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Disaster Recovery Horror Story #8: The 7 Deadly Sins of Backup and Recovery

July 18, 2013 by

Over the next several weeks, we will outline some of the most common disaster recovery mistake companies make, mistakes that could have disastrous outcomes. We like to call these the 7 Deadly Sins of Backup and Recovery. The first of these disaster recovery sins is backing up only your data.

This is a fairly common mistake. Many business owners believe they need only back up their business data. However, this could not be further from the truth. Everything needs protection, not just user data. Disaster recover processes should also include backups for operating system layers and applications. This allows users to quickly recover and restore everything.

With so many patches and updates layered into most operating systems, a full rebuild is close to impractical, not to mention risky. This assumes that you can find the optical media, locate the license keys, and apply patches in the right sequence.

Do the right thing and back up your operating system, applications, and critical business data. Taking the time to backup everything now ensures it is there when you need it in the future.

Disaster Recovery Services in Baltimore, Maryland

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses in Baltimore and the surrounding area, businesses like yours, with the expert information technology support they need to not only survive, but thrive. Our disaster recovery services help ensure your vital business data is kept safe and secure, providing you with a peace of mind that is unequalled.

Did you know that 43% of companies that experience major data loss never recover? 51% close within 2 years. Don’t let this happen to you. Pick up the phone, call Working Nets today, and stop playing Russian roulette with your business.

If you have any questions about Disaster Recovery, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Sources:

The 7 deadly sins of backup and recovery

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Disaster Recovery Horror Story #7: Lighting can Strike Twice…Sort of

June 19, 2013 by

We have heard all of the excuses before: “Disaster recovery is not important,” or “I can’t afford disaster recovery.” Not important? Can’t afford it? Did you know that 43% of companies that experience major data loss never recover? 51% close within 2 years. Not important? Stop making excuses and get with the times. You need a proper disaster recovery plan in place or you risk losing EVERYTHING if disaster strikes. Are you willing to take that gamble?

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #7: Lighting can Strike Twice…Sort of

Sometimes, even when you think you are doing everything right, something still goes wrong. And in the case study we are about to tell you, something goes terribly wrong…twice! The company did everything right. They backed up their data, tapes were stored offsite, and a restore was scheduled every 6 months. Everything was running smoothly. Then disaster struck.

Lighting struck the building, burning the computer building to the ground. Fortunately, the company’s insurance took care of the recovery costs, providing new servers, a generator, and a mobile building to house them in. All that was left was the backup tapes. A courier was dispatched and the tapes were on route. Then lighting struck again (figuratively).

The courier was in an accident en route to deliver the backup tapes. The courier was okay, but the backup tapes were not, crushed under the wheels of another vehicle. Fortunately, the company had other tapes, but they were a few days old.

They never did fully recover all of their lost data.

Disaster Recovery Services from Working Nets in Baltimore, Maryland

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support they needed. Our disaster recovery services help ensure your vital business data is kept safe and secure!

If you have any questions about Disaster Recovery, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

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Disaster Recovery Horror Story #6: Failed Backups Almost Ruined Toy Story 2

June 14, 2013 by

The lack of a proper Disaster Recovery plan can affect anyone, not just small mom-and-pop stores or IT companies. Poor disaster recovery can even affect Woody, Buzz, and the rest of those lovable toys from the Pixar movie Toy Story.

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #6: Failed Backups Almost Ruined Toy Story 2

“[Larry Cutler] was in that directory and happened to be talking about installing a fix to Woody or Woody’s hat. He looked at the directory and it had like 40 files, and he looked again and it had four files,” said Oren Jacob, former Chief Technical Officer of Pixar. “Then we saw sequences start to vanish as well and we were like, ‘Oh my god.’ I grabbed the phone…‘unplug the machine!’”

Jacob recounts that disastrous day when someone executed an incorrect command on the servers where all the movie’s files were stored. Two months and hundreds of hours of work was deleted in a matter of seconds.

  1. The good news: Pixar had a backup system in place.
  2. The bad news: The backups were not continuously tested and had been failing for a month prior to the fateful day when the movie was deleted.

Fortunately, like most Pixar movies, this story has a happy ending. By a stroke of luck, Supervising Technical Director Galyn Susman had been working on the film at home and had the entire movie stored on her personal computer.

“She and I just stood up and walked out, back to her Volvo, drove across the bridge, got the machine, got some blankets, I hugged it with seatbelts, across the back seat,” said Jacob. “Drove at like 35 with blinking lights on, hoping to get a police escort. No cops saw us, so it didn’t help us.”

“Eight people met us with a plywood sheet out in the parking lot and, like a sedan carrying the Pharaoh, walked it into the machine room,” added Jacob.

Disaster Recovery Services from Working Nets in Baltimore, Maryland

If it can happen to a big company like Pixar, it can happen to you. This is why it is so important to have a disaster recovery plan in place. This is why you should trust the IT professionals at Working Nets. We were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support they needed.

Our disaster recovery services to help assure that your vital business data is kept safe and secure!

If you have any questions about Disaster Recovery, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Source:

How Pixar’s Toy Story 2 was deleted twice, once by technology and again for its own good

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Disaster Recovery Horror Story #5: One Dead Server; One Unlucky Company

June 6, 2013 by

Remember the old saying, “It is better to be safe than sorry?” I think they may have been talking about Disaster Recovery. How important is disaster recovery? Of companies that experience major data loss, 51% close within 2 years, while 43% never recover. So let me reiterate my previous statement; it is better to be safe than sorry! It is much better to sit down and take the time to put a disaster recovery plan together now than it is to freak out when disaster strikes.

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #5: One Dead Serve; One Unlucky Company

After a very peaceful weekend, one IT employee came to the office hoping for a nice easy Monday. Instead, they were immediately confronted with Internet and email issues. After trying to troubleshoot the issue for a bit, the IT technician wandered back to the server room and to their horror found the server quiet, with no lights on. The fan responsible for cooling the server died. As a result, the server overheated and burned out the CPU and motherboard. And with no backups, the company was out of luck.

Just to think, this whole dilemma could have been easily avoided with Disaster Recovery Services from Working Nets in Baltimore, Maryland. We were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support they need to succeed. That is why Working Nets offers disaster recovery services to help assure that your vital business data is kept safe and secure if disaster strikes.

If you have any questions about Disaster Recovery, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT Tips Baltimore Tagged With: ,

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #3: Backups aren’t for the Birds

April 17, 2013 by

Here at Working Nets, we have heard it all before. We know the excuses: “Disaster recovery is not important,” or “the plan we have in place is just fine.” Our personal favorite is: “I can’t afford disaster recovery.”

Can’t afford disaster recovery? We understand that running a small business is tough and profit margins are thin, especially in this economy, but the fact is that you cannot afford NOT to have a disaster recovery plan in place. You have heard us throw around the same statistic time and time again. Of companies that experience major data loss, 51% close within 2 years, while 43% never recover. These numbers are staggering! So why would a company even take the risk?

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #3: Backups aren’t for the Birds

A small chain pet store in the tri-state area was quickly outgrowing its current wed provider and was looking for web space, a database and a few e-mail boxes. The store opted for a monthly package that included a 10MB database, 100MB of disk space and 100GB of bandwidth. And it quickly became apparent that this would not be nearly enough. The company’s web provider suggested that they move to a dedicated server. Instead, the pet store chain opted to pay monthly overages and operate using insufficient bandwidth.

Upon investigating the reason for the company’s slow website, the web provider found that the shared database for this Web site – a 10MB file – was the database for the entire company. The website itself accounted for less than 5% of the total data in the database. The other 95% included POP sales registers, payroll, HR, inventory, tax records, and so much more! However, that is just the beginning.

The company had no backup system in place. And guess what happened? When working on the website, someone accidently erased EVERYTHING. The poor pet store chain was unable to recover and was forced to close every one of its stores.

If that pet store chain had simply implemented and followed a disaster recovery plan, this horror story could have been avoided. A disaster recovery plan can be the difference between the life and death of your business.

Baltimore Disaster Recovery Services

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support they needed. That is why we offer disaster recovery services to help assure that your vital business data is kept secure if disaster strikes.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today!

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+

Filed Under: IT Tips Baltimore Tagged With: , ,

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #2: What do Ants and Disaster Recovery have in Common?

April 12, 2013 by

According to the “2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey,” 50% of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have no disaster recovery plan in place.  Of the businesses, that do have a disaster recovery plan in place, 80% don’t have a reliable backup solution. So what’s keeping 80% of businesses from protecting their critical data? Well, at least 41% of SMBs just do not think it is important.

Let’s take a look at another company that didn’t think disaster recovery was important…

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #2: What do Ants and Disaster Recovery have in Common?

In 2007, a photographer in Thailand noticed a trail of ants. He followed this trail only to discover the ants had made their home in his external hard drive. So, the photographer did what anyone would do. He grabbed his bottle of ant spray and sprayed his pesky hard drive inhabitants.

The ants didn’t make it, and neither did the drive or the data.

Unfortunately, the photographer did not have any sort of disaster recovery plan in place and, as a result, lost all of his important business data.

Baltimore Disaster Recovery Services

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support. We know computer and network performance is crucial to the success of your business. This is why we offer disaster recovery services to help protect your vital business data.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today!

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: , ,

Baltimore Disaster Recovery Services: It should be at the Top of the List

April 3, 2013 by

You have probably heard disaster recovery horror stories before. If not, just check out our blog from last week, “Disaster Recovery Horror Story #1: Manhattan Investment Firm springs a Leak.” Instead of implementing a full disaster recovery plan, the investment firm decided that they were okay with their current backup system. Three months later, a water main burst in the street outside their building. Everything was ruined, including the backup tapes, which were stored on-site.

Don’t let this happen to your business. It pays to be prepared.

According to a NFIB National Small Business Poll, 10% of businesses are affected by man-made disasters, while 30% are affected by natural disasters. Of these businesses that experience catastrophic data loss as the result of a disaster, only 6% survive, according to research by the University of Texas. 43% of businesses never reopen and 51% close within 2 years.

So don’t take any chances. Be prepared. Implement a disaster recovery plan.

Baltimore Disaster Recovery Services: It should be at the Top of the List

  1. Your Devices aren’t perfect: Computers, machines, and hardware fail. Because of this, it is important to have a plan in place. Is your data backed up off-site? If not, what would happen if your business was struck by a natural or man-made disaster?
  2. Human Error: Humans are far from perfect. Even the most cautious person can accidently cause data loss. Having incremental online data backups in place will allow you to restore your files.
  3. Weak Links: Your company is only as strong as its weakest link. Don’t let that weak link be your lack of a disaster recovery plan. No business is immune to disasters and data loss.
  4. Cost-Effective: Implementing a disaster recovery plan is a much more cost-effective solution than trying to salvage what is left of your business and customer base following a disaster and major data loss.
  5. Avoid Downtime: Downtime is costly. A disaster recovery plan can help you minimize downtime and get your business back up and running as quickly as possible.

At Working Nets, we know computer and network performance is crucial to success. We were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support. That is why we offer disaster preparedness and disaster recovery services to help assure that your vital business data is kept secure if disaster strikes.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

Filed Under: IT Tips Baltimore Tagged With: ,

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #1: Manhattan Investment Firm springs a Leak

March 27, 2013 by

If you have ever visited our blog before, you have probably noticed that we put a huge emphasis on disaster preparedness and disaster recovery. Why? Well, because it is that important. Of companies that experience major data loss, 51% close within 2 years, while 43% never recover.

If you want to prevent your company from becoming another statistic, you need to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #1: Manhattan Investment Firm springs a Leak

About 10 years ago, one Manhattan-based investment firm decided it was time they toyed around with the notion of implementing a disaster preparedness & disaster recovery plan. This investment firm had recently had issues following 9/11 and the New York City blackout. They didn’t want to get caught off-guard again.

The investment firm had no disaster preparedness & disaster recovery plan in place. They did backup their data, but they stored these tapes onsite. They were content with this system. Why not? It had worked for them for years. And after weighing their disaster recovery options, the investment firm decided that they were okay with their current backup system.

Three months later, a water main burst in the street outside their building. Everything was ruined, including the backup tapes.

This company, like so many others, was unable to recover and was forced to close its doors for good…

Baltimore Disaster Preparedness & Disaster Recovery Services

At Working Nets, we know computer and network performance is crucial to success. We were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support. That is why we offer disaster preparedness and disaster recovery services to help assure that your vital business data is kept secure if disaster strikes.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today!

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: ,
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