A disaster recovery plan is essential for securing your IT systems and protecting yourself against threats. In fact, 80% of businesses that don’t have a disaster recovery plan will go out of business within a year of a serious issue.
Continue readingRemember the days of floppy disks where you entrusted important documents to tiny pieces of plastic that were easily lost, destroyed, erased? Well maybe you don’t because you’re too young to have even held a floppy disk, but it’s the same scenario with CD’s, flash drives and external hard drives today. Thankfully, we have cloud storage systems like DataYard’s OwnCloud, which is similar to Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox to hold various documents.
On top of that, many of our files end up in our email or on a project management system that we can access from any internet-connected device.
These days, you’d have to be crazy to trust important files to a single disk, or even one hard drive. And yet, many businesses fail to properly backup their computer and server systems, leading to much bigger issues.
Many companies that suffer a major data loss without a proper backup system in place never fully recover. Don’t think your business can suffer from data loss? Think again.
People often associate data loss with data breaches and malicious attacks, which is fair. After all, cyber-attacks, viruses, and other malicious activities ultimately result in the theft, corruption, and/or general loss of data.
But that’s certainly not the only way you can lose data.
Even if your systems are updated and well protected from external threats, things can still go very wrong. Machines break. Hard drives wear out. A power outage can result in the loss of unsaved information. A fire or natural disaster can destroy the equipment housing your data.
Let alone the dreaded data loss due to something as basic as spilling a cup of coffee on a computer or network device. Nearly 30% of hard drive failures are caused by simple accidents.
Losing data costs a lot of time and money. Having your systems down can cost a lot as well. If you want to keep your business safe and your information protected, you need proper backup systems in place.
For those who operate under various compliancy standards, backup systems are likely required. Failure to follow backup protocol can result in the loss of clients, as well as potential fines.
At DataYard, we understand just how important backups are to modern businesses. That’s why are backup services go above and beyond the various needs of our customers. Whether you have compliancy standards to meet or not, we can make sure you information is safe.
Our cloud hosting automatically creates daily backups going back at least 30 days. Additional backups can be made as needed. Our servers our housed in our data center which is well protected against power outages and other dangers.
Additionally, we offer colocation for those who prefer/need to use their own equipment. Want backups created offsite? We can help with that too.
In addition to our general server capabilities, we offer consultation and management to clients across the globe, along with onsite IT services in the Dayton, Ohio area.
Keep your business protected from data loss. Contact DataYard today.
In today’s digital, data driven world, your IT department has never been more important. Digital security should be one of the top priorities of any modern business. After all, a data breach costs a company an average of $8.19 million.
Of course, an IT team handles much more than security. From setting up employees with company devices to upgrading software and hardware systems to simply keeping your systems running, your IT department is the heart of all things digital.
Because of this, you should carry very high expectations for your IT team, whether they’re in house or outsourced (or a combination). Third party IT companies can be a valuable asset, as they can typically provide more in-depth services at a much more affordable price.
But the wrong IT company can become a serious liability.
First and foremost, they need to actually offer the services you require. IT can cover a lot of area, and every company has different needs. Certain IT companies can be more niche than others. Check and see if they have familiarity with your systems as well, from server types to software that’s being used.
There is expected to be a certain amount of discovery when it comes to onboarding a new IT company, but they should have an idea of what they’re getting into.
The same goes for knowledge of your industries compliance needs and security standards. This is especially important for businesses that deal with NIST 800-171 and HIPAA compliance.
A lot of IT is also about thinking and planning ahead. That’s why it’s not enough for an IT provider to meet you where you’re at currently. Scalability is important to consider. As your business matures and grows, your IT needs grow with it.
Your IT provider needs to be able to step up their service as required.
Lastly, when IT emergencies arise, fast response time is critical. You need to make sure a company is easily reachable, effective at communicating what’s going on, and quick to act. While it can be difficult to know how quickly an IT company is going to respond until you’re actually working with them, you can watch for signs during your initial engagement with them.
If details are being skipped over or replies are coming a day or two later, you may want to look elsewhere.
We believe that quality IT Support cannot exist without high-level customer service. We want you to know that you have our attention. We’re here to assist you, answer questions, explain uncertainties, and do everything we can to put you at ease.
From the moment a client signs up, it’s our goal to not just maintain the status quo, but to improve your system so that you’re protected against the future. After all, IT isn’t just about protecting against current threats and potential problems. It’s about staying ahead of them.
We can cater our services to your needs. Whether you need a full external IT staff or another team to support your inhouse staff, we’ll integrate seamlessly with your company. And for those located near our data center in the Dayton, Ohio area, we make onsite visits as needed.
With DataYard at your side, you can expect a level of IT support that exceeds your needs.
I am often baffled on how often I need to explain the importance of backing up business data. Personally I feel like I need to backup my own personal data two or three times out of fear that I’ll loose years worth of my life in photographs. Those feelings of fear do not seem to translate to everyone when it comes to their business data, but maybe it should.
What type of compliance does my business need?
Depending on the industry there may be multiple layers of security and data compliance regulations that are required by law. Most businesses have at least one industry compliance measure that requires some degree of security and backups. Not meeting compliance on these measures can result in fines, penalties, and in some cases close down the business.
Many compliance measures require some level of security and safeguarding be in place with business data. If your business keeps record of personal information like name, address, phone numbers, emails, etc. or even more sensitive data like financial or medical there are strict rules to how you protect that data. One layer of protection is how you’re going to keep it stored and ensure that it does not get lost.
What do backups have to do with compliance?
Backing up data ensures that data is protected from being lost due to unintentional actions, failure or disaster. Imagine running a medical office and losing a server that stored information about patients treatments. If that server is not backed up that data is gone and could set patients and doctors behind by weeks, months or years in their treatment. In this scenario people’ lives are affected drastically not to mention the compliance fees and fines that the office may face. Due to scenarios like these there is often a backup strategy that is required in most compliance regulations.
What compliance measures does my business need to address?
If you’re not sure what requirements your business needs to meet we’ve made a list below of different compliance regulations by industry. If you want to know how we can help you become complaint on any of these regulations or other feel free to contact our team so we can be your guide.
Finance:
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
• Basel II
• Electronic Fund Transfer Act, Regulation E (EFTA)
Healthcare:
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health (HITECH)
• GDPR
Education:
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
• Data Protection Act (UK)
Government Compliance Regulations:
• Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIs)
• Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA)
General Business:
• Sarbanes Oxley Act
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DDS)
• Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act
State Specific:
• Massachusetts 201 CMR 17 (Mass Data Protection Law)
• Nevada Personal Information Data Privacy Encryption Law (NRS 603A)
International:
• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPED Act)
• European Union Data Protection Directive
Is the source for the majority of data loss. Our backups provide a safety net from little mistakes becoming major catastrophes.
The cost of backups is minimal in comparison to what a business could face in fines or data recovery fees.
Live and work without the worry of little mistakes and threats or malicious activity because we have your back (ups).
There is a huge risk facing your business (and it’s data) out there and it’s probably more familiar than you realize. Data loss can be a huge blow to any business whether its account information, billing history, or client files. Any kind of data loss can be critical to a business and it’s the ability to operate and in today’s world that data is susceptible to numerous risks.
To find out the greatest risk facing your business follow these steps:
1. Turn on your smartphone.
2. Go to your camera app.
3. Switch to the the Front Camera
4. Hold the phone up and look into the camera and what you will see is the greatest risk to your business data.
Since the beginning of time, we’ve been plagued with our own mistakes. Though never intentional they have the propensity to bring about disastrous results. In 1922, an American Chemist, Thomas Midgley, discovered that the compound tetraethyl lead helped fuel to burn at a slower rate. This helped decrease cost but it also resulted in several workers dying from lead poisoning in US factories during the early ’20s. In England, an elderly man accidentally threw away his Euromillions lottery ticket losing his chance to take home over $180 million. In 2005, a Japanese trader “fat-fingered” a trade in which he sold 610,000 shares for 1 yen instead of 1 share for 610,000 yen.
The fact is we’ve all made mistakes and and some of those mistakes have a price to pay with them. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try we’ll always make mistakes and science and statistics say you’ll never be able to avoid them (here’s why). When it comes to a company’s mistakes with data it can have a devastating effect. It can hinder the ability to accomplish day-to-day tasks, lead to hours of repetitive work, and even result in fines or lawsuits. The scary part is that 44% of data loss is caused by an unintentional human action, which means it was an accident. So that ‘fat fingered’ keystroke can affect more than trades on the stock market they could wipe out your critical business data in less than a second.
In the world of technology, we are no less susceptible to mistakes, however, technology has the ability to adapt and statistically lessen the impact of a mistake or remediate the mistakes almost entirely. At DataYard, we believe that mistakes are mistakes and they shouldn’t destroy or hurt someone’s business and that’s why we believe in providing READY Backups to our clients. READY backup provides a solution where we can protect data from mistakes and other threats.
Is the source for the majority of data loss. Our backups provide a safety net from little mistakes becoming major catastrophes.
The cost of backups is minimal in comparison to what a business could face in fines or data recovery fees.
Live and work without the worry of little mistakes and threats or malicious activity because we have your back (ups).
