Let’s face it the “Cloud” is an important part of IT these days. It allows organizations to quickly deploy technology that most would not have dreamed of twenty years ago. One of the biggest cloud success stories is Office 365. Nevertheless with this power comes responsibility on the customer side. Read more
One of the biggest problems we see with clients and prospects is the lack of understanding when it comes to their data stored in the “Cloud”. Sales and marketing folks are good at selling it as a solution to all of your IT problems. They’ll say, “don’t worry about backups Read more
The 31st of March is World Backup day and it’s a great time to put a backup in place. Businesses are losing huge amounts of data every day, purely because ‘backing up’ is stuck at the bottom of their to-do list. So this is your reminder, that even if you Read more
Also, Should You Pay for a Ransomware Attack? Getting hit with a ransomware attack is never fun, your files get encrypted by cybercriminals and you’re left having to decide: should we pay to get them back? It’s a scene that’s played out across the world with 70% of businesses saying Read more
Data in the Cloud Unfortunately, today I’m going to rain on the cloud parade. Yeah, that’s right I’m going to say something negative about the “Cloud”…you gotta a problem with that? Right now it’s the worst thing I could do because it makes me look like I’m not in step Read more
Being an owner and lead consultant for Resolve Technology I get to meet with some nice people who sometimes turn into clients. During these meetings I find out some interesting ways other computer guys are handling small business technology. Yesterday, I met with a CFO (Joan) whose job it is to Read more
Okay, so you got your shiny new iPad. Cost a couple bucks, right? Easy to leave behind, right? Here are a few features that can be used to give it a little more security: 1. Turn on Passocdes. This allows for a four digit PIN number like your ATM card. Read more
Today I ran across an interesting article that discussed some of the issues surrounding Microsoft’s Office 365. If you’re not familiar, it’s a suite of popular Microsoft software that runs in a data center (with the most popular being Exchange mail). Interesting? Not really. However, the decision for BAE to Read more
OK, I stole the title from that blockbuster hit starring Ashton Kutcher. So sue me. What I’m talking about here is not losing your car but losing your business information. In the movie, the kids couldn’t remember where they parked their car. However, for this exercise substitute “data” or “Cloud” for car and you’ll know where I’m headed. Is your Cloud parked in Tallahassee, Toronto or Timbuktu?
So after you’ve fallen head over heels in love with your shiny new Cloud make sure (more…)
Text from an article Brian wrote for New Hampshire Business Review, published May 2011
If your technology assets are as valuable as you think they are, you owe to yourself and your customers to have a comprehensive data backup and restoration system in place. Apply the following five criteria in selecting any backup and recovery system:
1. Ease of Use – Most small and medium sized businesses (SMB) lack the time and skill set to pull out a manual every time they need to check on whether a backup is happening. Further, when disaster does strike (which it will) your technology people must be able to restore your data quickly so that you can continue to run your business. Make sure that vendors show you actual scenarios of test failures and recoveries before purchasing a product. Many products won’t actually pass the “Ease of Use” test and if they don’t, they should be quickly taken off the list.
2. Recoverability – Does the solution recover files, databases, mailboxes and whole systems? Most software and hardware solutions are quite affordable these days. You should be able to recover information such as individual files, company databases, system email boxes and the entire system state. When you recover the entire computer it should allow for what is called “bare metal” restores. This takes a snapshot image of all the data at a point in time and allows you to switch that image to a new computer in case of disaster. Sounds difficult, right? Not really. The image based technology has come a long way and is far easier to work with which fulfills criteria number one. (more…)