Information technology is the enabling cornerstone of many businesses, and it provides huge productivity gains and competitive advantage for the modern business, but with all the enablement comes risk as we lean more and more heavily on our infrastructures. Eventually something is going to break. Ask any IT industry expert and they will tell you the same thing; an IT estate that ignores the fundamental issues and risks is heading for disaster, the only question is – how long will it hold up? In this article we discuss six of the leading causes of IT disaster that can adversely affect business. The best way to avoid any disaster is to plan for it. Businesses should consider all the things that can go wrong, and put measures in place to make certain they do not affect the daily business of making money.

Hardware failure

Likelihood of failure 100% over time
Impact on business Very high

Just like death and taxes, hardware failure is coming, like it or not. Once we understand this and have accepted it, we must look into how we can stop it having a negative impact on business. There are many strategies that IT professionals can implement inside a business to reduce the potential for impact down almost to the point of zero, but these measures are technically complex, and the closer you want to get to zero the more you will have to pay. For most companies getting nearly there is enough, and the costs are very reasonable. The most likely components to fail by a huge margin are your hard disk drives. That’s right, the one place where all your important data is! Following these simple rules will massively reduce your exposure to disaster.

Never allow any important data to ever be on only one hard disk at a time.
Implement mirrored volumes on all servers. This means that all hard disks have an identical mirrored twin in case of failure. Note; this is not a backup for your data, but is a backup for your hard drive. It will protect you only from a physical error on one hard disk. It gives no protection from anything else.
Backup all critical data at least once per day. Ideally backup locally and online as this gives the best mix of protection. SteelSky Hardened Online Backup from ShadowPro allows you to backup online and locally & all you pay for it the online server space you use, you can backup as much as you like locally for free.
Change your critical hardware such as servers, and critical staff PCs once they are out of warranty. There is a reason why hardware manufacturers only give you 3-4 years of warranty – it’s because they know their machines will start to get too unreliable past that time. Some IT service providers (ShadowPro included) can offer plan whereby you pay a set amount per month over a 3-4 year period and all hardware is renewed on a rolling basis to avoid large capital outlays.

Human error

Likelihood of occurrence 100%
Impact Medium to high

People make mistakes. In fact 29% of all data loss occurrence is as a result of human error. There are however steps you can take to minimize the damage that one employee is capable of.

Backup all critical data every night at least.
Use multiple backup methods.
Use a backup that provides unlimited versioning. SteelSky is such a backup, and this means that even if a user accidentally deletes a document we don’t delete it from the backup, until it is manually removed from the our server. We keep the file forever, along with unlimited versions of it.
Give staff access only to what they need; don’t give them delete or modify access if they don’t need it. This one point alone will stop a huge amount of human errors.
Don’t give anyone an administrator account unless they need it.
Delete user accounts promptly when people leave.
Don’t use generic accounts – give everyone an account with their own name on it to provide tracking and accountability.
Invest in staff training for new software and systems.
Set computer acceptable use policies and enforce them.

Software error

Likelihood of corruption medium
Impact on business very high

Computers also make mistakes, but only because they are programmed by humans. Software error can lead to data loss and corruption. When corruption occurs it can be an administrator’s worst nightmare. Data corruption can be extremely difficult to deal with and to fix. First of all the corruption is not always seen straight away so time must be spent searching for the cause. Once the cause and time of the corruption is found the corrupt data usually has to be cut away, so all data from that time onwards can be affected.

Backup all critical data including databases. Follow vendor advice as you may have to close the database during a backup.
Use backup services that provide as much multiple version support as possible. You never know how far back you may have to go to find a clean version of the data. This often runs into months, and many backup services provide only a month or so of version history. SteelSky provides unlimited version history.
Keep software up to date.
Maintain support contracts with software vendors. When you have a serious issue it help to have support ready to go.

Hacker and virus attack

Likelihood of attack 100% for virus’s. Unknown for hackers.
Impact on business Very high

Virus’s affect a huge amount of businesses and cost billions of dollars every year. Most people now know that they need protection. Check your business against these rules and rectify any areas where you are deficient.

Every server and PC has up to date virus scanning in place.
All email is scanned for virus’s.
You are behind a corporate firewall that is tough enough for your level of business. By this we mean that a business with ten PCs would probably not want to spend $10k on a firewall. SMB firewalls can be had for well under $1k and offer extremely high levels of protection.
Staff sharing of non-business data and media is banned on company computers, through the application of an acceptable usage policy.
Backup all critical data including all web sites. If a hacker vandalises your site, what will it take to restore it? Websites usually take up little space and backup can be automated.

Bad maintenance & Unprofessional set up

Likelihood of impact 100% (if maintenance is ignored or is poorly performed )
Impact medium to high.

Impact is often seen as a gradual impairment of functions with more and more downtime. A complex IT environment requires planning and careful consideration. If systems are thrown together with no heed for the future, whether by a company trying to save money by DIY or by a poor quality service provider, then you have a an infrastructure that will provide a great deal of grief which is likely to get worse over the years. ShadowPro IT works with many companies whose IT has been very badly set up, often by IT “professionals”. We always first look at rescuing and fixing what has been implemented and we are very often successful, but sometimes the only way to fix is to start again from the beginning. Get your IT estate right the first time by hiring a professional service provider with extensive knowledge of business IT. Beware of service providers who specialise in PCs. There are many companies out there who are very good at PC support, but lack the knowledge and experience to work with servers, networks, and security. A service provider should be able to address any IT issues that occur in your company. Anything they cannot fix themselves they should pass on to the hardware or software vendors to look into. Look for companies that perform root cause analysis of technical problems as this will make your systems more reliable over time. Signs of a good service provider

Professional appearance and attitude.
Service Level Agreements are an option. SLA’s garauntee service levels, such as “all priority 1 cases fixed within 8 hours”. Typical SLA’s would aim for 95% or higher.
Partners with Microsoft and other top level vendors.
Employs certified technical staff.
Sells services to businesses.
Have significant experience of large business systems.

Signs of a poor service provider.

Unprofessional appearance and attitude.
Does not work to processes.
Staff are PC techies
Staff are difficult to understand and geeky.

Complete loss of systems

Whether due to natural disaster, fire or office crime the effect is the same – complete loss of critical systems.

Likelihood of occurrence Unknown
Impact very high

Many business ignore the threat of complete loss as it is more unlikely to happen than any of the other disasters. Even many very large billion dollar businesses have very in-adequate planning to cope with a complete disaster, but this should not be the case. Businesses that have adequate protection and planning can often survive the worst that life can throw at them. If you follow these guidelines your IT at least will be able to survive the wreckage.

Backup all critical data at least once per day and store it off site. The most effective way to do this is by online backup, such as SteelSky. All backup is taken care of automatically and we have 10 datacentres throughout the world. Your data will be safe even if your office is flattened.
Have a professional service provider create you a disaster recovery plan. This can be thought of like your fire drill plan. You write it once, test it once per year, and fall back on it should disaster falls. As long as it is tested and working you only have to follow it, or pass it to a service provider to follow.
Move critical business systems to the cloud. Cloud services (Software as a Service) are far more resilient than in house systems. They are looked after by experts in their field are are usually geographically separate from the customer site. In the case of a disaster they will be unlikely to be affected and staff can continue using them from any internet connection.
Provide staff with laptops and suggest they take them home with them. If your staff have computers that they can use from home and can connect to cloud servers to carry out critical operations then the affect of any disaster if lessened to a great degree. Some businesses may even be able to continue normal operations, although that of course depends on the type of business.

If you have read through this paper you will have noticed that in almost every case backing up your data regularly with a product or service that provides sufficient protection features in each and every scenario. Backup and disaster recovery is arguably the most important aspect of the IT puzzle to get 100% right, yet it is often the part that business spend the least on. This is most likely because backup and disaster recovery does not make money, directly save money, nor enable the business to make money. It is however the most important parachute your IT department can ever provide you. The consequences of failing to get this right are felt by businesses every day, and out of small businesses that experience a critical data loss a staggering 60% fold completely within 6 months. Backup is not a “nice to have” it is a critical part of your IT estate – neglect it at your peril.

100% of disk and tape drives will eventually fail.
An average of 50% of critical corporate data resides on unprotected PC desktops and laptops.
Computer viruses cost businesses upwards of $55 billion in damages.
60% of small businesses go out of business within 6 months of a critical data loss.

The odds of something happening to your data are high. The costs of restoring your system are even higher. According to the National Computer Security Association, without having an adequate backup solution in place it takes:

19 days and $17,000 to recreate just 20 MB of lost sales/marketing data
21 days and $19,000 to recreate just 20 MB of lost accounting data
42 days and $98,000 to recreate just 20 MB of lost engineering data

Hopefully you will never need to use a disaster recovery plan, but if you do, you’ll be glad you planned ahead. You don’t want your customers to think there’s any room for failure – with secure online disaster recovery, there isn’t.

ShadowPro IT provides computer repairs Gold Coast and South Brisbane locations.

6 Computer disasters that could kill your business

Thursday 21 June 2012