|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
When Disaster Strikes: How Long Would Your Business Survive if Files On Your Computer Disappeared?
A Tornado? In Birmingham? In The United Kingdom? Unthinkable! Yes, in July 2005 (while I was putting finishing touches to my cave-house in Spain) my house, along with many of my neighbours' houses was struck by a powerful tornado that literally tore up the streets. Leaving people homeless as their homes were bulldozered (with all their possessions inside). Thankfully, my house was still, pretty much intact and won't be being demolished but I work from a home office. I have lots of critical data and information on my computer - marketing information, accounts information, key contacts, books in progress to name a few. If my house was bulldozered (and I didn't have an adequate off-site backup system) I would have lost the lot. As it was, I was still able to access my key files even from Spain. But how would you fare? What if your computer went kaput this very minute? What if a freak accident, theft, or natural disaster literally destroyed your computer and you lost all your files? Would you be able to get back up and running with minimal fuss or would your business be crippled for a long time to come? No one wants to think about it, but in light of recent world events it makes sense for every company to have in place a business continuity plan. This might include installing a backup generator for power, having a second office available for re-location, and ensuring your insurance policy is current, relevant and up to date. Some of the above may be more applicable for larger companies, however one element that's 100% critical for ALL businesses regardless of size, is to keep an up to date copy of your computer files. Files can be lost instantly by a power surge, fire, flood, theft, virus and of course the most common risk human error (i.e. accidental deletion)! This information is the lifeblood of your business, and needs to be backed up regularly. Unlike your office or the computer itself, your computer files cannot be replaced, yet without them you have no business. For most companies, files to be kept safe will include: * Databases * Client records * Presentations * Invoices * Emails * Historical work archives * Research * Digital photos A simple risk assessment question to ask yourself: "How long would my business survive if the files on my computer disappeared right now?" Unless you have a current 'back-up' or copy of your information it is quite likely that your business will cease to operate for some time, if not indefinitely soon after. In our business our database (of people like you) is extremely important. It's taken years to build up and is irreplaceable. Which is why we have taken active steps to protect it. There are a number of ways for you to make back up copies of your information, and these methods can be divided into 2 main categories. 1. Manual processes, which use recordable media such as tapes or disks. 2. Online backup services, which use your Internet connection to transfer data. Manual processes rely on you carrying out the backup, rotating the media and then removing it off-site every day. Consequently they can be labour intensive, costly and in addition the media can be unreliable (i.e disks can be scratched). You don't need me to tell you that doing it this way is certainly not lean. It's a boring, time consuming, yet critical task, that's not automated (but should be) that simply gets in the way of you doing your real work while putting you at unnecessary risk. See the 'Pain or Gain' chart in your free Lean Marketing Detox eBook for a recap. For this reason, many companies are now signing up to online solutions, which via a small piece of software backup your information securely and automatically each day for you. Furthermore your information is stored safely off-site so if and when disaster strikes your files are completely safe and can be instantly restored to any machine. It's human nature to think, "it'll never happen to me", however it is more accurate to think, "when will this happen to me?" Don't gamble with your business, back it up today and keep it safe. For our online data backup we use and recommend www.DepositIt.com, why not check them out and make sure to set up a backup plan as soon as you can. You never know when disaster will strike! 'Dangerous' Debbie Jenkins (c) Copyright 2005 www.BookShaker.com SUMMER CAN BE SLOW FOR BUSINESS I'm wondering if... You Know Other People who should be reading this too? So do us all a favour (they get 2 free books - we get a new subscriber - you get to look good) when you Pass On This link... http://www.leanmarketing.co.uk
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Disaster Recovery Made Easy With Online Backups Whenever disaster strikes the most critical asset that every company should have protected from sudden loss due to fire, flooding, or theft is their data. No matter what happens to your hardware you can be sure to be able to be up and running no matter how sudden or how severe your damage or loss is - if you use an online backup system. Data Recovery - You Can Get It Back! Data recovery is a process whereby you can save data andfiles you accidentally deleted, had eaten by malicioussoftware or viruses, hardware failures, corporate espionageand many more scenarios. Most people believe that when thehard drive crashes their world ends also, but that's notusually the case. In fact 85% of the time the data isrecoverable, and at far less trouble and expense than youmight fear at first. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Selecting A Business Continuity Strategy The risk analysis and business impact analysis have identified risks to key business functions. Also, the potential impacts and probabilities of these risks as well as the costs to prevent or mitigate damages and the time to recover will have been established. Evaluating and selecting strategies is based on using this knowledge. Strategy selection involves focusing on key risk areas and selecting a strategy for each one. The primary goals are to maintain business continuity in the face of a disruption or disaster, to recover key business functions quickly and to mitigate damages. Computer Data Backups: Test Now or Cry Later If you're like most small business owners, your computer data backups are one of those things that you rarely pay attention to. Computer data backups are kind of like flossing your teeth and eating low-fat, high-fiber foods? everyone knows what they're supposed to do? but how many REALLY do these things religiously?!? Do You Have The One Key Ingredient Necessary For Disaster Recovery? It is not rocket science, we all know that we should have a disaster recovery plan in place for our business regardless of its size. When disaster strikes, it seldom discriminates on the size of the company. Every business is vulnerable. Whether the disaster is a hurricane, tornado or the latest virus or worm unleashing fury on your computers and databases, every business faces risks. How To Use Spyware Elimination Software Spyware elimination software is designed to detect andeliminate spyware. A large number of spyware eliminationsoftware products are available. Some of them are availableas freeware and some as shareware. Shareware can be usedfor a specified period, usually 30 days. Backup 101 - How To Pick The Right Backup Software Vision Backuphttp://www.deprice.com/visionbackupenterprise.htm Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Reducing Your Risk Profile Like all plans, there is an ultimate goal to achieve. The goal in a business continuity plan is simply that: to continue your business in the face of a disaster or a disruption. A business continuity plan is not just for a disaster. It's also for the smaller things in life, like your friendly neighborhood burglar who decides to borrow all of your computers or the small power interruption, which causes loss of data and downtime or the fire five floors below you, which causes a 5 hour building shutdown. These are a few of the many things, which do occur every day and do happen to companies like yours. Backup Schmackup: Im Afraid, Very Afraid! "Why should you be afraid?", I can hear you ask. Big Time Disaster Recovery Solutions Available for the Little Guy There was a time - not too long ago - that Data Disaster Recovery solutions were available only in the domain of multinational corporations and big business in general. However, with the proliferation of high speed internet access and the ability to store large amounts of data in a much more cost effective manner due to plummeting storage costs, the ability to perform a secure backup of data to a remote location engineered specifically for the purpose of securely storing massive amounts of information is now in the reach of the general public. Data Backups ? One Key to Business Survival Your customer data is a precious resource that can literally be worth its weight in gold! If used properly, it can be mined over and over for additional sales and referrals. Do you use this gold mine to increase the profitability of your business? HasYour Computer Hard Drive Ever Crashed? Are You Challenged by Backups? The following scenario's have probably been repeated thousands of times, on computer systems of all kinds and sizes, operated by all levels of users from complete novice, to expert user. How to Survive an Operating System Crash "We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows could not be accessed or located." The Importance of Data Backups All computers and their components are subject to failure. In fact sooner or later every business will be confronted with some type of computer failure. The largest threat to businesses during a failure will be some type of data loss or data corruption. While the causes of data loss and data corruption vary, not all are easily fixed. 3 Ways Computers Can Hurt Your Ministry - Part 1 - Ineffective Data Backups Our computers have become almost indispensable ministry tools. What would you do if the worst happened and you had to function without your computers? Would your ministry survive? Read This Now: Its Not If You Will Lose Your Data, Its When Will You Lose Your Data With Adware, SpyWare, E-Mail Viruses, Java Script Viruses and Hardware failures It isn't a matter of If you will loose your Data it is a matter of When you will loose your Data! By spending a few extra minutes now using a Simple Back Up Strategy, you can save yourself big headaches later. Data Recovery Processes Six months ago my computer crashed. When I turned my computer on it would not load Windows XP and so I could not get into my two hard drive files. As an author and writer of ebooks, I had all my files in two hard drives without any other backup. At first, I panic. The thought of losing all my data files and writings was unthinkable. Then I got angry with myself for letting myself get into this situation. The Seven Golden Rules Of Data Backups Backups of company data are carried out for two main reasons. The first is to cater for those times when a document is inadvertently deleted or damaged and you wish to recover the original document; the second is as part of a disaster recovery plan in case something catastrophic happens to your computers (e.g., victims of a fire or theft). Computer Data Recovery Options Losing files on your computer can be a frightening experience if the files are of importance to you personally or professionally. Computer data recovery techniques include the most simple of operations, like simply retrieving an accidentally deleted file, to very complex file retrieval procedures that only professionals should attempt to do. Do I Really Need To Backup? Okay, computers a machine, right? Okay, maybe not yours. Youhave this special relationship, but that a subject foranother article. Machines break. Software gets fouled up.People make errors. These things happen, and for thosereasons alone, you need to back up all your critical data,redundantly, in a couple of different locations.
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |