The more complex and robust your IT infrastructure is, the greater the chances that it will undergo a system failure. Basically, according to Murphy’s Law, if something can go wrong, you should expect it to go wrong. To counteract this mentality with real, tangible methods that you can control, you’ll want to implement solutions that prioritize redundancy. This week’s blog is all about how you can build redundancy into your infrastructure through the use of data backup and restoration systems.
Knowing the solutions to the dilemma is all well and good, but without understanding the root causes of the problem at hand, they will do you little good. Here are some of the threats to your company’s infrastructure which could lead to a system failure.
There are more potential threats out there than ever before, and if you’re not careful, malware could pose a serious issue for your company. Malware ranges from small and benign issues to considerably more dangerous threats that could ruin you, like ransomware. Your business could become the target of extortion that could ruin both your budget and your chances of ever doing business again.
Ransomware can encrypt and lock down workstations or perhaps your entire network, depending on how far the infection spreads. You either pay up for access to your data or you run the risk of it getting leaked online or deleted entirely. Being in this situation is not only embarrassing, it could subject you to fines and other regulatory and compliance-related nightmares. Cybersecurity tools and solutions can go a long way toward keeping your business safe, as can implementing a data backup solution to potentially skirt around the issues outlined above, if you’re lucky.
Your business cannot control the weather, but it can control how it responds to the weather. If your business is based in a location subject to violent thunderstorms or power surges, there is a real chance that your network could be fried by a random storm that you have no control over.
However, you do have options to prepare for such an event. An uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, can help regulate energy flowing into your technology, effectively preventing power surge damages, and it can even run for a short time on batteries so you have time to react to the situation at hand.
Your staff are also responsible for keeping your company’s IT infrastructure safe, so you need to take opportunities to train them on effective practices and policies when you can. Most issues businesses face with their security stem from mistakes on the end user’s part. This means that you need employees who are ready, willing and able to do their part to protect your infrastructure, whether it’s noticing phishing attacks when they are targeted or just practicing safe Internet browsing habits.
A security training regimen can go a long way toward keeping your company secure. We recommend that you train them on password creation, multi-factor authentication, scam spotting, and other potential avenues for security risks.
The above variables and practices can be effective for keeping your business secure, but one thing needs to be said: no matter how well you protect your business from potential threats, problems will occur, and you need to be ready to restore your data in the event of such a disaster at a moment’s notice.
There are so many reasons why a server might fail or you lose your data, but a plan to restore your data will let you breathe a sigh of relief knowing that you're covered and ready for any situation that befalls your company. Data redundancy is there for your peace of mind and for the scenario in which you need to use it, even if it feels unlikely.
First Column IT and our Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solutions can help you prepare for such an event. BDR uses incremental backups that can upload your data to the cloud for instantaneous recovery should they be needed. We’ll even test your backups too so you know they work when you need them most.
To learn more, contact us today at (571) 470-5594.
