Informative

How Does IT Downtime Affect Your Business

Managed IT Services – Are They Right For You?

How do you get a small business to recognize the value of managed IT services? In the start-up environment, we encounter an eclectic bunch of personality types. There is a reason people become entrepreneurs or C-level execs. When we meet the owners or decision makers at smaller companies and organizations, we can tell right away why they’re where they are. They’re visionaries. They’re risk takers. They’re competitive. They want to be in charge. Therefore, they aren’t always quick to place the fate of their business technology in the hands of a third party. They’ve come as far as they have by being in control and they’re hesitant to give up that control. But we’ve learned a few things along the way. For example, the Type A personality is highly independent but also very competitive. So we tap into the competitive advantage that managed IT services gives them. The Type B personality is creative and doesn’t like static routines. But their ears perk up when they hear terminology like “cutting-edge” and we can then paint the big picture for them once their listening. But anyone we do business with has to be committed to the efficiency, security, and stability of their business technology to see our value proposition. And they have to recognize that managing their IT infrastructure is an investment they cannot take lightly. So here are a few things we commonly have to address before any deal for managed IT services is signed. Is my business large enough to even consider managed IT services? The truth is, any company, regardless of its size or the number of people they employ, will run more efficiently if its’ technology is monitored, maintained, and managed properly. Managed IT services provide businesses with a full IT support team at a fraction of the cost of hiring a single or multiple employees to get that same amount of experience. In 2016, the IT outsourcing market grew 4.6% to reach roughly $283.5 billion. This figure is expected to increase year-over-year as companies continue to outsource their IT and take advantage of managed IT services. These are facets of your operations that drive profitability and give our Type A personalities that competitive edge they crave. And they can rest easy whenever business is booming because their technology is built to sustain their growth. That’s the big picture that our Type B personality can appreciate. How is making another IT investment a cost-savings move for my business? There are still many SMBs who feel a greater focus and investment should go towards their core operations or marketing and sales. They only worry about technology when it breaks, figuring they’ll just call a service technician to come to the office and fix whatever the problem is. Or buy some new hardware at Office Depot. There are some very obvious flaws to this strategy. You’re paying way too much when it’s way too late – An issue that was likely preventable with early detection has escalated into a full blown business disruption and that on-call technician likely charges a high hourly rate, on top of hardware replacement costs, and may not get to your site right away. Being proactive rather than reactive to technology issues is important. Don’t forget productivity killers – It’s taking your employees too long to boot their computers. Servers and applications are running slowly. Employee devices are full of Malware. Non-technical employees are running around troubleshooting tech problems. If you see this, your present approach to IT management is killing employee productivity and your bottom line. What happens internally is noticed externally – Don’t think for a second that customers or clients don’t notice outdated or slow internal technology and mismanagement. If your site or applications are down often, run slowly, or your customer service rep tells them “I’m sorry, our system is down”, they’re noticing and it’s hurting your business. When all is said and done, professionally managed IT services will give you a competitive edge, guarantee your business is always leveraging the newest most cutting-edge technology, and enhance your relationships with customers and clients – all while reducing costs.

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Breaking News: Downtime Kills Small Businesses

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Breaking News: Downtime Kills Small Businesses Downtime is bad news for any business whether big or small. A recent two-hour New York Times’ downtime occurrence sent Twitter ablaze and their stock price plummeting. Google going down for one to five hours resulted in lost revenue up to $500,000 and decreased overall web traffic by 40%. We know what you’re thinking. Holy crap, Google makes $100,000 an hour? Yeah… insane, huh? While the hourly cost of downtime for a small-to-medium sized business won’t be nearly as large as that astronomical Google figure, downtime is often more detrimental to smaller companies. Smaller enterprises are more susceptible to downtime and are neither large nor profitable enough to sustain its short and long-term effects. Downtime Leads to Unhappy/Unproductive Employees Even the happiest of employees become dissatisfied when they can’t perform basic day-to-day job functions or properly service customers or clients. While some employees may use downtime as an excuse to lean back, put their feet up, and comfortably collect their hourly pay, we’re talking about those employees who come to work to actually work. And don’t forget your IT guy or tech crew. They can’t necessarily sit back and twiddle their thumbs when downtime occurs because they’re typically taking the brunt of the storm. They will ultimately grow tired of the daily routine of having to put out fires and having neither the additional manpower nor resources to change things for the better. These things lead to high employee turnover and the expenses that come with training and re-training a revolving door of employees. Downtime Leads to Customer Dissatisfaction Customers and clients grow weary whenever critical components of your operations – or the services they either expect or pay for – cannot be accessed. Nearly 50% of customers will move on to a competitor if they encounter downtime of five minutes or more. These customers represent significant lost revenue. While some suggest this is a bigger problem in the retail sector, other types of businesses are impacted as well. Have you ever clicked a link from search engine results only to quickly bolt when the page didn’t load, you couldn’t complete an online transaction, or you were greeted with a “Technical Difficulties – Be Back Up Soon!” message? Did you give up on finding what you were looking for or did you wait it out? You did neither. You went back to Google and found someone else offering a similar service or product that satisfied your yearning for instant gratification. Downtime Ruins Your Reputation One of the most commonly overlooked consequences of downtime is the hit your company’s reputation takes online. In this age of social media, one person’s bad experience is broadcast to dozens or even hundreds of followers. Bad news spreads faster than ever and has lasting repercussions. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffet. Protect Your Bottom Line The challenge for small businesses has always been how to minimize single-point-of-failure downtime using their limited IT resources. This is why downtime kills so many small businesses. They can’t prevent it and they can’t react quickly enough. Thankfully, there are end-to-end business continuity solutions available today that integrate Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software, 24/7 access to a Network Operations Center (NOC), and advanced backup and disaster recovery solutions to alleviate this issue. Not only do these methods minimize downtime and get businesses back up and running quickly, but they can reduce the cost of technology infrastructure maintenance by as much as 80 percent. It’s time that small businesses stop being victims to the silent killer that is downtime. Contact us today or schedule a network consultation to see how we can help your business grow.

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Is That A Business Continuity Plan in Your Pocket…Or A Bunch of Jargon?

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Technology is full of difficult jargon. To further complicate things, certain terms are often used in a different context between one publication or service provider and the next. An example of this is the usage of backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity. These terms are commonly used interchangeably, often resulting in confusion. In an effort to alleviate some of this confusion, let’s describe each physical process. You will see an overlay among all three, although they are each different processes. Backup In IT lingo, the most basic description of backup is the act of copying data, as in files or programs, from its original location to another. The purpose of this is to ensure that the original files or programs are retrievable in the event of any accidental deletion, ransomware, hardware or software failure, or any other type of tampering, corruption and theft. It’s important to remember that the term “backup” refers to data only and doesn’t apply to the physical machines, devices, or systems themselves. If there were a system failure, disk crash, or an onsite physical disaster, all systems would still have to be replaced, rebuilt, and properly configured before the backed-up data could be loaded onto them. Disaster Recovery Backups are a single, albeit crucial, component of any disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery refers to the complete recovery of your physical systems, applications, and data in the event of a physical disaster like a fire; hurricane or tornado; flood ; earthquake ; act of terror or theft. A disaster recovery plan is a formal document created by an organization that contains detailed instructions on how to respond to unplanned incidents such as those above or any other disruptive events. The plan contains strategies on minimizing the effects of a disaster, so an organization will continue to operate – or quickly resume key operations. It uses pre-determined parameters to define an acceptable recovery period. From there, the most satisfactory recovery point is chosen to get your business up and running with minimal data loss and interruption. Business Continuity Although backup and disaster recovery processes make sure that a business can recover its systems and data within a reasonable time, there is still the chance of downtime from a few hours to many days. The point of a business continuity plan is to give businesses continuous access to their technology and data, no matter what. Zero or minimal downtime is the goal. Critical business data can be backed up with configurable snapshots that are instantly virtualized. This allows files, folders and data to be turned on and restored in seconds. Bare metal restores of hardware, where an image of one machine is overlaid onto a different machine, is also utilized along with cloud replication for instant off-site virtualization. Many businesses also keep redundant systems and storage at a different physical location than their main site as part of their business continuity process. They may also outline procedures for staff to work remotely off-site. Some businesses or organizations may go as far as to have printed contact lists and other critical data stored off-site to keep their business moving if a disaster wipes out power and their ability to access anything electronically. This should clarify the differences between backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions. Choosing what works best for your business will come down to your current IT infrastructure, your budget and how much downtime you can reasonably accept. Need help with backups, disaster recovery services, or developing a business continuity plan? Pennyrile Technologies can help! Contact us to arrange a free consultation!

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8 Hard Truths for SMBs not Worried About Data Recovery and Business Continuity

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

The foundation of any successful business continuity and data recovery solution is the ability to retrieve data from any point in time from anywhere. When the topic of data recovery and business continuity comes up, you get the feeling that many decision makers at smaller businesses and organizations wish they could channel their inner six year old, simply cover their ears, and sing “La, la, la. I Can’t Hear You. I’m Not Listening.” Everybody thinks bad things only happen to other people. Just because we hear about a fatal car accident on the morning news, doesn’t mean we fixate on that news when we ourselves get into a car and drive to work. When it comes to protecting your company against potential disasters, there are certain things that you need to consider. One of these is ensuring that you have a good backup system in place. When you do this, you will be able to recover quickly if you experience any kind of disruption. If you don’t have a data recovery system or business continuity plan in place, you can lose a lot of money. For example, if you use a cloud-based service for your email, then you might not be able to access your emails during a natural disaster. If this happens, you will be forced to pay for services to restore them. So no matter how many times the owner or executive of a small to midsize business (SMB) hears of other small businesses being crippled by hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, or flooding, they aren’t necessarily overcome with fear to the point that they feel an urgency to take action. Sure, they may think about backup and data recovery solutions a little more that day, but not enough to initiate immediate change or reverse a lenient approach to their processes. What Is Business Continuity Continuous operations are essential to any company’s success. Business continuity planning (BCP) ensures that your organization can continue its normal functions when faced with a disaster. A BCP includes everything from emergency response plans to data backups and data recovery. Without these systems in place, an incident could cause serious damage to the company. If you’re interested in learning more about how continuous operations work, then you should check out this article. This guide will help you understand the basics of the concept. In order to have successful BCP, you need to start by defining what you mean by “business.” You must also identify all of the key elements of your operation. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to write down your plan. You’ll want to include information such as who is responsible for each task and what resources are needed. The most important thing is to make sure that you address every possible scenario for data loss and recovery. If you don’t cover every possibility, then you won’t be prepared for the worst case scenario. Finally, test out your plan. Ask yourself questions about whether or not it works. Make changes to improve the process if necessary. 8 Things to Consider with Business Continuity & Data Recovery Malware – It isn’t natural disasters or catastrophic losses like fires that take down small businesses but something far more sinister – malware. Cyber attacks through malware have grown exponentially in the past four years. Malware is hitting everything from PCs to Macs to mobile devices and it’s inflicting damage. Zero Productivity – When business continuity is affected, that means you have zero-productivity, leading to a major loss. This threatens not just daily profit-margin but also employee productivity. Disruptions – Over half of the small businesses in the U.S. have experienced disruptions in day-to-day business operations. 81% of these incidents have led to downtime that has lasted anywhere from one to three days. Lack of Planning – According to data compiled by the Hughes Marketing Group, 90% of companies employing less than 100 people spend fewer than eight hours a month on their business continuity plan or data recovery plan. Major Disaster – 80% of businesses that have experienced a major disaster are out of business within three years. Meanwhile, 40% of businesses impacted by critical IT failure cease operations within one year. 44% of businesses ravaged by a fire fail to ever reopen, and only 33% of those that do reopen survive any longer than three years. Internal Causes – Disaster recovery solution providers estimate that 60% to 70% of all business disruptions originate internally – most likely due to hardware or software failure or human error. Bankruptcy – 93% of businesses unable to access their data center for ten or more days filed for bankruptcy within twelve months of the incident. Data Failure – In the United States alone, there are over 140,000 hard drive crashes each week. Recovery Testing – 34% of SMBs never test their backup and recovery solutions – of those who do, over 75% found holes and failures in their strategies. Business Continuity & Data Recovery Conclusion It’s critical that small businesses review their backup and disaster recovery processes and take business continuity seriously. When you have data loss problems, you need to know how to respond to the situation and quickly move onto recovering your data and files. If you don’t, you can expect major disruptions and loss of revenue just to name a few issues. Given the vulnerabilities associated with the cloud and workforce mobility, the risk of critical data loss today is quite serious and firms must be truly prepared for the unexpected. If your business hasn’t developed a Business Continuity Plan yet, please contact us for a free consult and see how Pennyrile Technologies can assist with Backup & Disaster Recovery services.

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The Sky’s the Limit for SMBs Taking to the Cloud

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

The Sky’s the Limit for SMBs Taking to the Cloud There has been a lot of hype about cloud computing transforming the way small-to-medium sized businesses do business. Proponents of the cloud say that cloud computing has leveled the playing field, allowing SMBs to finally compete with bigger companies despite their limited financial resources and staffing. Still, many are apprehensive to make the jump. They’re hesitant to give up control and they fear the cloud will expose them to greater security risks. Moving to the cloud definitely requires a leap of faith, but a recent ComScore study, completed on behalf of Microsoft, suggests that those who are froggy enough to take the leap (sorry) have no regrets once they do. In fact, more than half of those surveyed wish they had adopted it earlier and feel that the benefits far outweigh their initial worries. What are those benefits? Enhanced Privacy and Security According to the study, 94 percent of companies who’ve adopted cloud services believe they’re now more secure than they were before, thanks to the cloud’s spam management and up-to-date systems and antivirus protection. Less Downtime and More Confidence 61% of those surveyed reported fewer instances of downtime since their move to the cloud. Even those who still experienced downtime events felt that they were shorter in duration and that full recovery could be achieved much quicker. 93% indicated that they were more confident in their ability to fully recover after an outage. Comparatively, 73% responded that they felt the integrity of their data in the cloud was stronger than previously, which is interesting since data integrity has often been the biggest worry about the cloud. Environmental Friendliness Any company striving to be more “green” will appreciate the environmental benefits of moving to the cloud. A recent six-month study conducted by the Berkeley Lab found that moving 86 million U.S. office workers to the cloud resulted in the use of 87% less energy, leaving enough leftover electricity annually to power a city the size of Los Angeles for twelve months. Cost Effectiveness Cost effectiveness and greater ROI (return on investment) are the most important factors in getting CEOs and major decision makers to support shifting to the cloud. A Rackspace commissioned study conducted by Vanson Bourne, found that 62% of respondents felt that adopting cloud computing strategies freed up money that could be reinvested in other operations like marketing, customer service, product development, and expansion into new markets. Conclusion While there is a competitive advantage that can be realized by moving to the cloud, those who are still apprehensive should migrate to the cloud at a pace they’re comfortable with. Once they implement cloud monitoring, and understand it a bit more, most SMBs grow more comfortable with the cloud and expand their use of it. Contact us today or schedule a network consultation today to see how we can help your business grow.

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Why Should You Get On The Cloud?

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

A recent article by The Guardian (UK) states that the cloud industry is set to see a growth of around 30% soon. But many small and medium business owners are still struggling to make sense of the cloud and how it can benefit them. If you are one of them, then here’s what’s in store for you when you migrate to the cloud: Connectivity – Being on the cloud gives you unparalleled connectivity to your data—from anywhere and at any time. All you need is a device that can connect you to the web and you are set! Save On Hardware Costs – Using the cloud for certain programs spares you the cost of investing in specific hardware. Even devices as simple as your smartphone or a tablet can help you access those applications so you don’t have to spend money on dedicated hardware. Studies have shown that cloud users end up enjoying as much as a 17% IT cost reduction compared to their non-cloud counterparts. Cloud Enables SAAS – The cloud allows you to use software as a service. Microsoft 365 is one such example. When you use software as a service, you enjoy certain benefits such as more regular updates at a lower cost and the ability to have anyone work on the program for you by sharing the access credentials with them. More Efficient Use of IT Staff – Moving to a cloud-based environment puts the burden of maintenance and downtime reduction on your service provider. That means you can use your limited IT staff more efficiently and also don’t have to worry about the costs associated with such maintenance or downtime. Improved Productivity – Studies have shown that cloud users enjoy better productivity than their non-cloud counterparts. This could be because cloud service providers are better equipped to handle any IT eventualities than the average SMBs. So, perhaps it’s time to ‘get cloudy’ and enjoy all that the cloud has to offer your SMB. And…if you need help in doing that, we are just a phone call away!

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Understand How Data Losses Happen – In Order to Prevent Them

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Small business owners are often worried about data loss. Rightly so, because data loss has the potential to wipe out a business. We have identified the most common forms of data loss so you can see how they fit into your business and assess the risks related to each of these pitfalls. 4 Most Common Causes of Data Loss Human Error By way of unintentional data deletion, modification, and overwrites – has become much more prevalent in recent years. Much of this is the result of carelessly managed virtualization technology. While virtualization and cloud computing have enabled improved business continuity planning for many businesses and organizations, humans must still instruct this technology how to perform. The complexity of these systems often presents a learning curve that can involve quite a bit of trial and error. For instance, a support engineer may accidentally overwrite the backup when they forget to power off the replication software prior to formatting volumes on the primary site. They will be sure to never do that ever again, but preventing it from happening in the first place would be more ideal. File Corruption Unintended changes to data can occur during writing, reading, storage, transmission and processing – making the data within the file inaccessible. Software failure is a leading cause of data loss and is typically the result of bugs in the code. Viruses and malware can also lead to individual data files being deleted and hard drive partitions being damaged or erased. Hardware Failure Storage devices may be at risk due to age, or they may fall victim to irreparable hard-disk failure. Viruses and hackers can also potentially shut down a hard drive by inserting malicious code and huge files via open, unprotected ports. If these malicious programs cannot be deleted, the entire hard drive may have to be reformatted, wiping out all the data. Catastrophic Events/Theft The threat of catastrophic events such as fire, flooding, lightning and power failure is always a concern. Such events can wipe out data in a millisecond with no warning. Theft is also a data loss risk that companies must address. While advances in technology like anytime/anywhere connectivity, portability and the communication/information sharing capabilities of social media and crowdsourcing have revolutionized business – the risk for theft is even greater due to this increased accessibility. More people are doing daily business on their laptop, iPad and mobile phones. They are also carrying around portable media like thumb drives, USB sticks and CDs. Physical theft of any of these devices can spell big trouble. Data loss is as unique as the various sources from which it comes. The key is to identify the areas in which your business is weak and work towards a data loss mitigation plan for each one of them. An MSP can act as a trusted partner in such cases, holding your hand through the process of safeguarding your data. If your business needs assistance with backup, disaster recovery services, or help developing a disaster recovery plan, contact us today!

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5 Amazing Benefits of a Managed Service Provider

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Managed Service Providers – or MSPs – are often recommended as a cost effective IT solution for small businesses. For a minimal monthly fee, MSPs provide a reasonably priced solution to the complex technology pains of small businesses. Here’s a look at the various benefits an MSP can offer your business… Freed-Up Resources and a Renewed Emphasis on Core Business Both business owners and internal IT staff would much rather focus on revenue enhancing tasks like product development or the creation of cutting-edge applications and services. This is one reason routine monitoring and maintenance tasks are often neglected by an internal IT person or team, which always proves to be detrimental much later. Often misportrayed as a “threat” to an internal IT person or staff, MSPs can instead relieve internal staff of mundane network operations maintenance, repetitious monitoring of server and storage infrastructure, and day-to-day operations and help desk duties. With these tools, MSPs can help internal IT teams with monitoring, maintenance, and more. Outsourcing IT management to an MSP allows businesses to focus on their core competencies and strategic initiatives. By relieving the burden of day-to-day IT tasks, businesses can redirect their internal resources and expertise toward activities that drive revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and overall business success. Managed Service Providers Are A True Partner Sharing Risks And Responsibilities The goal of an MSP is to deliver on contracted services, measure, report, analyze and optimize IT service operations, and truly become an irreplaceable catalyst for business growth. Managed Service Providers not only assume leadership roles, they enable risk reduction, enhance efficiency and change the culture by introducing internal IT operations to new technologies and processes. MSPs are much more scalable than internal IT teams as well. Internal IT teams have a large cost associated with them, including insurance, training, and more. The ongoing relationship with an MSP has multiple benefits. MSPs act as a partner for your in-house team and a bridge between you and your vendors. They serve as a single point of contact for your business and become familiar with your company over time. Managed Service Providers Provide Access to Expertise, Best Practices and World-Class Tools and Technologies MSPs have experience with a variety of businesses and organizations. With that experience, Managed Service Providers can keep your business relevant and on track with continually evolving technology, support, and productivity demands. Let’s face it, no small or medium sized business can afford to fall behind with technology trends in today’s business world. With the large variety of experience MSPs can provide, a small business would have to have multiple employees to provide a similar amount of experience which can be very costly. MSPs stay up to date with the latest technology trends and advancements. They can help businesses leverage cutting-edge technologies, such as cloud computing, virtualization, artificial intelligence, and data analytics, to drive innovation and gain a competitive edge. MSPs can guide businesses in selecting and implementing the right technologies that align with their specific needs and goals. Preventative Maintenance Managed service providers focus on preventative maintenance and proactive monitoring and management of IT systems, networks, and infrastructure, keeping downtime for businesses to a minimum. They can identify and address potential issues before they become major problems, minimizing downtime and maximizing system availability. This compares to the older model of waiting for things to break before it is fixed. With preventative maintenance, you can avoid costly downtime and focus on preventing issues before they become a concern. With monitoring and preventative maintenance, costs are kept down as well. It’s much cheaper to prevent issues and having to call in support and fix something after it’s broke. This proactive approach helps businesses maintain smooth operations and reduces the risk of costly IT disruptions. Managed Service Providers Provide the Benefit of a Full-Time Fully Staffed IT Department at a Fraction of the Cost Managed service providers are staffed with highly skilled IT professionals who possess a wide range of expertise and specialized knowledge in various technologies and industry best practices. By leveraging their expertise, businesses gain access to a team of professionals who can handle complex IT tasks and provide strategic guidance, ensuring that their technology infrastructure is optimized for efficiency and productivity. Most small business owners live and die by proactive management. They just haven’t had the budget, resources or access to on-demand expertise to be proactive with information technology management. A Managed Service Provider gives business owners and overwhelmed internal IT staff affordable computer and server support, remote monitoring of critical network components like servers and firewalls, data backup and disaster recovery, network security, custom software solutions, and technology evaluation and planning. Managed Service Providers can decrease the overall IT support costs by as much as 30% to 50%. Rather than being stressed about technology, business owners can instead get back to focusing on growing their business. All while enjoying the benefits of highly-trained IT experts boosting their network’s reliability and performance. 5 Amazing Benefits of a Managed Service Provider Conclusion Overall, partnering with an MSP offers businesses the advantages of expert IT support, improved system performance and security, cost efficiencies, scalability, and the ability to focus on core business functions. It enables businesses to leverage external expertise, technologies, and resources to optimize their IT infrastructure and drive long-term growth. If you’re looking for a new IT partner, then contact Pennyrile Technologies for a free consultation and see how we can help your business today!

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Six Steps to Better Data Backup and Quicker Recovery

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Think Quicker Recovery Time, Not Quicker Backups While incremental backups are much faster than executing a full-backup, they also prolong recovery time. In the event of data loss, a full restore will require loading the most recent full backup and then each incremental backup tape. Having too many incremental backup tapes not only adds time to this restoration process, but it also increases the probability of not recovering all of your data. A tape could be lost, unintentionally skipped over, or contain corrupted data. Be sure to focus on optimizing the restore time to ensure faster data recovery. A quicker recovery time should be the main objective, not the need for a quicker backup process. Maintain Sufficient Backup History Within the blink of an eye, current data files can become corrupted and inaccessible. This will necessitate the loading of an earlier data backup that is clean of corruption. Many smaller companies make the mistake of failing to keep a sufficient backup history. How long is recommended? Often it depends on the business and any legal requirements. While some businesses may be fine with a year of backups, others may need 7+ years for regulatory purposes. Be Sure to Backup Essential Data AND Applications Some businesses don’t feel the need to backup all data, but be sure essential databases, documents and records are backed up frequently. Don’t overlook applications that are critical to day-to-day business operations either. Many companies fail to backup applications, only to realize when it’s too late that they don’t have access to the original installation disks when they’re trying to recover from data loss or an outage. Have Off-Site or an Online Backup Some businesses backup data simply by moving essential files to tapes or external hard drives that are then stored somewhere onsite. But if they’re kept onsite, what happens if a fire, flood or other natural disaster takes out not just your server but your backup tapes and drives? Onsite backups can also be susceptible to theft. Having secure off-site, or even online backup, is simply the smart thing to do to ensure quick recovery when trouble comes to town. Fix Broken Access Controls on Your File Server Many businesses have folders with confidential data residing on a file server with overly permissive access controls. Why take the risk of having a disgruntled – even former – employee access and misuse this data when access can be limited to only those in the company who need it? Be Sure to Test Restores It happens time and time again. Business owners think they have a data backup plan in place. Tapes are changed diligently each day and everything appears to be backed up and good to go. However, it turns out the backups haven’t been working for months, sometimes even years, right at the very moment they’re needed. Either the backups had become corrupt and useless or large segments of data were not being backed up. This happens often. Don’t let it happen to you. Need help with your backups? Schedule a free network assessment or read more about our backup and disaster recovery service.

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Seven ‘Must Haves’ for Your Small Business Website

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Your website represents your business and so building and maintaining it need to be of primary concern to you as a business owner. We often find business owners struggling with their websites saying things like: “My website looks great, but I am not able to convert” or “I invested so much into creating my website, but I don’t get many hits.” These things are very common pains faced by businesses, especially small business. If you aren’t sure where to start your site improvement project, this post will get you rolling in the right direction with seven key areas you need to pay attention to when it comes to your website. Content –Make sure your site has a significant amount of content and that the content is relevant and meaningful. Having the right amount of good content adds value and appeals to your target audience. Don’t fill the site with jargon and keywords just for the sake of it, lack of relevant content won’t help you improve your conversion rate. Testimonials –Nothing has more impact on your prospects than them hearing about your product/service from their peers. So make sure your site showcases testimonials from your satisfied customers. Social Media Icons –Social Media, when done correctly, it is a great medium to enhance your brand presence online. Get on popular social media networks and invite your website visitors to join you there – that way they will hear more about you from your fans at the social network. Contact Information –Tell your web visitors how to get in touch with you. They shouldn’t have to search the entire site before knowing how to contact you. Provide your contact information/contact form very clearly for them to use. Tracking –Incorporate a web-site tracker that helps you track the leads that come in from your website. You can use services such as Google Analytics that are free and provide you basic details such as number of hits, location, time spent on pages, etc. Loading Time –Web visitors today have little patience and lots of choices. So, it is important that your site loads quickly, otherwise they move on to the next search result. SEO –Search engine optimization is a key factor in determining the ROI of your website. Make sure your site is optimized for search engines so that it shows up when your prospects search for you.

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Managed IT Services – Are They Right For You?

Breaking News: Downtime Kills Small Businesses

Is That A Business Continuity Plan in Your Pocket…Or A Bunch of Jargon?

8 Hard Truths for SMBs not Worried About Data Recovery and Business Continuity

Understand How Data Losses Happen – In Order to Prevent Them

5 Amazing Benefits of a Managed Service Provider

Six Steps to Better Data Backup and Quicker Recovery

Seven ‘Must Haves’ for Your Small Business Website

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