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Computer Failure - Covering Your Assets
We will all experience computer failure at some point. Chances are you may have already experienced such an unfortunate event.
And even though it provides us with an excuse to replace our old PCs with much faster technology, we are often left with the time consuming task of reconfiguring our
desktop environment. A critical failure on your home computer can be be painful enough, but what happens when your business computer is on the fritz? Chances are you'll probably be experiencing some level of separation anxiety over more than just some personal photos or emails. Lost
proposals, email conversations, client notes, email addresses, accounting information, and other job or process related information can be lost. In short,
the failure of your computer could cost you much more than the price of a replacement unit. But it doesn't have to. In this short article I
will outline some inexpensive ways to protect yourself and minimize the impact of system failure.
- Plan It - Decide exactly what drives, files, and programs are crucial to your business processes. If you have access to an
IT professional, ask for their assistance in performing these steps.
- Image It - Take a picture of your computer's hard drive. There are technology solutions available from software companies like
Symantec, Acronis, and others that make it simple to perform this function. This technology has actually evolved quite a bit over the last 3 years and
many solutions now make it possible to restore a disk image on another PC consisting of completely different components. Suggestions: Make
sure that the drive you image is clean and clear of any unnecessary files or programs before performing a disk image. This will help to ensure that
any restore can be performed as quickly as possible in the event of a failure. The quicker you can recover, the better.
- Back It Up - Perform a full backup of your critical business data at least once a month. Then perform an incremental or
differential backup once weekly or even better...once daily if possible. This will not only provide you with a copy of your data, but will also help
to minimize the time necessary to perform the backup and restore functions.
- Test it Out - Don't wait for your machine to fail. Make sure that your disk images or backups have been tested and will provide
you with the desired outcome. And if someone else in the organization is responsible for data backups, don't hesitate to ask questions regarding
your data and the files for which you are responsible. A good testing of your recovery plan may also reveal some files or programs that were
overlooked during the planning process. It's always better to learn this during a test than after a computer failure has occured.
- Added Protection - If possible place your disk images and backups onto a digital medium that can be transported and stored offsite.
This will help to provide additional data protection in the event of a natural disaster such as flooding or a fire.
- Make it a habit - Perform your backup processes on a schedule and keep in mind just how much time will be saved if your machine dies
tomorrow.
IT Process & Configuration Documentation
As an IT professional with over 13 years of corporate experience, I can relate to other IT professionals and their responsibilities within an organization.
Many times the entire gamut of an IT administrator's responsibilities are underestimated and may even be underappreciated. Sometimes the thought that one or
two machine failures could bring everything to a screeching halt within an organization is enough to keep the average IT Admin awake at night.
Take a moment to think about just how long it would take to completely rebuild your infrastructure including your network, machine configurations
and policies, disaster recovery plans, security policies, etc. In even the smallest of organizations, reestablishing your complete infrastructure
could obviously take quite a while. Now imagine rebuilding without the assistance of your current IT professional's knowledge and experience on your
mission critial systems and the game changes dramatically.
Layoffs and employees leaving an organization will always be part of doing business. But as far as IT is concerned, the management of
their knowledge and experience requires some special attention, oversight, and management. Sure that person can be replaced, but make sure that those
juicy tidbits of information relating to your system's configuration are well documented. Good documentation by your IT professional should be a prerequisite
and a requirement of their employment. And yes, several stories exist relating to IT professionals "hoarding" information and mistaking their own value
for that of the systems setup and configuration information. These IT professionals single handedly increase the costs related to IT operations after they
are no longer employed by your organization. They may proclaim that they are keeping secrets "in the name of security", but that is a common tactic. The reality is they may sometimes withhold information in the name of their "job security".
The bottom line is...make sure your IT administrator is properly documenting specifications, passwords, and process details for mission critical
systems. An audit of their documentation might prove necessary, and if yourself or another employee is not qualified to perform such an audit, contact
PC Avenues for assistance at 770-737-2102.
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