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Data Disasters! Who will be next?
By Leo Bletnitsky
Almost anyone that you talk with will acknowledge the importance of backing up your data. Unfortunately, knowing and doing often don't live in the same neighborhood.
As my staff and I visit dozens of companies on a monthly basis, one issue emerges time and time again. Here is a sample dialog:
DV Staff: "Mr./Ms. Potential Client, do you have a data backup solution?"
Potential Client: "Of course we do!"
DV Staff: "Great, can you show me?"
Potential Client: "Oh, uh, I think we do. Lets ask Susie."
Susie: "Backup, uh, I think its that tape thingie over there. I used to switch tapes, but now the tape just stays in there and gets reused"
DV Staff: "It looks like the tape drive has failed and does not even power on. I don't think that your backup has worked since the tape started staying in there."
Potential Client: "That can't be, my cousin looked at our system and said we were in good shape. He plays a lot of video games and really knows his stuff!"
Many businesses that lose their data will fail within the 12 months that follow the data loss. You can protect your business, Implement a data backup solution! The cost is tiny compared to the risks you take by leaving things up to chance.
In closing, I'd like to share a few data loss examples that I've have come across in recent years:
- An office fire destroyed a company's server and all backup tapes. (The taped were stored in a shoe box on a shelf above the server.)
- An employee as trying to free up some disk space on the server and accidentally deleted an important data directory. (The backup had last run 2 weeks previously because the receptionist went out on maternity leave and it had been her job to change tapes.)
- A medical office lost a years worth of patient records due to a server crash. Their nightly backup had not run in a year. Their regular IT support guy did not ever test the backup. Luckily they had 75% of their patient information in paper form and were able to re-enter the data. The cost of the temporary staff for data entry and the loss in patient confidence cost many times more than even the most expensive backup solution.
- A mortgage brokerage was burglarized and their server and all of their laptops in the office were stolen. They had no offsite backup so they lost all their data and client information. When I spoke to them, they were not sure if they would be able to recover.
- I have spoken to numerous people that had heavily relied upon their laptops, only to have them lost, stolen, or just crashed. Some of them had some kind of back, but most lost important data that cost them time or money to recover.
Backup your important data!
Leo Bletnitsky has been in the IT Consulting
and Management business for over 12 years and is CEO/President of Desktop Valet
and LBA Networking, Inc.
Leo can be reached at Leob@DesktopValet.com
or 702-553-3200 x101. |
