If your company would experience a cyberattack, a computer loss or failure, or other disaster, would you lose all your important data?
Most modern companies rely on technology to achieve our day-to-day tasks and business. But if something were to happen, would your business come to a halt without a backup plan? Most small businesses don't have the ability or internal infrastructure to maintain their own IT department. So partnering with a managed services company can ensure your business has a team ready and available to help with any issues or data recovery you may need. St. Louis Managed IT's professionals are not only great problem solvers but are also data recovery engineers who will help you set up solutions to prevent total data loss.
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Data recovery services aren't always included in managed IT services, as they can be more time consuming and at an additional cost. And if you don't have the right equipment or backups set up in the first place, you may be at a complete loss anyway. Insurance companies do sell cybersecurity insurance in case of a cyber attack, and it can cover your data recovery costs.
At St. Louis Managed IT, we understand the importance of data recovery but also setting up procedures and processes in the first place. That way, if something were to happen, the recovery process can be as quick and painless as possible. St. Louis Managed IT performs a free evaluation of your company's infrastructure to point out any weak points.
WAYS DATA LOSS CAN OCCUR
Natural Disaster: Floods, fires, tornados, and all other natural disasters are unexpected and not something you can always prepare for. Any equipment on-site could be damaged or lost. That also means any data stored on-site could be as well. At St. Louis Managed IT, we recommend cloud based data storage services so your important company data is saved off-site to prevent total loss in these scenarios. Computers and equipment can be replaced but data can't always.
Equipment Failure End of Life: Just like any piece of equipment, computers age and need to be replaced. If the computer comes to the end of its life before you are prepared, any data stored on that device could be lost. Our IT professionals can recover data from these devices but in the event that they cannot, utilizing a cloud-based backup can ensure all data can be transferred to a new computer.
Internal Part Failure: There are many internal parts to a IT device that can fail. Here are some of the common ones:
Hard Drive Failure: A hard drive is where the data on your computer is saved. In the event of a failure, data can be recovered from the hard drive via a recovery software. These are not always successful so having a secondary backup (like cloud storage) is recommended.
Solid State Drive Failure: Your device could have a solid state drive (SDD) in place of a hard drive (HDD) and they tend to have a lower rate of failure than a HDD. In the event of a failure, SDDs also have to be removed to recover any data via a recovery software.
Operating System Failure: Operating systems like Windows or Mac OS sometimes are unable to boot. For the most part, these types of failures can be recovered by our IT professionals. If you have a backup system in place, a data recovery engineer will restore your data this way.
Power Supply Failure: Sometimes the power going out can cause a computer to crash. In this case, a backup can be performed when a new device arrives or power is restored. This data recovery process is usually simple with minimal loss, if any.
Memory Failure: Occasionally, a computer can lock up and require a manual power down to restart. In this case, files that were being worked on or maybe not saved could be at risk for a data loss. For the most part, these files are easily recoverable.
Raid Failure: Raid, or a raid array, is on the server and works by creating duplicates of data on the server. This is a great way to prevent loss is the Hard Disk Drive or SDD fails because the data is in multiple places. If the HDD or SDD and the raid array all fail at the same time and there is no backup in place, then the success rate of recovery is low. And in cases where ransomware is involved, then the data is encrypted as well and a backup is the best way to ensure no data is lost.
Power Surge: Power surges can damage your equipment so having a power surge protector for your equipment to be plugged into is the best way to prevent this.
Cyberattack: Cyberattacks can affect your devices and/or networks by using an encryption which makes your data unreadable without a decryption code.
DATA STORAGE/BACKUP OPTIONS
Cloud Backup: A cloud backup saves your data offsite so if something were to happen to your devices or your business location, your data is safely stored elsewhere.
Local Backup: A local backup is a device to store your data but is kept onsite. If something were to happen to your location (like flood, tornado, break-in, etc.) your data could be lost on both your device and your local backup.
Cloud Hybrid: A cloud hybrid is both a local device and a cloud based backup. The local device backs up your server, files, and anything on your hard drive to the cloud as well. St. Louis Managed IT uses cloud hybrid companies so if anything happens to your local device, your data is safe on the cloud too.
Individual Computer/Mac Backups: An individual machine can backup to the cloud or a local storage device and if something happens, one of our data recovery engineers can perform a data recovery. Cloud backups should protect against operating system failure, hard drive issues, and firmware.
External Hard Drives/USB Flash Drives: External hard drives or USB flash drives are the least secure data backup option. They require someone to remember to plug them in and manually back them up which leaves room for human error. But also, cyberattacks affect any device plugged into the computer. The hackers can put the malware deep in folders where it cannot be easily detected and those folders could be transferred to your external hard drive or USB.
If you use these devices, having multiple that you alternate between and bring offsite is your best bet. You are still at risk of a data loss or data encryption, which is a huge risk.
Mobile Device Backups: Most mobile devices use cloud based data storage. Depending on the type of device (Apple, Android, Apple iPad, Android Tablet, etc), backup recommendations could vary. It's important to check that backup storage includes music and photos. Most providers include a backup plan or have additional storage plans if you exceed the provided plan and these typically back up daily which ensures a relatively easy replacement in the event of a loss or failure.
If you're not sure what plans your company has in place to ensure data recovery, give us a call. We have complimentary consultations and free evaluations and we'd be happy to help your company avoid a major data loss in the future.