business
Are You Ready for A DISASTER?
BY WILLIAM R. CUNNINGHAM, OWNER OF REGGIE’S PC RESOURCES (RPCR)
I
t is very probable that the computer system in your
home or office will experience a disaster causing you
to lose your data (company files, family pictures, music,
etc.). Would you be prepared? Would you or your
company be able to survive a disaster? Unfortunately
many people do not think about their computer systems
and files until something goes awry. It is then too late
because the time to be ready for a disaster is before it
strikes not afterwards.
The purpose of this article is to provide information that can be used to get you
started in preparing for a disaster and to develop a disaster recovery plan for your
home or business.
TYPES OF DISASTERS
A disaster can come in various forms and is different for each person or business.
It could range from accidentally deleting a folder on a shared drive, a hard drive
crash or a server malfunction. Disasters can come as a result of natural disasters,
computer viruses, fire, theft, human error, system or component failure, or many
other ways. In any case being prepared will help minimize the effect of the
disaster.
HOW TO BE PREPARED FOR A DISASTER
The best way to be prepared for a disaster is to think about your system before a
disaster happens and then take action. Do you have a plan if the computer crashes
with all of your company data on it or family photos? Begin to think about what
would happen and what you would do if for example your internet connection
went down at the office. Determine what your options are and take action.
WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW?
Plan. If nothing else establish a good backup system for your files. Contact Reggie’s PC
Resources to help you evaluate your needs and help develop a disaster recovery plan. Think
about how you would continue with normal operations (home or office) if your system went
down for whatever reason and begin to develop a plan to minimize the effect of that based on
your needs and budget.
SOME OPTIONS
There are many options available to help you to recover after a disaster. These
options range from a simple backup system, cloud storage, Infrastructure as
a Service for businesses, redundant systems (co-location), redundant internet
connections, security measures, and more. The bottom line is to plan and establish
the resources and systems that will be activated if a disaster occurs. Evaluate your
risk and develop a disaster recovery solution that fits your own budget. Of course
Reggie’s PC Resources can help you with this.
Above all. Do not wait for a disaster to come before you are prepared for it. The sooner you
start preparing for a disaster the sooner you will be ready WHEN it comes.
BACKUPS
The first line of defense against disasters is to have a backup of all of your data.
With an up-to-date backup you could at least restore your data to another system.
Be sure to evaluate the restore process when you are considering a backup
solution. After all, the greatest value of a backup system is its ability to restore your
data so being familiar with that process is important—again before the disaster. I
recommend a cloud backup solution such as Carbonite to further protect you from
disasters involving your facility/home. Visit our backup portal at http://partners.
carbonite.com/rpcr to get started backing up your files.
Visit us online at www.rpcr.com,
or contact us by email at support@ rpcr.com
or by phone at 215.362.0967
CLOUD SOLUTIONS
You have probably heard the term “cloud” by now regarding Internet technologies.
In the old days the Internet was depicted as a cloud in diagrams. So cloud storage
is basically storage that is purchased from a provider that is accessed via the
Internet. Some familiar examples of cloud storage is Microsoft’s OneDrive and
Dropbox (both have business solutions). It is also possible to establish a virtual
environment (e.g., virtual servers, virtual desktops) that can be replicated in the
cloud. In this scenario if your primary location (using a virtual environment)
experiences a disaster then you could activate (spin up) your virtual environment
in the cloud to keep your business running until the primary location is operational
again.
LehighWomen.com
April/May 2015
13