3 Lessons You’d Rather Not Learn The Hard Way

A wave of panic rushes over you. Your breathing becomes a little strained. A sunken feeling hits you in the gut – It’s the moment you realize that the data disasters that “won’t happen to you” have actually happened to you.

Between business and personal technology troubles, we’ve all been there. It’s a terrible situation to be in and it’s usually followed by wishing you didn’t have to learn that lesson the hard way.

Luckily, many data disasters have simple preventative measures you can take to mitigate the risk of them affecting you. Allow me to give you a heads up on three business IT lessons that you’d rather not learn the hard way.

Lesson #1: Network Security Is Important

You’d hate to learn that your system wasn’t secure after it has been compromised. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated and they’re targeting small and medium sized businesses now more than ever before. Talk to your IT provider and make sure your business is up to network security best practices.

Lesson #2:  Test Restores of Your Backups Aren't Just for Fun

The absolute worst time to find out that your backup isn’t working is after you’ve had a failure. Not only is lost data a problem for productivity if your employees have to spend time redoing the work they’ve already put a few hours into, but it could be an even bigger problem if the company records can’t be recreated. Make sure your IT provider is performing test restores of your backups on a regular basis. And make sure they are clear on exactly what data needs to be backed up, such as financial information and client files.

Lesson #3: Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans Need to Be Created for Smaller Scale Problems Too

When businesses start doing disaster recovery planning, they generally think about large-scale disasters, such as fires and floods. Plans for those kinds of events definitely need to be in place, but what if the “disaster” is that the power goes out and you have no idea when it might come back up? Will you be able to get email? How will your customers get ahold of you? Should your employees go home? Talk through a few scenarios with your IT support provider, come up with the plans, and document them so you’re prepared in case they happen to you.

Nobody likes to think about what could go wrong, but if preventative measures are in place and plans are made in case issues arise, you’ll save your business from unnecessary disruption (and save yourself a lot of headaches.)

As featured in January 18 issue of The Press-Enterprise