One lightning strike can ruin your whole day...
Last night was scary for some people here in the Upstate of SC. Easley was hit hard in the business area of Main Street and Pendleton Street and residences along 135 by the passing storms.
As I watched the news and saw the video footage of damage, I felt horrible for the business and home owners affected. We turned on the scanner radio and listened as emergency crews went street by street, clearing each house they came to. We heard that business owners would not be allowed back into their business until 8 AM today, and an entire condo was evacuated and they were not allowed in until after power was restored.
Those who did not suffer structural damage from the wind, or trees falling on their building and the water that poured in, may have suffered in other ways. Servers and workstations that were not on an UPS (Un-Interruptable Power Supply) went down when the power went out, losing any data that was not saved, and potentially corrupting hard drives or data that was being written at the time.
Then there is the damage to electronics, especially computers & servers, when the power attempts to come on, spikes, surges, brownouts. These power events have the potential for destroying sensitive components.
A simple and relatively inexpensive device such as an APC or Eaton UPS could help prevent costly damage, lost productivity and save your data by automatically shutting down the computer after a power failure, saving data properly, and during the continual power up/power down cycles, provide the filtering necessary to protect your systems. Your insurance company may offer discounts for coverage of equipment covered by UPS due to the reduced chance of costly computer server repair or service, or even replacement.
Another nice feature of an UPS would be to supply power to internet routers / switches, CCTV system and VoIP systems to allow you to view your security cameras to assess possible damage before you can even enter your building (If the internet connection is not severed), and your phone systems can continue to function if you have a large enough UPS so that Voice Mail and FAX can still come in. An UPS can serve to power your systems until your generator comes online if you have one, so your Microsoft Exchange system may never go offline assuming your building is not one of the ones affected by structural damage.
The obvious next layer of protection is a backup solution, such as an onsite backup, whether it is an LTO, DLT or other tape drive, external hard drives, NAS / SAN etc, which could help if the need to restore data comes up… Taking that idea one step further would offer an offsite, or online backup solution, placing your data “in the cloud” safely away from your geographic location, so if a fire, tornado, flood or even a theft occurs, your data is located elsewhere and can be downloaded to a new computer or server.
If you would like to discuss how power protection and backup solutions can safeguard your systems or if you require assistance with a business continuity plan, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748. We are partners with APC, Eaton, Symantec, Quantum and Servosity. We also offer a FREE trial of the Servosity Online Backup Solution….
Free Servosity Online Backup Trial
You could have a happy ending to your story, where your laptop is stolen (or lost) and the person has mercy on your soul and sends your data back to you (See THIS STORY).
However, if you are like me just a few years ago, you will lose your notebook and your data along with it.
Avoid this by using an online backup solution like Servosity… It is totally automated, and we will provide you with a 30 day trial. Whether it is for your notebook with only a few gigs, or your servers with 100 gigs or more, Servosity will work great for you. It can backup MS Exchange, MS SQL, etc. Mac OSX, Linux, etc are also supported!
For more information about Servosity online backup or other backup solutions such as RDX, Tape Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, etc, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748.
HP StorageWorks RDX Technology
When selecting a backup solution, you may be considering one of the following:
LTO, DLT, DAT Tape – The de facto standard in backup media for business and enterprise. Though it is growing a little long in the tooth, the format has proven itself to be reliable and affordable when you consider the lifetime of the drive and the media. These are available in a variety of flavors, from SCSI, to SATA, internal and external. And for those needing massive storage and speed, there are enormous auto-loaders such as 96 slot HP LTO 5 fiber channel systems.
Iomega REV removable cartridge systems – Outdated, no longer sold or supported by Iomega. (You can still buy media)
Portable hard drives – While these seem attractive because they are cheap and available at every office supply house in town, the reliability of these devices is not idea for mission critical solutions. The constant plugging and unplugging of USB cables can wear connectors out prematurely and there is the slight possibility that a server can be damaged by static when plugging in a drive. Most IT people feel this is a better solution than no solution at all.
Remote Backup or In-The-Cloud backup – We offer Servosity Online Backup and feel it is a great addition to any existing hardware backup system you may have, and could serve as your primary backup if so desired. These are affordable solutions that require very little hands-on time.
Network based disk storage – These are awesome for speed, and convenience, but they generally remain on site and in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as fire, flood, or even theft, you could be left with no backup. This falls under the “much better than nothing” category.
Flash drives and other non-volatile storage media, including CD & DVD – Again, this better than nothing and surely works for small amounts of data, but longevity may be in question. CDs and DVDs have a lifespan after written to, usually of only a few years, making long term archival use impossible. Flash drives are great to make a quick backup, but there are occurrences of people losing data on one from high powered RF devices erasing them. Probably not a solution for most businesses.
A plethora of other technologies exist, but one that has been gaining momentum in the business and enterprise market is RDX.
RDX, or Removable Disk Technology is based around a docking station that accepts an RDX cartridge. The cartridge encases and protects a hard drive. RDX cartridges come in many sizes, whether you need 160GB or 1.5TB, there is bound to be one that fits your data needs.
What makes RDX different from a typical portable or removable drives? It is a “hardened” solution that encloses the hard drive and enables it to take a drop of up to 1 meter. These systems also offer protection from static discharge. A typical RDX can move upwards of a 100GB an hour. If you outgrow the the original size cartridge, you can begin replacing them with larger capacity as the dock is backwards and forwards compatible with any other RDX cartridge.
RDX is a standard that allows you to purchase cartridges from any manufacture to use in your system. It also offers a shelf life of up to 30 years, allowing you to archive your data and know that if the IRS audits you, you can access it.
No need to upgrade your current backup software in most cases when switching to RDX as the technology is already supported in most backup applications such as Symantec Backup Exec!
If you are looking for a backup solution, whether it is your first, or an upgrade of a current system, then you may wish to give RDX a close look. Call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We offer RDX products from HP, Imation, Lenovo, and Quantum to name a few. We offer a free evaluation in Greenville and the Upstate of South Carolina.
I hate to keep beating this dead horse, but a dear friend called this morning as I was on my way in to the office, telling how his notebook computer had experienced a totally depleted battery over the weekend and that when he tried to bring it back up, he got the dreaded blue screen of death… This was followed by lots of time attempting to get the machine to run, and then a restless / sleepless night worrying about lost productivity, unrecoverable data, and expense involved.
I told him not to worry because somehow, some way, we will recover his data and get him back online. Of course, he didn’t mention that no backup existed until near the end of the conversation… Hopefully this story will have a happy ending…
What are you doing for a disaster recovery plan? Sure you are backing up your desktops and servers, but what about those notebooks? We offer a free trial of Servosity Online Backup…
Free Servosity Online Backup Trial! Click Here...
With Servosity Online Backup you will be able to sleep at night knowing your data is protected, even on mobile computers which may never see the main office. Your data is encrypted and uploaded to the Servosity secure remote storage server. In the event of a disaster, individual files, folders, or an entire system drive can be restored.
Have important files that change throughout the day? Servosity also offers CONTINUOUS backup protection – important files are backed up as they are changed on your system. All of this takes place automatically.
Servosity works with Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OSX, Linux and other *nix based operating systems. Don’t take a chance, try out Servosity TODAY! For FREE!
Homeland Secure IT offers many backup solutions and one is just right for your application! Tape, Backup-2-Disk, NAS/SANs, Autoloaders and Jukeboxes… Email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748 for more information.
