Backup & Disaster Recovery | Accent Computer Solutions

How Long Can You Be Without Your Data?

That’s just one of the questions that we’ll ask as we work with you to create your customized data backup and disaster recovery plan.

Actually, we’ll ask lots of questions to determine just what type of data you generate, what needs to be backed up and with what frequency. We’ll want to know about the importance of your data to business operations, how often it changes, the type of equipment you have, who is involved, how your company is expected to grow, and how soon you might need to get your data back if a “data disaster” occurred.

Bounce Back from Disaster With Accent

Data backup, disaster recovery and business continuity services are all delivered within our comprehensive IT management framework.

Each client’s support team works with them to establish procedures that are best suited for their business, and then continuously manages the technical components to make sure that when and if something happens – such as a lightning strike, earthquake, cyber attack or human error – the plan rolls out and the effect on the business is minimized.

The thought of not having Accent taking care of our IT is actually pretty scary. Accent has been a very good investment for our company.

Suzi Cunningham, Practice Administrator

Advanced Ambulatory Surgery Center

How Accent Delivers IT Services

Each Accent client has a designated support team that works collaboratively to deliver all of the services that are needed for a fully staffed IT department.

If you were going to do this yourself, you would need many different people with very different talents and skills to:

Manage your infrastructure.
Strategize, plan and budget for the future.
Resolve issues and take care of routine tasks.
Enhance the way your business uses technology.

Our services are structured so clients have all the resources they need for each discipline within the framework. Teams meet weekly to review client status and progress, and they own client success. The result is fast response when you need help right now and continuous improvement of the IT function in your business.

Instead of a necessary evil, technology becomes a competitive advantage.

Concerned About Your Backup, Disaster Recovery, or Business Continuity Plan?

For an evaluation of your business and a recommendation for a backup and disaster recovery strategy that coincides with your specific business needs, give us a call or schedule a free consultation.

We’re happy to share our expertise with you, whether or not you decide to work with us or not.

Where Do Many Companies Go Wrong with Their Backup Strategy?

In many businesses, managers assume their data is getting backed up and that if they get a virus, if their server crashes, or if someone accidentally deletes a file, their IT guy will go into the backup and restore the data, and you’ll be good-to-go in a matter of minutes.

That's not the case for many businesses.

The fact is, data might not be getting backed up in the first place. And even if measures are in place for automated backups, there is no guarantee that it can be easily, efficiently, and accurately recovered, unless it’s properly installed, and tested on a regular basis.

Data Backup Options

Here are the main types of backups for businesses:

File-Based Backups

If you just need your files and not the software to run them, then all you need is a file-based backup, but obviously you can’t do anything with the data by itself.

Image-Based Backups

Think of an image-based backup as a snapshot of your server. Not only is all of the data stored, but all of your software and how it is configured is also captured.

Cloud-Based Backups

Uploading your backups to a location on the internet means your data is safe if something happens to your physical location. However, you need sufficient bandwidth to both upload everything for storage and download everything for use.

On-site Backups

Data is stored in devices at your location. If your office is damaged or destroyed by an accident or incident, it could be impossible to retrieve your data.

Off-Site Backups

Data is stored at a location other than your office.

Failover

Failover protects your business from downtime if something happens to your server by continually synchronizing one server with another.

The Ideal Data Backup Scenario

When you’re deciding how to backup your data, you might be looking at a combination of the above options and the costs for each could be a go or no-go consideration. For example, you might need a cloud-based image backup, along with a failover.

Whichever method you choose, don’t neglect to test your backup from time to time to assure that the backup is performing properly and that you can move to backup systems, or recover data as you have planned.

It all depends on your business needs and how quickly you need to get back up and running, which is what disaster recovery is all about in our next section.

Disasters Can Come From Force Majeure or the Delete Button

What comes to mind when you hear the word disaster? Earthquakes, floods and fires? No doubt these all can have disastrous consequences but when you’re an organization that relies on technology, any time something goes amiss with your data could be a potential disaster for you and everyone in your world, including your customers.

Data disasters can come in the form of cyber attacks, equipment malfunctions and plain old human error just as they can come from force majeure.

Now the question is what will you do is something does, in fact, happen? That’s where your Disaster Recovery Plan comes in. This documented set of procedures details step-by-step processes that your staff will follow in the event that your operations go down and you have to get back up and running from your backups.

Developing Your Recovery Strategy

Because disasters come in many forms and you don’t know exactly what you’ll face in the future, you need to be prepared for different scenarios.

We hope that you never have to experience anything more than a mistakenly deleted file, but when you’re creating your plan you also have to think through what you would do if something happened to your physical assets -- your building, computers, phones, equipment, etc. -- and you had to not only completely restore operations, but you had to do it from a different location.

How Much Data Loss Can You Live With?

Your answer is none, right? Unfortunately, you have to ask yourself that question. It might be unrealistic for you to have an backup and recovery system that eliminates the possibility of downtime in most scenarios, but most companies need their Disaster Recovery Plan to fit their budget, too. That’s why Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective are so important.

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Your recovery point is the time between your last backup and your data crash. For example, if your data was backed up at 4 am and a crash happens at noon, then you will have everything backed up EXCEPT for that day’s transactions. Now imagine that you only backup once a week. Will you realistically be able to recreate everything that happened in that situation -- all your orders, invoices, payables, and operational information? Probably not.

To determine your recovery point, you have to think about how sensitive your business would be to lost data and weigh that with the options and budget you have to work with. Sometimes the best way to achieve your RPO is by using a combination of backup solutions such as cloud-based and on-site that have different parameters.

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Your recovery time is the amount of time that you can be without your data while systems are restored. It will probably take longer than you imagine to get operations back up and running after a data crash. Obviously, it’s going to take a lot longer to recover from an event that takes down your physical building than to recover from something like a cyber attack. Even so, it is not uncommon for a company that is not fully prepared to be down for days or even weeks after a data breach.

Business Continuity Plans Ensure Operations Continue

Do you want your business to be able to continue after you experience an incident like a cyber attack, natural disaster or some other type of unexpected disruption? If your answer is yes, then you need to have a Business Continuity plan.

It’s best to set aside any false sense of security that might be keeping you from taking the time to equip your business to withstand a major incident. It could mean the difference between having to shut down or, well, continuing.

The Difference Between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is a component of Business Continuity. Your business continuity plan will encompass your business as a whole and include non-technical aspects such as physical facility and equipment, personnel, supply chain and communications.

Components of a Business Continuity Plan

Your Business Continuity Plan will look different depending upon your business. For example, a manufacturing company might need to outsource production for a period of time. A financial services company might need to get workers set up in a different physical location with laptops.

No matter what the industry, there are some common components of the plan:

Assessing potential risks and predicting their level of severity
Planning out your response and what resources will be needed to get your priority functions up and running.
Determining the roles of employees in deploying the plan.
How you will communicate internally and externally, including who will be the spokesperson to the media?
Assurance that the plan is functional with testing and updating as necessary.

Backup, Disaster Recovery, & Business Continuity

Helping Southern California Businesses Survive the Unexpected

Be Positive Your Data Is There When You Need It

What is Data Backup?

What is Disaster Recovery?

What is Business Continuity?

How Long Can You Be Without Your Data?

Bounce Back from Disaster With Accent

The thought of not having Accent taking care of our IT is actually pretty scary. Accent has been a very good investment for our company.

How Accent Delivers IT Services

Concerned About Your Backup, Disaster Recovery, or Business Continuity Plan?

Want to Learn More Before Talking to a Salesperson?

What You Need to Know About Data Backup 👇

Where Do Many Companies Go Wrong with Their Backup Strategy?

Your Backup Method Matters

How to Choose a Backup Solution