With Memorial Day now behind us and the temperatures starting to warm up, it’s really beginning to look like summer here in New England. The days last longer, people are out and about and vacation season begins.
Ah, summer. That time where people are “working from home” or “unreachable” while on vacation…and inevitably something happens at the office, leaving the remaining skeleton crew to scramble and make sure things are OK (or returned to OK as soon as possible).
To be prepared, several companies have even begun working through an early-season checklist with their IT teams to make sure everything’s accounted for, updated and in the proper order before employees at all levels begin their time out of the office. One of the things that should be on every company’s IT checklist is their storage, backup and recovery strategy.
Unfortunately, for many companies, storage, backup and recovery is an afterthought – something viewed as less critical than it should be. Companies need to understand that data and information is their business these days. If networks and systems go down and data is lost, so is your business. Storage, backup and recovery strategies should be at the top of every company’s pre-vacation checklist.
So what should companies look for? What’s needed to ensure a happy summer vacation for all?
To help companies prepare, we’ve come up with a short list of questions:
Are we managing storage all by ourselves? Do we have the bandwidth/experience to do so?
Are we working with a partner? Do they have the bandwidth/experience needed?
How often are we backed up/is our information stored?
Can we/our partner handle unexpected spikes in information?
Do we have immediate access to our data and information in case of a disaster?
How quickly can we access our data and information?
How quickly could we get our business “back online?”
Who is contacted first when there’s a crisis? Who’s responsible for getting our company back online – and what is the proper activity timeline?
Can our partner guarantee uptime? Have they had outages in the past? How long did it take them to recover in those instances?
Do we/our partner have the proper security?
Where is our data/our partner physically located? What is our partner’s redundancy plan?
Can we/our partner handle future company growth?
If you and your team have solid answers to all of the above questions, then you’re ready and can enjoy your summer. If not, then some remedial summer school may be in your future.
Here at Markley Group, we can be the partner that solves your storage, backup and recovery problems and makes sure you have always-on, always-available access to your critical data and information. If you find yourself facing summer school, get in touch with us. We can make sure you don’t miss your whole summer – and ensure you have the bandwidth you need to manage every future summer vacation too.
