|
 A solid data backup strategy is one of the basic
tenants of a business plan that utilizes any sort of computer infrastructure.
This strategy protects critical business information from mistakes that
will occur, failure of the mechanical hard drive within a computer and
intentional damage.
It may sound like a subject that receives much more
attention than needed, but it continues to cost businesses millions in
lost revenue, repair costs and worst of all, lost customers. Customers
you spent a lot of effort and advertising dollars to win in the first place.
And smaller businesses are at the highest risk. Why?
First, they are convinced this in an issue for larger
businesses and yes, they write CDs of their information. Yet, all
financial and customer records are typically stored on a single computer or
more accurately a single hard drive. And, those non-verified tapes or CDs are stored in
the corner of an office in conditions that quickly degrade these media.
So, a few $0.25 CDs protect the financial records of a
million dollar business. That's a wager for the truly adventurous!
Here are some of the most dramatic examples of actual
events. In each case, the business believed
their backup strategy covered their needs. In most cases, they contacted
Colorado Networks after a serious flaw was discovered in their strategy.
- Nov '03, a Denver,
CO based medical practice
with six physicians in the office lost six months of patient records due to unreadable tape backups
that were discovered in the process of recovering from a hard drive failure.
- Losses ~ $312,000 in billable time, patients
who left the practice and repairs.
- Sept '03, a Colorado Springs,
CO dental clinic lost four months of
appointment records due to disgruntled employee damage and a failed
backup process.
- Losses ~ $148,000 in billable time and additional employee wages
attempting to reschedule appointments.
- July '04, a Colorado Springs,
CO contractor looses
five months of payroll and project financial records due to the failure of
a manual backup process that generated unreadable CDs.
- Losses ~ $12,000 of additional wages to re-enter
some data and a total
loss of project financial and IRS payroll records.
- Feb '04, a Colorado Springs,
CO law firm looses two years of
client records due to a failed hard drive and a tape backup process
that failed to actually write to tapes.
- Losses ~ $5,000 in additional wages to reenter
some data
and a total
loss of client records.
- Oct '04, An evaluation of backup procedures saves the records
of a Denver legal firm!
Backup control software on the office file server did not exist. An
analysis of the situation determined the application had been removed
over one year ago! Employee tampering is suspected. Backup processes
were implemented immediately to protect against any loss of
information and avoid any impact to business operations.
This is not a backup strategy!
Think about the physical aspects as well as overall strategy...
- Sept '05, an employee of a Colorado Front Range financial firm plugs a space heater into a power
source used by the office file server. The overload protection trips, corrupting the file
structure on the server's hard drives, leaving client information
destroyed. No backup process was used according to an employee because the
server was "new and should not be an issue".
- Losses ~ $650 for data recovery
services along with an untold loss of client accounts.
- Jan '06, a Colorado Front Range firm is burglarized.
Computers that were not removed from the premises were smashed beyond
repair, along with most the office furnishings. Backups were kept
locally and as a result, a complete lost of business data.
- Losses ~ no dollar estimate at
this point in time. Many questions remain as to the ability to
continue business activities.
- April '07, a Colorado Springs, CO
medical firm looses a majority of its patient records due to an
employee "forgetting" to change backup tapes over an extended period
of time. The oversight was identified only after the loss of a hard
disk drive on the practice server.
- May '07, a Colorado Front Range pet care
company looses two months of critical business information due to the
failure of a tape backup system.
This is where Colorado Networks has leveraged corporate
enterprise management toward a cost
effective solution for smaller businesses.
D2AT Features
-
Scaleable protection for small to large businesses
-
Satisfies disaster recovery requirements for
offsite storage, including HIPAA!
-
Verified completion of the backup process
that's actively monitored by Colorado Networks' staff.
-
Daily reports of backup success or
errors
-
Correction of errors made by
Colorado Networks staff, transparent to clients!!
-
Backup restoration at your fingertips!
Let the Colorado Networks team demonstrate a
customized solution for your specific business needs.
We also
offer a no obligation, no cost evaluation
of your current backup strategy.
We ask tough questions to launch your staff's review of
backup processes. Whether
you do business with
Colorado Networks is not the issue, The question is whether
your business can survive a catastrophic loss of data.
|
