News
18/09/2009
Is your IT able to cope with the Mexican flu?
Business continuity - toward affordable solutions for small & medium-sized enterprises (SME)
A breakdown of your IT environment can have far-stretching repercussions. Valuable company data is lost, meeting project deadlines may be jeopardized, hundreds of man hours or thousands of euros risk to go up in smoke. And if before long your Head of IT is struck by the Mexican flu virus, who will then come to your rescue ?
"Fortunately there are a number of elementary and affordable solutions - even for a SME - to guarantee the continuity of the IT environment whatever the circumstances", says Arvid Fossen of A-Server.
IT-departments in big multinationals and governmental institutions have taken their precautions during the past few months in case of a pandemic spread of the Mexican flu. By investing substantial amounts they try to safeguard the continuity of their activities, even if many of their employees might be off sick. Arvid Fossen : "Small and Medium sized Enterprises have actually not paid a lot of attention to this risk, even though their activities represent a substantial part of the Belgian economy. The spreading of the A/H1N1 epidemic is an excellent opportunity for SME to reflect upon the fail-safe continuity of their IT."
The human factor
The availability of its staff will make or break any business. Most SME however do not have a separate IT department. Often a manager in the company combines an IT role with other responsibilities. Sometimes it is even the owner himself who accounts for the management of IT. "If you can spare the time there's nothing wrong with this at all", says Arvid Fossen. "But I do advise to designate both an internal and external back-up person. In this way you avoid becoming too depending on one single person. Our country counts hundreds of IT-support providers. I advise you to contact a couple of them. Keep their phone number close by in case of an emergency. This won't cost you anything today but they will guide you safely through difficult times."
Think beyond the daily data back-up routines
In most SME a daily back-up is taken - usually at the end of the working day - of all data on the server. Arvid Fossen confirms : "Indeed, that is a good starting point. But what if the server crashes somewhere around noon, you will lose right away the work done in half a day. The back-up will only restore your data. First IT will need to re-install the server as well as all other applications. Meanwhile just about all workers stand by in idleness. And what if your Head of IT is at that precise moment not in the office ? Also, can your support partner make himself available immediately to assist you ?. "
Get back to business in less than 20 minutes
A sound business continuity system will do more than simply taking back-ups of in-house data. A-Server offers for example a system in which an extra server is brought in. That server takes a complete back-up of the server(s) in your company every 15 minutes, data and application software included. This back-up server can therefore immediately take over in case your own machine breaks down. Your entire IT environment is fully operational within 20 minutes and everybody can get back to work.
What's more, this temporary server can easily last you through the next month until six weeks. "This will give the company comfortable time to select, buy, install, and test a new server", Arvid Fossen explains. "Actually A-Server also daily backs ups your local server. This back-up is sent over the internet to a secure data centre. And all our servers are supervised by our central Networking Operating Centre. Irregularities in communication between both servers are immediately spotted which helps us in diagnosing malfunctions before they actually occur."
The price tag of this service?
This type of service need not be too expensive. A-Server already offers its services for a price comparable to an insurance premium. For that amount you can rest assured that your entire IT-system is up-and-running in no time at all and not even the Mexican flu can beat that".
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