back to normal state, in proper, unique order.
- Find means to make it happen. According to requirements, you have to find effective resources, such as the right technology and, of course, trained personnel. The technology should be capable of achieving the desired results. If you are expecting to have a system up and running in a matter of moments hundreds of miles away, you have to find a proper method of data recovery and effective file recovery software.
- Develop processes that make the resources effective. That means setting up certain procedures in case of disaster. Training personnel is also crucial; the company may be equipped with the newest file recovery software, but without skilled employee it’s just a waste of money.
- Institute cost accountability that provides efficiency. It is probably the most important step in planning disaster recovery. It is essential that the cost of putting the whole plan in motion does not outweigh the financial benefits it bears.
Sometimes you may find that disaster recovery is just too expensive. Even the best plan won’t cover every possibility. Sometimes the costs of data recovery systems (including licenses for file recovery software) outweigh the benefit of the recovery process. In such cases it is cheaper to backup your data manually from scratch, and simply store the hard copies of that data in a safe place in case of an emergency.
Data Recovery – the importance of data backups
Imagine that you are on your computer at work when suddenly all of the lights go out and the computer shuts down. After a few minutes the power is restored. You reboot your computer only to find that an error message appears. It tells you that a fatal error occurred, that some important data has disappeared. Situations such as this happen all too often the good news is that there are key safeguards, one of which is data recovery that can significantly reduce their occurrence.
Primary and the most fail-safe method of preparing data recovery are data backups. Data backup refers to the copying of computer’s information so that these copies may be restored through data recovery process after some fatal event. Backups are useful primarily for two purposes: to restore a computer to an operational state following an accident (also called disaster recovery), and to recover information files after they have been deleted or corrupted (file or data recovery). Backups are usually the last line of defense against data loss (but also the most important one); they require much time and consequently are the least convenient to use. The more important the data that is stored in the computer, the greater the need for backing up the data. Also, the probability of having to go through the data recovery process increases with the amount of information that is stored.
Why data backup is so important? In today’s world, information is more important than money. And a company that loses access to its critical data for more than 48 hours will likely be put out of business within one year. The necessity of data backup allows for quick and successful data recovery which grows with the size of the company the larger it is, the bigger the danger of data loss.
- The main causes of data loss may be divided into following categories:
Human errors – deletion of a file or program by mistake, misplacement of CDs or floppies, errors in administrating databases - Crimes (intentional acts) including thievery, hacking, industrial espionage
- Natural (random) causes – including power failures, hardware failures, a sudden software crash or freeze, software bugs
- Disaster – fire, flood, tornado, earthquake etc.
To prevent data loss a company must choose the right data backup strategy. It consists of many steps choosing the data repository model (from unstructured to continuous), right storage media (from floppy drives to magnetic tapes), and managing the existing copies (they can be destroyed during the same accident) They all have a big impact on successful data recovery, as well as on the well-being of a successful company.
How to Use Vulnerability Metrics to Prevent IT Disasters
Using vulnerability metrics to prevent IT disasters sounds like a complicated procedure, but it’s something that any business can implement. With a basic understanding of how the process works, this is a tool that can help you prioritize security issues and help you to address them efficiently.
What are Vulnerability Metrics?
A vulnerability metric is a set of values that are assigned to a variety of network and application security issues. In a nutshell, the metric addresses how widely known a vulnerability is, how at risk your business is from it, and what the impact of this vulnerability would be if exploited. The more widely known a vulnerability is, the more attackers could be using it and the more likely it is that a system will have preventative measures in place to stop the attack. There are a variety of metrics available, but at their heart this is what they do.
Using Vulnerability Metrics
Properly utilizing the data garnered from the vulnerability metric is important. For example, how often does your company search for and implement software patches? If your company does this weekly, the longest you can have a known operating system loophole open is one week. If your company patches monthly, you could have a full month with a weakness open, waiting to be exploited. Knowing what your weaknesses are and how to prioritize them can keep attackers out and your data and resources safe.
It should be noted that a vulnerability metric is not a real-time system. There are many metrics available that are free or available for a minimal charge, but they do not include the training and knowledge to be able to properly interpret the data. One cost-effective way of obtaining this knowledge without the expense of a full-time employee is to hire a consultant. The IT consultant can help assess the data and ensure that the metrics are being put to their best use, and you can hire them on an as-needed basis. A security professional can ensure you are implementing the suggested changes to keep your system safe.
Using vulnerability metrics to help prevent IT disasters isn’t difficult. Finding your weaknesses, understanding what they could do, and learning how best to prevent them is a basic security need, and the metric can provide a structure for this. Used in conjunction with an experienced consultant, these metrics can be invaluable in protecting your business from a variety of IT disasters.
Network Scalability for Your Business
When a business is just starting out, the temptation is to keep expenses low in order to get through the critical first few years. After all, you have other start-up costs and finances to take into consideration.
However, when setting up a computer network for your growing business, you should also take into consideration scalability. Network scalability is the ability of your computer network to grow with your business as your needs change. Not taking scalability into account can mean spending more money on infrastructure down the road.
What is Network Scalability?
One of the definitions of network scalability is the ability of your computer network to handle the amount of traffic that runs on it. When a business is starting out and is relatively small with a handful of users, having a scalable computer network may seem to be an unnecessary expense, since the smallest amount will seem sufficient. However, on the contrary, you must remember that as your company grows, your business technology needs will also change.
While a business is small, a shared communication line may be all that is needed to ensure that the office can access the Internet. However, more users and more complicated online communication needs mean that you’ll also have greater network bandwidth needs. As a company adds more users, the need to do more downloading or transferring of files, will require more bandwidth and faster speeds, the original network equipment needs to be able to handle that traffic. By understanding what future needs are likely to be, a network architect can choose equipment that will be able to grow with you.
At the same time, while a business is still getting off the ground, a handful of users may find that sharing one printer, locally hosted and shared on someone’s machine, to be a fine arrangement. Once again, as that business grows and adds more users it will increased printing needs, this former arrangement may no longer be sufficient. Investing in a network printer that will allow multiple user access may be more expensive at first but will pay off in usability and lack of downtime in the future.
How to Plan for Future Growth through Network Scalability
By investing in technology that can grow with your business, you can rest assured that your computer network will grow with your business. Though your business may not use the full capabilities of certain devices from the very beginning, having that flexibility for growth and expansion can help.
For most business owners, these needs can be addressed by your IT consultant or technical department. This is yet another reason why it pays to consult with an IT specialist early on in a business’s operations. Keeping scalability in mind while your business is just starting out will help to ensure that your computer network will grow with your business needs. Investing in technology that can grow with your business is always a smart choice.
The Importance of Server Backup Systems
We all know how important server backup systems and regularly saved work is. We’ve all been the victim of a wrong button pushed once or a power surge that can eradicate entire documents that have been the focus of your attention for hours. However, consider what kind of damage this brings to companies working on a larger scale. What if you have thousands of documents and files that have suddenly vanished?
Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly Data Storage?
The problem with server backup systems and saving data is that it can be a time-consuming task. Manually backing up your files might seem ideal – especially if you work almost entirely with documents on your computer – but can easily take up several minutes of every hour. This can result in hours each year of lost productivity. Daily saving is a little less time-intensive but can still become a burden over time. Weekly or monthly storage might seem more realistic until you lose that entire week’s worth of work during a hard disk failure or other setback.
Server backup systems can step in to save some of this lost time and effort, especially if you use a system designed with productivity in mind. Many systems operate automatically each night after you close the office for the night. A little more costly than simply moving all your files to an external hard drive every night, they can streamline everything by only uploading those files that were changed during the day or that underwent regular maintenance. But because it doesn’t cut into the workday or require activity on your part or on the part of your employees, it can quickly become an invaluable business tool.
Most data storage experts also recommend that you do an additional weekly backup in addition to an automated daily option. This should usually go one step further in terms of protection and security, often including storage in physical form in an offsite safe or over a network on an offsite server. If you implement these steps early on in your business, it will quickly become a habit and take up even less time than you imagined.
Keeping Your Information Safe by using Server Backup Systems
No matter what type of backup solution you choose, make sure security is always at the forefront of your mind. Regardless of whether you’re looking to remain secure against theft, physical damage, or future loss, remember that backup and data storage is only effective if you keep the information secure. Never keep all your information in the same place, and make sure that those who have access to it are authorized.