kinetik IT blog spot

If you don’t have a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) plan in place for your technology, you could be closer to a major IT crisis than you know. That’s because “disasters” are everywhere. Along with the kinds of tragedies you see on the news, everyday calamities like power outages, electrical surges, hard drive failures, and simple employee mistakes can all shut your business down in seconds.

In some cases, though, having an inadequate BDR plan can be worse than having none at all, as it might leave you with a false sense of security. That’s because good BDR involves many overlapping layers of protection, each of which is necessary to keep your company covered.

To show you why this is so important, let’s take a look at a few things every business owner should think about…

Hope is Not a Plan

To start with the obvious, simply hoping that nothing happens to your technology isn’t a very good plan. Everyday mishaps get their name because they happen every single day. If you just hope that everything is going to work the way it’s supposed to when you press the power button on your computer, you’re going to be shocked someday when it doesn’t. Anticipate that you’re going to have some kind of IT problem sooner or later, and prepare for the eventuality.

The Right Equipment and Location Matter

A lot of business owners keep extra hard drives, or even tape backup drives, inside their offices with copies of important files as a hedge against disaster. That’s better than nothing, but it won’t do you much good if the disaster affects your entire facility. To get real protection from IT emergencies, you need backups that are encrypted and stored in a remote location that won’t be affected if something happens to your location.

Timing is Everything

The best BDR systems work on an almost continual basis. That means new backups are being run daily, if not hourly. In some companies, losing a day’s worth of data, or several, could be disastrous. Things like new invoices, sales receipts, and financial records could all be lost. You need to know that your saved files will be current and up-to-date if you ever need to rely on them in a pinch.

Testing, Testing

Regular testing is an often-overlooked part of the backup and recovery process. If you aren’t sure your emergency files can be recovered and put into place when you actually need them, then how valuable are they as an insurance policy? Your plan should include lots of tests so you’ll have the peace of mind to know that your data will be there waiting once the recovery process starts.

Don’t Forget the Plan Part

Good BDR isn’t just about having extra copies of your files – you also need a written plan to restore them and get your company up-and-running in the event of an IT emergency. Your plan should be detailed enough so you know exactly who to call and what to say when you’re facing a crisis. And, it should be printed out, with a hard copy stored in your IT vendor’s office, for obvious reasons.

If you don’t have a solid data backup and recovery plan in place already, now is the time to think about getting the protection you need. Call our office today, and let us put together a quote that includes a comprehensive BDR plan for your business!

When a piece of office technology stops working the way it’s supposed to, you might be tempted to forgo a call to your IT team and let an employee handle things… especially if they assure you they are “good with computers.” After all, isn’t it nice to save a little bit of time and money if you have someone with the necessary expertise in your office already?

That’s an understandable line of thought, but one that’s probably not going to do you much good. Unless the solution is as simple as turning a piece of equipment on and off, you generally don’t want non-IT employees “fixing” computers, networks, mobile devices, or hard drives. Here are just a few of the biggest reasons why…

They Might Make Your Problems Worse

This might seem obvious, but we see malfunctioning computers and devices that have been rendered nearly useless by meddling employees almost every week. They mean well, but they don’t have skills, equipment, or experience to properly diagnose a technology problem, much less fix it. And so, more often than not, they end up making things worse than they already were.

This is particularly important when you’re dealing with issues concerning software and data storage, as problems with one drive or device can be spread to others if you aren’t careful.

Most Things Are Easier to Fix Than to Replace

Usually, when business people try to fix things on their own, it’s because they’re looking to save money on an IT service call. However, simple repairs – and even most complicated ones – are much, much less expensive than replacing a piece of technology would be. That’s important because there is always the risk that someone without the right skills might do enough harm that something can’t be fixed.

Frustration and a lack of knowledge can be a dangerous combination, and one that usually leads to a more expensive issue than the one you started with.

Even Successful Employee IT Repairs Will Cost You Too Much

But what about the times when an employee can fix a technology problem? Aren’t businesses saving money then? Not necessarily. Depending on the time and attention it took to get to that solution, you might still be at a net negative when you consider the lost productivity of your employee (or group of employees) who should have been doing their jobs while they were looking up solutions.

That might not be money that’s coming out of your pocket right away, but it could do more damage to your balance sheet in the long run. 

Good IT Care Costs Less Than You Think

The final reason to leave IT repairs and installations the professionals is that you aren’t really saving all that much money by cutting the experts out of the picture. Good IT help doesn’t cost a lot, especially if you work with the right company. 

And, all the hidden costs and expenses we’ve already mentioned can add up quickly over time if you have recurring technology problems. A good IT vendor, on the other hand, is going to perform a bit of preventative maintenance to ensure all your hardware and software are running smoothly.

Need a technology team you can trust to help you keep your business moving forward? Call or email our team today and let us put our expertise to work for you.