How Disaster Recovery as a Service Provides Peace of Mind for Small Businesses

If you sit down and think about all the things that might cause your business harm, data loss should be at the very top of that list. Very few businesses in today’s day and age still operate on a pen-and-paper model and have instead shifted into the digital realm. Though this affords a great deal of convenience, things like cyber crime, natural disasters, and even hardware failure can mean the end of the line for your company. Disaster recovery as a service can change this. The Three Biggest Disasters Facing Small Business When it comes to unexpected data loss that could potentially close your business forever, there are three ways it could happen: Natural Disasters: The NOAA, or US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reports that there have been 10 or more natural disasters causing $1 billion or more in damage every year for the last five years. They also say these disasters are becoming more and more frequent. Hardware Failure: Servers and computers – much like cars and home appliances – can fail, and when they do, it’s like the data inside never even existed. Though it may be possible to recover some data, other data may be lost forever. Cybercrime: Small businesses are targeted by cyber criminals just as frequently as large enterprises by things like spam, phishing, and even ransomware, among others. Cyber crime can completely wipe out your data and leave your company dead in the water. Disaster Recovery vs. Backup Many small businesses currently pay for what is known as BaaS, or Backup as a Service. This essentially means that the companies’ data is backed up regularly and stored in a separate location. If a natural disaster, hardware failure, or cyber crime should occur, the data is not lost forever. This is incredibly beneficial, but it often provides business owners with a false sense of security. There’s no provisioning for network or computer needs with BaaS, which means that even though the data is safe, it cannot be accessed remotely, and this creates a significant amount of downtime. DRaaS, or Disaster Recovery as a Service, solves this issue. It does include provisioning for network and computer needs. To better understand this, imagine that your company’s headquarters – including the onsite server – burned to the ground. Your BaaS provider has your servers and data saved and backed up on a server elsewhere, but it’s just a backup, so until you put a new server into place, your data and infrastructure is effectively useless. A DRaaS provider, on the other hand, allows your business to stay up and running with very little downtime (if any at all) thanks to offsite data redundancy. For many small businesses who are still trying to build a reputation and make a name for themselves, several days or even hours of downtime can be devastating. It is important for small business owners to maintain their online presence through thick and thin, even in the midst of a natural disaster. This is exactly what disaster recovery as a service was designed to do; it provides small business owners with unprecedented peace of mind by ensuring things continue to run with minimal downtime – even in the midst of a true disaster.

How Disaster Recovery as a Service Provides Peace of Mind for Small Businesses Read More »

Be Proactive: How to Avoid Potential Network Failures

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Network failures for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can be devastating because they don’t have the resources of large corporations to bounce back from such disasters. Preparation against such devastation may be the only course for them to avoid failure and survive with the least damage if failure occurs. SMBs must be proactive in recognizing the eventuality of a cyber attack or human error that can cause data loss and disrupt business continuity. This is what needs to be done to help prevent a potential failure. Be prepared for network failures Being proactive is an essential step for preparation against a disaster. There are two ways to determine how to best prepare to prevent potential failure of your infrastructure. First, you need to identify the weaknesses throughout your systems, and second, determine how you are going to eliminate those weaknesses and protect your network. Identify the weaknesses that cause network failures Determine how and why your system could fail. Examine all aspects of your hardware and software. Assess all the internal and external factors that could contribute to failure of your networks. Here are some questions you need to know the answers to. Does customer access and/or employee productivity often stall because of downed systems? In these situations, how quickly is your IT support able to minimize the damage? Can you say with certainty that your business will be back on line and be able to access lost data with minimal disruption in case of failure? Your critical data should be backed up frequently. The data on personal laptops, iPads and other mobile devices should also be backed up. Are all these steps being taken, and how often? Are all backups stored in a location off-site and are they quickly accessible in the event of corruption, fire or flood? Are you using any custom made software? Can it be reinstalled and updated when needed? Are your systems truly protected from hackers and viruses? Do you change passwords when employees leave the company? How often do you test your backup processes? The answers to all these questions should give you a clear picture of your network’s ability to survive in case of a catastrophe. Five steps to help protect or shield your business against network failures Backup files every day: There are a large number of businesses that never backup data. Only 23% of SMBs are backing up their data daily, and only 50% are doing it weekly. A number of issues can result in loss of data. You should backup data every day. Check backup procedures regularly: Don’t find out accidently that your backup system is not working properly. By then it could be too late. Make sure to have a backup procedure in place. Also, it may seem like your data is being backed up normally, but check frequently if it is backing up the way it should be. In this age of BYOD make sure all employees are also following procedures to backup data on their laptops, iPads, etc. Make sure virus protection and firewalls are always enabled: Many companies either don’t have virus protection installed or it is disabled. That renders their networks vulnerable to virus attacks from emails, spam and data downloads. Corrupted files will not only bring your systems down but they can spread to your customers and email contacts. That will spell disaster for your reputation. Hackers are always looking for unprotected and open ports online that they can attack with malicious code or files. That can cause permanent data loss. Monitor server drives: Dangerously full server drives can cause many problems, ranging from program crashes to sluggish email delivery. Servers should be monitored and maintained regularly to avoid these problems. Check built-in logs: Frequent reviews of built-in logs can reveal small issues. You will have a chance to prevent them from becoming bigger, harder-to- manage problems that can bring your systems down. Network Failures Summary We now know IT system and network failures have very serious consequences for SMBs. We also know that they can avoid such failures by being proactive. Many SMBs are now turning to cloud-based services and virtualized backup solutions to mitigate downtime and network failures. Virtualization and cloud computing have enabled cost-efficient business continuity by allowing entire servers to be grouped into one software bundle or virtual server – this includes all data, operating systems, applications, and patches. This simplifies the backup process and allows for quick data restoration when needed. See how our backup and disaster recovery solution can help you. Email us at sales@pennyriletech.com or use our contact form to see how Pennyrile Technologies can help your business today.

Be Proactive: How to Avoid Potential Network Failures Read More »

How Does IT Downtime Affect Your Business

Why Hybrid Clouds are More Than Just Another Trend

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

It should come as no surprise that many small to midsize business owners take pride in overseeing every aspect of their startup business. Naturally, many are apprehensive when it comes to surrendering control of their servers, their data, and their applications. The downside of this need for control is that operating and maintaining everything onsite can be time-consuming, super expensive, and it can make your business more vulnerable to failure related downtime and cyber threats. Hybrid Cloud Solutions Although everything can be stored in the cloud at a fraction of the cost, many aren’t responsive to the idea of sharing the infrastructure their technology runs on. The great thing about the cloud is it’s not an all or nothing thing. This is exactly why so many small to midsize businesses have turned to hybrid cloud solutions. Just as they name implies, hybrid cloud solutions are both on and off premises. It’s the best of both worlds. An entrepreneur can still control certain aspects of the business on-site, but simultaneously exploit the cloud’s cost effectiveness and overall scalability. For example, a local server can be housed and managed on-site but that server, or just specific files, can still be backed up in the cloud and stored far away off-site. This provides a partial disaster recovery solution in the event of a hurricane, flood, fire, or just a basic server crash. Here are some tips for developing your hybrid cloud strategy Honestly assess the current IT strategy – Over time, as your business grows and technology advances, your well-planned and neatly arranged IT infrastructure transforms into a disorganized mishmash of different servers and disconnected software and tools. View this almost as the spring-cleaning of a cluttered garage. What systems or applications are critical to your business right now and which ones no longer support your current or future business initiatives? Know what you want to keep close – Every business will be different in this regard. Certain companies will prefer keeping large files in-house, in a more controlled private cloud for easy access, but may be okay with having their emails out there in the cloud. See how others are leveraging a hybrid cloud environment – Services once only available to large enterprises are now available to SMBs. This presents an extraordinary opportunity to be more agile, flexible, and better suited for new business opportunities and growth. Remote monitoring, 24/7 support, and disaster recovery solutions can be easily integrated within a hybrid-computing environment – regardless of operating systems, server types or mobile devices used. Staged implementation – Be sure to plan your hybrid cloud strategy as a multi-year plan that is deployed in phases. For example, in the beginning, private controlled access to a public cloud service can be granted to internal application developers experimenting with a new business initiative. Or a new customer relations management SaaS (Software as a Service) application can be implemented. This is the year that even small or midsize enterprises are getting serious about cloud operations and a strategic mix of public cloud services and private cloud may make the transition easier. Email us at sales@pennyriletech.com or use our contact form to see how Pennyrile Technologies can help your business today.

Why Hybrid Clouds are More Than Just Another Trend Read More »

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.

Breaking News: Downtime Kills Small Businesses Read More »

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.

Six Steps to Better Data Backup and Quicker Recovery Read More »

Mitigate Costly New Technology Risks for Continued Stability and Profitability

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) is one new approach being used by many companies like yours. Experienced MSPs have access to newer tools that reduce costs by automating many routine in-house labor intensive processes. Break-fix is labor intensive, and labor is one of the most expensive operating costs within your IT infrastructure. The new innovative tools that can be provided by MSPs generate real productivity increases and mitigate the risk of network failure, downtime and data loss from human error. MSP Services MSPs deliver a trusted foundation for your team and your customers. Some of the services and tasks offered include: Remote Desktop Management and Support Predictable Management of Critical Patches and Software Updates Fractional Resource Availability of Best-In-Class Expertise – scaled to your needs Implementing and Testing Backup and Disaster Recovery Processes Performance of Inventory and Audits of Computer/Network/Software Enforcement of Network/Security Policy Monitoring of Network/Operating System and Alerts Updating Anti-Virus Software and Detecting Spyware Erase any misconception that managed service providers are nothing more than “outsourced” tech help priced to displace your in-house IT technician or team. The new MSP has defined new methodologies and technology partnerships to offer valuable preventative services that proactively locate and eliminate threats before a bigger problem arises. MSPs today put considerable effort into understanding the operational and business needs of SMBs to develop and deliver a set of specific services that align technology with the SMB’s business objectives. This is the reason you hear managed services often referred to as “partners.” A present day MSP offers quantifiable economic value, greater ROI and decreased total cost of operation by streamlining costs and eliminating unnecessary lost productivity, revenue, and avoidable on-site IT consultant fees, in addition to eliminating the need for costly hardware/software repairs or replacement.

Mitigate Costly New Technology Risks for Continued Stability and Profitability Read More »

Is your Business Safe from Virtual Threats?

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Did you know that 50% of small business owners think their businesses are too small to be targeted by the thieves of the virtual world? Contrary to popular belief, 72% of hacker attacks often happen to smaller firms – firms with less than 100 employees! So how prepared is your SMB? Here’s a checklist to help you find out how vulnerable you are to these attacks. 1. Do you have Antivirus protection? – An antivirus software program can protect you from threats that originate from emails such as phishing and virus attacks. However, the most striking fact is that 61% of small businesses don’t install any antivirus software! If you are one of them, then it’s time to change! 2. How sturdy is your Firewall? – A good firewall system protects your computers from the variety of threats that exist in the virtual world. Examples include harmful cookies, viruses, worms and other such malicious programs used by hackers. 3. Do you use a Spam filter? – Using a simple spam filter for your emails keeps junk out of your inbox. The bonus to having a good spam filter is that your employees save time, as they are not distracted by irrelevant emails, but the major perk here is that the potential virus and phishing threats are lessened as spam emails are unlikely to be opened. 4. Do you do backup your data regularly? – Agreed – backups don’t really protect your data, but they are the only way to recover it if data loss does happen. So, be sure you have a regular and reliable backup plan in place – and it is actually being deployed. Data loss can prove very costly—especially to SMBs, sometimes even resulting in them having to close down. Prevention is certainly better than a cure in such cases.

Is your Business Safe from Virtual Threats? Read More »

Five Things To Preserve Your Network and Systems

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Small & medium-sized businesses (SMBs) today are under attack from malware, ransomware, external threats and data breaches. But with the lack of sophistication around most SMBs security stance, the prospect of remaining unaffected by attacks is bleak. Here are five things SMBs can do to help preserve their networks and systems. While this list does not completely cover all aspects of protecting a network, these are great first steps. If you need assistance, a managed service provider (MSP) like Pennyrile Technologies can help. A managed service provider delivers services, such as network, application, infrastructure and security, via ongoing and regular support and active administration on customers’ premises, in their MSP’s data center (hosting), or in a third-party data center. Backup Files Every Day As catastrophic as data loss is, the number of businesses that still are not backing up the computers and servers on their network is unbelievable. According to the Symantec Small to Medium Size Businesses (SMB) data, only 23% of SMBs are backing up their data on a daily basis and fewer than 50% are backing up data weekly. Any number of events can result in data loss, so the importance of frequently backing up your network cannot be overstated. Losing any amount of data can compromise your personal identity, lead to downtime for your business and employees, and even bankrupt your entire company. Ensure Backup Procedures Are Checked Regularly Many times business owners think that they have a backup system in place only to find out after it’s too late that it hasn’t been working properly. It may seem like your files are being backed up daily, however, the backup could have become corrupt or it is not backing up huge chunks of critical data. Check your backup procedures regularly to ensure they are working properly in order to be sure that ALL of your data can be recovered. In the age of BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Devices) it is also important to frequently backup data on your employee’s personal laptops, iPads or Blackberrys, so make sure you have a procedure in place to check those backups as well. Make Sure Updated Virus Protection and Firewalls Are Always Enabled Far too many companies either have no virus protection, expired virus software licenses, or disabled virus programs that aren’t running at all. This makes their business technology vulnerable to virus attacks from emails, spam, data downloads, and un-reputable websites. Further, because of inadequate firewall protection about 40% of small to medium businesses will have their network accessed by a hacker. Chances are, when these businesses are attacked they will be entirely unaware it is happening. In order to protect your valuable data and assets, ensure your virus protection is adequate, up-to-date and functioning properly and that your firewall is intact. Finally, don’t forget to update security patches and change passwords when an employee leaves in order to deter hacking attempts. Monitor Server Drives Dangerously full server drives can bring their own set of problems – ranging from program and server crashes to sluggish email delivery. Proactive monitoring and maintenance of your servers can spare your business a lot of problems down the road. And don’t just monitor to see if the drives are full, but also monitor for hard drive failures, or predicted failures to help avoid data loss. Replacing drives with predicted failures can save your business time and money by avoiding extended downtime. Regularly Check Critical Built-In Logs Very few problems with technology emerge suddenly. These problems typically progress over time and evolve into more serious problems. Frequently review your critical built-in log files to help identify the problem before it has gotten out of control and wreaks havoc on your business infrastructure.

Five Things To Preserve Your Network and Systems Read More »

Data Loss Can Cause You to Shut Down

Informative / Pennyrile Technologies

Small and medium sized businesses today are relying more than ever on IT systems to efficiently run their business, support customers and optimize productivity. These systems house sensitive digital data ranging from employee and customer information, to internal emails, documents and financial records, sales orders and transaction histories. This is in addition to applications and programs critical to daily business functions and customer service. While corporate-level data losses and insider theft are well publicized, many smaller businesses have also become casualties of data loss and theft. Following a significant data loss, it is estimated that a small-to-medium sized business can lose up to 25% in daily revenue by the end of the first week. Projected lost daily revenue increases to 40% one month into a major data loss. According to The National Archives & Records Administration in Washington, 93% of companies that have experienced data loss, coupled with prolonged downtime for ten or more days, have filed for bankruptcy within twelve months of the incident while 50% wasted no time and filed for bankruptcy immediately. Finally, 43% of companies with no data recovery and business continuity plan actually go out of business following a major data loss. Still, a survey conducted by Symantec SMB revealed that fewer than half of SMBs surveyed backup their data each week. Only 23% of those surveyed said they backup data every day and have a business continuity plan in place. Businesses play on a much bigger playing field than they did two decades ago. Any disruptive technological event – even the smallest of incidents – can have an amplified impact on day-to-day business and profitability. Being proactive with data recovery solutions, and having emergency response procedures in place prior to a disruption or data disaster, is the only way to minimize downtime and soften the impact o

Data Loss Can Cause You to Shut Down Read More »

World Backup Day

Leave a Comment / News / Pennyrile Technologies

World Backup Days is on March 31st and we want to know if you have your files backed up? Need assistance setting up a backup for your data? Give us a call. What exactly is a backup? A backup is a second copy of all your important files — for example, your family photos, home videos, documents, emails, and financial data. Rather than storing it all in one place (like your computer), you should keep another copy of everything somewhere safe like an external hard drive, DVD, or the cloud. So why should I backup? Losing your files is more common than you’d think. Ever lost your phone, camera or tablet? What about a hard drive failure on your computer? There could also be an environmental event such as a fire. Your stuff could have been saved with a backup. One small accident or failure could destroy all the important stuff you care about. How should I backup? There are several ways to back up your data. You can back up to an external disk or drive, such as CD or DVD burners, USB sticks, and external hard drives. You can also use a third party service that backs up to the Internet or cloud. How often should I backup? You should backup anytime you have updated or added media that is important to you. If your computer is starting to die or become less reliable, make a backup immediately. For some people, backing up daily is necessary, and for others, weekly or monthly. Choose a schedule that works for you. Using third party software can automate your backups so you don’t forget!

World Backup Day Read More »

Backups

How Disaster Recovery as a Service Provides Peace of Mind for Small Businesses

Be Proactive: How to Avoid Potential Network Failures

Breaking News: Downtime Kills Small Businesses

Six Steps to Better Data Backup and Quicker Recovery

Mitigate Costly New Technology Risks for Continued Stability and Profitability

Is your Business Safe from Virtual Threats?

Five Things To Preserve Your Network and Systems

Data Loss Can Cause You to Shut Down

World Backup Day

Our Links

Our Addresses

Address

Address

Our Contacts

Hopkinsville Phone

Clarksville Phone

Fax

Sales

Support

Our Recent Posts