8 backups and failovers to consider for business
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How can you keep your business up and going, regardless of the circumstances? Today we will cover the top 8 ways
1. Standard File Duplication: This is the most common and is probably a "duh" for you. BUT, keep in mind this also means that anything you have on paper should be backed up too, though. Lots of businesses still have important documents only on physical paper. What if they got lost or damaged? Or, if you're entirely cloud-based, what if you lost access to your cloud-provider, or if you got hacked or they got hacked? Duplicate all files!
2. Off-Site Backup: What happens if something goes wrong at the office? You should be able to access files elsewhere. Ideally this is through a trusted cloud provider, but technically you could have thumb drives or other backup hard drives located off-site. It just takes longer to recover files with the latter solution.
3. A RAID Setup: RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks and is essentially multiple hard drives running in tandem means a hard drive can break down and you won't experience ANY downtime, because the other hard drive seamlessly kept you up and going. You are then alerted that one drive went down, and you can order a new one to replace the broken one to keep things safe.
4. Full-image Backup: this is more thorough than file duplication; this is duplicating your entire computer and all of its operating system and user configurations and the whole nine yards. In the event that you get hacked, or ransomware, or a particular user's computer is broken, you not only get all the files back in place, but their entire work environment. This helps with minimizing lost work productivity and also ensures all the little things aren't lost.
5. Internet Fail-Over: what if your Internet Service Provider goes down? Over the course of a full year, the average ISP has something like 4 days of downtime. How much is that worth to your business? Hotspots and mesh networks and things like that are fairly inexpensive these days. Just make sure your backup option isn't running through the same line as your standard connection; sometimes businesses shares cables and the problem might be in the cable.
6. Backup Power: over the course of a year, depending on your location in the US and if any major events occurred, somewhere between 2-10 hours per year. When calculating the cost of this much time lost, don't just consider business productivity, but keep in mind whether this would potentially have a tech impact on you as well. If you have a server that is getting up there in age, it may not turn back on properly, for instance. So, for some of you this will mean a UPS system (uninterruptible power supply, which provides enough power to safely shut off tech, to a full-blown generator.
7. Backup Phone Options: although hard-lined phone systems tend to be fairly resilient, what if you simply cannot be in the office to answer the phones? How easy is it to re-route your number to ring at other phones? Or, are you able to switch all of your incoming calls to cell phones seamlessly? If you have to transfer phone calls, does everybody know how to do that or have a workaround like an internal phone sheet to at least provide the correct number to callers while things get sorted out?
8. Backup Hardware: if a computer breaks, does someone literally have to sit around and wait for a new one to arrive, then go through the hours of setup to get things up and going again? If you have spare computers this can be more helpful than you might think. A computer wouldn't necessarily have to be completely broken for you to get use out of this either. Maybe a particularly rough IT problem pops up, so rather than have IT work on your computer while you twiddle your thumbs, it's easier to take 5 minutes to swap out a computer and have them solve the issue separately. This goes for pretty much all hardware. If a switch, firewall, or router dies, this may be even more impactful on your business than a single computer going down.
This is my top 8 list of backup and failover needs businesses should consider. Did you learn anything? Did I miss something that you recommend? Don't forget to like and then let me know in the comments.
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