Aftermath, After Thought of 14 Days
Irene is well on her way and we can put another close one up on the shelf. This hurricane got me thinking. I am thinking back to my sophomore year in high school, September 9th 1989. A small storm was starting off the Cape Verde Islands, a small set of islands on the western shores of Africa. Who knew in 13 days we would be in the ride of a life time. Over the next few days we all watched the storm grow in power, they called it Hugo. After watching the weather channel my family and I decided to evacuate. Well mostly my family decided. I like to think I had a say, but my mom was totally old school, kids are to listen and not speak when adults are talking. I remember my mom telling me that we needed to get my grandmother and us out of Charleston. We packed up the car and got on the road. Now let me tell you a bit about my moms driving... She drove with two feet, one foot on the gas and one foot on the break. She always rode the break so you never knew if she was stopping or going. She avoided the interstate at all cost. She hated to drive. I say this only because her driving scared me! You know I was a teenager and I knew everything and just knew we were going to get killed driving on the interstate! Luckily her boyfriend, Preston, drove us all. What a relief! We drove into Statesville, NC and got a hotel room and hung out to wait the storm out. Most of the hotels were full and had not power. On September 22, 1989 it hit Charleston as a Category 4 hurricane. 
It rocked our little southern city. Isle of Palms got hit the worst. Houses came off their stilts and just sat in the middle of the street. Boats stacked up on top of each other in the middle of the streets. I have to tell you it was one of the sadist days when we got back to Charleston. The damage that we saw when we got back was just indescribable. I remember trying to get home through the mess was quite a chore as well. Many of the roads were blocked by down trees and power lines The water was contaminated from the pine tree sap of all the trees that had fallen in to the water system. Schools were closed; mind you I was not upset about that! We came home to a very quiet neighborhood. We lived in North Charleston; there were not too many trees around our house. No damage to the house. One of our neighbors had a tree through their roof. We were lucky. Other than the lack of power and water we were all ok.
I am an Eagle Scout, an avid camper and love to cook outdoors. We had to eat and I was not going to be stuck with eating all things from a box. So I pulled out my trusty Coleman camp stove filled it with gas and set it on top of the electric stove. Gave it a few good pumps and started cooking. We had lots of food that was going to go bad in the refrigerator and freezer so we had to cook it. We ate really well since we had to cook all the food. I have to say I really enjoyed those two weeks. My inner boy scout really came out. After a few days, my Uncle Mike came down, from New Jersey, to bring us an old broken refrigerator filled with meat and dry ice! It kept us going for the next week. We did not have the money for a generator; and at the time, people were price gouging these things like they were gold. Some came from out of state to sell them on the side of the road. Later the police got word from the news and started shutting them down. We just decided to play MacGyver. We grabbed a battery from the car and an old headlight from the car and that was our lantern at night. We would charge the battery in the day time and use it at night. We did that for 14 days. We had a battery powered TV and radio that kept us informed. The internet really was not something that everyone used so it was not missed at all. Mostly a dial up connection to old bulletin board servers, you had to be a real GEEK to have one of those then. Cell phones were not really available either. It took a long time for many of the area businesses to get back and running. The grocery stores opened up first. Many of them had no power. I remember seeing lots of semi-trucks with long lines for ice, food and water. It was quite an experience I have to say.
While looking back on that experience this weekend I try and think what it would have been like if it hit today. A lot has happened in 22 years. We now have cell phones, the internet and phone services through the internet. How many of us have an analog phone or radio in our home anymore? If we had a huge hurricane or earthquake hit Charleston imagine the cell towers being down and the internet being offline for 14 days. If you dont have power or a cell phone how are you going to talk with people or know what is going on? Do you have a HAM radio or CB? We as a country DEPEND on the INTERNET and it being available to use. Just think if I took your cell phone, computer and internet connection away from you for 14 days. Do you have what you need to stay in touch or know what is going on? Its not the end of the world. But 22 years, can make people forget what it was like. Technology is a very dangerous thing. It helps us so much that at times we forget what it was like without it.
I am sharing this with you all in an effort for you to think about it. How would you survive for 14 days? Would your business survive? What do you do that depends on the internet? Does your job or company depend on you being on the internet? Just stop for a moment and think about it.
Argggg.. Business Owners and their DATA!
Let me paint the visual image for you: You come in from a long day at the office and eat a really great meal, and then you decide to meet some friends for some drinks. You go out and have a great night and after a while, you come home and hit the bed to get some sleep so you can get to work tomorrow at a reasonable time. Tomorrow is just a normal day at the office, nothing really special. You wake up at 3:00 AM from your cell phone ringing. It is a call from your alarm monitoring service. They said that your burglar alarm went off and they have dispatched the police department. Youre the one with the code, so you think maybe something is up. You get dressed and head into the office. When you get there, you see 3 police cars still there and your front glass door is broken. Now your concern is a bit higher, right? I mean at first, I am sure you may have thought this was a false alarm or something. Well it wasnt. The cop said that it was a busy night and it took them about 20 minutes to respond to this break-in. You take a look around and the thief took some blank checks that were on your desk, all you computers and servers. They also took the mini-refrigerator out of your office. I am sure that your first concern is the six pack of beer in the refrigerator. No, actually you are thinking they just took some blank checks and all of my computers. What does this really mean? This means that they got away with all of your checks. Do you remember the last check number? Do you remember all the checks that were ordered? You have to call the bank and cancel all of those checks. Remember they took your computers and servers. Your accounting package is gone along with all your data. They took your customer data, your business data and some of your personal data. Oh wait; the insurance guy will get my stuff back for me right? NO. there is no customer data store to buy back your data. You cant get it back unless you have a GOOD backup. Hopefully it was offsite and you can restore it. If not then you will most likely be out of business in the next year, if not sooner. Do you trust your backup software is running every night? Do you check the reports? Do you check if there were any errors? Most business owners know how to read a P&L because their business depends on the profits. Why dont most business owners take the time to read a backup report? This report is just as important as your P&L. If you look at your P&L once a week or once a month then you should be looking at your backup logs with the same reverence. Do you have someone (that knows what they are doing) checking them for you? I ask you again, how important is your companies data to you? How important is your business to you? How important is your job to you? Anyone reading this can take action by asking the right questions. 1) How often does my company backup our data? 2) If I lost all of my equipment, how quickly could I get my data back? 3) Do I know the process to restore my data? 4) Have I checked our backup logs lately to make sure that all the data needed is being backed up and if it was successful? 5) Have I tested a file restore lately to make sure I can restore my data? 6) Have I tested a full disaster lately to make sure I can restore ALL of my data? Start with these questions and see if you know the answer to all of these. If you dont, then make sure you know who does. Then ask yourself, do you trust they will be there for you when you need to restore your business. Remember the insurance person is ONLY going to replace your equipment. They CANNOT replace the data.
Ok, so, I am going to go on a rant about small business owners and their lack of concern for their data. Let me first start off and tell you, I am a small business owner myself, but I think after reading my rant you should ask yourself one of two questions. Is this my boss, or is this me? If it is neither, then you are doing well.
Is your Business Prepared for a Disaster?
Batten down the hatches and nail down the door its going to be a rough one! Ok so I am being a bit dramatic but Hurricanes can cause some serious damage to your home and business. I was watching TV this weekend and saw on CNN that we have our first named storm. Alex is off the cost of Central America. Very close to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes go boy, girl, boy, girl, etc.. Then ABCD right down the list. The next one on the list is Bonnie. I wonder how far down the list we go this year? Hopefully not too far. I hope none of them make landfall anywhere. But, ask yourself this, do you want to be the business owner that let Bonnie, Colin or Danielle ruin your business. I mean they are not even employees at your company.
What kind of damage can a hurricane do to your business well lets talk about the easy ones; physical damage, flooding or, even worse, death. Those are the ones that the insurance people really get their marketing dollars out for right? They scare you into buying. Well many times we dont think of the other issues likedisasters that strike that arent even in your area. Ask yourself this How would a hurricane or other disaster affect my vendors or customers? Lets take for example a clothing company in Summerville, SC that gets all of their fabric from a nice textile company in India. Well most of the time all of that gets shipped from overseas. The ports are very important to this company as this is how the fabric company gets their raw goods. What would happen if something happened to the ports or even worse to the company in India. Where would they get their raw materials from? I could go on and on about this. There are thousands of possible issues that go on. So how does a small business prepare themselves for a disaster of any kind? Well it all starts with planning. Here are a few quick tips on how to help you be more prepared.
1) Have a backup location to do business. If you know where you will setup shop when the disaster hits then it is one less thing to deal with.
2) Have the right insurance that will allow you to get set back up and going quickly.
3) Make sure your vendors have their own disaster recovery plan. You dont want them having a disaster be your disaster! Have backup vendors. If you cant then know the risk and try and protect yourself.
4) Backup your Data daily and test the backups monthly.
5) Write it all down. It sound simple enough but a one page document is much more effective place to start when you are in panic/task mode.
Remember the best way to survive a disaster is to plan, plan and plan. Then test, test and plan again when the tests fail. I truly hope that disaster never strikes you. But when it does knowing who to call and what to do will be your best allies in rising from the storm and being number one!
Why Does My Network Need Auditing?
Is your business one that is highly dependent on a completely effective computer that is thoroughly operational? If so then you do not want to see your computer breakdown in any way, shape, or form. Sadly, computers are prone to problems and errors. In some cases, the problems are minor. Then there are other instances when the problems with the computer are so severe the problems lead to crashes and other serious faults.
When such an incident occurs, it may not even be possible to restore the computer to its original effective operational capability. That is why computer network auditing is so extremely helpful. It can find problems and flaws well in advance of a crash or serious security breach.
In some ways, you could consider having a network audit as a form of insurance. By enacting an audit long in advance of the problem, the situation that escalates into the unforeseen problem is completely eliminated. Needless to say, that can save your business a lot of time, effort, and expense.
So, what will be performed during the performance of a network audit? There are many part to the audit and they can include the following:
A clear diagnosis of the operating system and the registry can be effectively run. This way, the severity of current problems can be determined while problems that exist below the surface can be detected. When an operating system is faltering, the computer's lifespan is on borrowed time. Because of this, it is necessary to detect and fix these problems across a network early in the beginning of the issue.
How is the operation of the software and hardware of these computers performing? For those that notice problems with operation, the need then becomes knowing exactly what the problem is so as to effectively fix the problem with little or no effort. Well, you will need some effort - specifically, you will need to call in a professional that can perform the diagnostic audit required to address the problem.
Are you employing backups in the network to capture data prior to a crash? If so, you will need these backups to be as functionally reliable as possible. A network audit can inform whether or not this is the case. Consider that another vital component of performing an audit.
The way in which the computer and the network are incorporated with the servers needs to be strong as well. A network audio can ensure this is the case, and remains the case.
Among the most vital of areas in which a network audit can be employed is in the security of the computer. When you have security problems you are open to all sorts of security troubles and violations and breaches. Such a scenario cannot be maintained while allowing the company to remain healthy. A network audit can be used to pick up on the security flaws. From this, effective repairs can be employed.
There is a lot of value to network auditing and those that want their computer system to remain healthy and effective should definitely look into it.Kotori Technologies is offering free network audits to all current and potential clients. Please call our office today to schedule your appointment.
Why Disaster Recovery is Important in a Small Business
Today in many small businesses they depend on Remote Backup for their backup solution. However, most remote backup solutions only back up the data. They dont backup the critical network information that is needed to restore a server back to the way it was before the disaster. This means that many companies would have to start from scratch to recover the network infrastructure.
Well this happened to one of our clients last week. Their server crashed and we had to recover their data. Where the client was worried about the data loss we were worried about how long it would take to recover the network. Once we got on-site and got the server back online we had to start the recovery of the data. We started the recovery around eight thirty in the morning and we did not finish the recovery of all of their data until 48 hours later. We had to recover over 100GB of data from the internet. It was not until three oclock that afternoon that the staff could get back to work. Imagine if your business was down and did not have access to your data for over 48 hours. How many people work for you that either you had to pay or send home?
Now dont get me wrong, remote backup is a good solution. But for many companies 48 hours is too long to be down. A good disaster recovery solution offers both an on-site recovery and an off-site recovery. If you are concerned about your existing backup and disaster recovery strategy please feel free to check out our Optix DataVault service or call us at (843) 553-8800.