Batten down the hatches and nail down the door it’s 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 let’s 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 don’t think of the other issues like disasters that strike that aren’t even in your area.  Ask yourself this… How would a hurricane or other disaster affect my vendors or customers?  Let’s 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 don’t want them having a disaster be your disaster!  Have backup vendors.  If you can’t 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!

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.

 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 don’t 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 o’clock 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 don’t 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.  

Have you ever played the “What If” game? What if your house caught fire? What would be the first nonliving thing you would grab? Majority of people will say their pictures. Pictures capture a moment in time that you will never get back. They capture emotions and tell stories of our lives that may not be remembered until you see the picture.

Now, let’s play the “What if” game for your business. What is your most prized possession in your office? Is it the building? Nope, you have insurance. Your equipment? Nope, it’s insured too. Your employees? Nope, it is the middle of the night and everyone is at home sleeping. Is it your data? Probably so, because if you are like most, you don’t have data insurance. You have never heard of data insurance? Data insurance is your Disaster Recovery.

So, what type of backup recovery are you using? A cd and hoping it didn’t get scratched up in the fire, or the office manager’s purse, if it made it out of the office. A hard drive hoping it very carefully made it out of the office and back in working order. A tape backup, hoping that the last weeks worth of data is recoverable. (Tapes fail up to 70% of the time). Another question is, how long before you can actually get your business back on track? Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or sometimes longer. How quickly can you replace the server? What about all the software programs?

If you are second guessing your disaster preparedness, check out http://optix.onlinebackupsolution.com or http://optixdatavault.com.

Statistics show that after a “major loss” of computer records, 43% of businesses never reopened, 51% closed within two years, and a mere 6% survived long term.

You are probably still thinking this is all a “what if” situation, but it WILL be a reality before you know it. And it probably won’t be a fire. It will most likely be a human error. I am not comfortable playing the “what if” game. I am not the owner of this company, but I know that if we lost our computers and servers, I would still have a job to come to, because our data is safe.

Today’s businesses are surrounded by digital information. Between customer data and accounting data it is a wonder how businesses got along without computers years ago. They have certainly made the day to day operations simpler for many people. I must also admit they have caused much frustration too. But all in all, they have really become a necessity in the modern business. It is to this requirement that I ask many business owners about their company’s data. Is your data backed up? Can you recover your data? Do you test your backups regularly? I sometimes get an annoyed answer back of “Yes!” I then usually ask the follow up question, “Are you sure?” At this point, I typically get a dumbfounded look. Some answer, “Of course, I am!” and others finally answer, “I don’t know.”

Each and every business owner needs be able to answer yes to every one of these questions. Can you? If at this point, you’re asking what a backup is, then you may not even have a computer. But for the millions of other businesses out there, what is your answer? I talk to so many people week after week asking if they have a Disaster Recovery plan for their company’s data. They all usually tell me the same thing. “Yes, we backup every night!” or “We use remote backup.” When they give me this answer, I just shake my head and try and educate them on the question. See, I did not ask them if they backed up their data. I asked them if they have a disaster recovery plan for their network. Backing up data is not a disaster recovery plan. It is only one part of an entire solution. A disaster recovery plan for your data is like an insurance policy for your data. You have a policy to replace all of the equipment and materials in your business but nothing to replace the intellectual property and contact and hundreds of other Gigabytes of data you have stored on your desktop, laptops and servers. I really want to share this with the reader so that I might attempt to educate just one or two business owners that Backup is not Disaster Recovery. Disaster recovery is the ability to recover from a disaster. What does that really mean? It could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different companies. Here are just a few for you to ask yourself: How long will it take me to return to 100% production? How long will it take to restore my data? How long will it take for my phone to start ringing again? These are just a few of the questions you need to ask about what a disaster can do to your company. Have you thought about this in your business? If not, then get started right away! As an IT consultant, I think of the many bumps in my clients businesses. My goal is to prepare them for the worst case. I want to know that if my client drove up to work and all they saw was a smoking pile of dust we can still recover their business. After all the tears have passed and phone calls made, we need to get the client back in the driver’s seat. How do you get in the driver’s seat? That is what a disaster recovery plan is for.

Most disasters are not from Hurricanes or Earthquakes, but simple human error. The employee that left the door unlocked to a would be thief, the business above you that had a busted water pipe and drowned your servers or even the lighting strike that came through the phone lines that turned your server into a huge door stop. All of these things happen to businesses daily. It is just a matter of time when one of them will happen to you. So I ask again, do you have a disaster recovery plan? It does not have to be complicated. Ask yourself these questions… 

1. How often will I test & update my network disaster recovery plan?

2. Who will I call when my network disaster hits?

3. How will I recover my data?

4. How long should I expect to be down?

5. Will I be able to help my existing clients/customers during the recovery?

6. How much will it cost me to recover?

7. Who is responsible for my data backups?

8. Are my backups being stored in a safe location?

9. What is a reasonable acceptance of lost data?

10. See Step 1!

Kotori Technologies, LLC can help you with a good solution for your company. The first step is to realize that you need one. Once you do that then put into action what the most important part of your plan is and take the first step toward your disaster recovery planning.