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The Biggest Backup Mistakes Businesses Make

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Companies rely heavily on technology for their day-to-day operations – from customer service and ordering to manufacturing and accounting. Consider the technology, from hardware to software, your business uses to keep it moving forward every day. Now imagine what would happen if something went wrong and it stopped working. Whether a virus has paralyzed your operating system or a hacker has infiltrated your network, could you recover quickly to keep your business functioning? How will you recover lost data files crucial to your daily operations?

Disaster scenarios are not anomalies. Unfortunately, it happens on a regular basis and can have serious implications for businesses. This is why backup is so imperative to today’s business operations. While you may be thinking that you’re covered because your business has data backup, you might be surprised to know that this may not be functioning the way you think it is. There are several mistakes modern organizations make when it comes to data backup that every business owner should know about how to stay on top of their business backup.

Know What You Need

According to a piece in Small Business Trends online, more than half (58 percent) of small businesses are not prepared for a data loss. The article goes on to show that 140,000 hard drives fail in the U.S. each week. That’s right. Each week. Furthermore, it states that 60 percent of small to medium businesses that lose their data shut down within six months of the loss.

“On average, small companies lost over $100,000 per ransomware incident due to downtime,” according to an online article by CNN Business. “For one in six organizations, these attacks caused 25 hours or more of downtime.”

Businesses need to understand the massive impact system failures, regardless of the cause, can have on their operations. One of the first things business leaders should do to properly prepare their backup and disaster recovery (BDR) plan is ask themselves the following questions:

  1. What data is mission critical to my business? Consider customer records, inventory, accounting, etc.
  2. Where is that data stored, which systems run those applications, and how is it currently being backed up? Think about where business critical data is being stored, how often it is being backed up, and if your company regularly tests its backup systems.
  3. How much data can my business afford to lose and how much downtime can it handle without long-term consequences? The answer to this question is your recovery time objective (RTO). How long can your business go without being able to process sales, manufacture products, provide services, pay employees, invoice clients, etc.? How quickly do you need to be able to rebound from such a disaster to prevent a loss of revenue, clients, and reputation?

The answers to these questions will help you outline the backup and disaster recovery needs specific to your business. Your IT manager should be able to answer all of these questions. If you don’t have an internal IT manager, a professional third-party IT vendor such as ORAM Corporate Advisors can help you formulate and implement a BDR plan that works for your business.

Cover Your Cloud

Another big mistake people make is not backing up what they have stored on the Cloud. The Cloud is not just some empty space where things are stored. It is actually a third-party storage option. In other words, instead of storing things on your own server, your things get stored on someone else’s server.

You need to ensure that you don’t forget to back up your Cloud email, storage, and files. I would not trust a third party to maintain that data for me. At ORAM, we recommend Backupify as a terrific back up option for everything you have on the Cloud.

Though you have stored all of this information on the Cloud, backing up that data is important for a variety of reasons. First, you may need to back up that information to meet industry standards or government regulations. You also want to be prepared in the event your business is attacked by a virus, ransomware, or other hack. Additionally, there are disasters that can unfold such as earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, and others that are beyond your control that can negatively impact your data. Internal threats such as disgruntled employees can compromise data that is imperative to your business as well by simply deleting it. Backing up your software as a service (SaaS) avoids, or at least reduces, the impact of such devastating crises. 

Testing, Testing, Testing

One of the biggest backup mistakes people make is not testing their backup systems. Businesses will install applications or programs and let them go to work. They fail to define what exactly is being backed up and then they never test it.

For example, consider some of the online services businesses use such as Carbonite. Back in the day, Carbonite didn’t back up their QuickBooks files. People would install the software on their computers and think everything was backed up but, lo and behold, it wasn’t. Databases, like QuickBooks, were not getting backed up because the file was constantly in use by other software, therefore, they weren’t able to take a snapshot to back it up.

To date, some backup programs like Carbonite don’t backup everything you may need to have restored in the event of a disaster scenario. While some software is very good at backing up common files such as documents, photos, and spreadsheets, they can fail to backup less-common file types such as secondary files or files larger than 4GB. When it comes to backup, this could put a real damper on your business operations should the worst happen.

Backup testing should be fully automated so as not to pull human resources away from your business operations. The automated system should test backup and restoration services for the following:

  • Virtual Machines
  • Applications
  • Databases
  • Individual Files

Ideally, your automated backup testing should occur each time your system is completely backed up though this rarely happens. Backup testing should happen on a regular basis not only to ensure that backup is happening as it should but also that it can handle the additional data your company is creating as your business expands.

Additionally, testing should do more than just check that your data is being backed up. It should also test your recovery so you have information about the length of time you can expect to be down if your system is struck by disaster. This allows you to be specific with your clients, partners, and others about when they can expect your systems to be functional again rather than giving an arbitrary message that your system will be up and running again “soon.”

Backup Everything You Need

Another thing I would say is a backup mistake people make is not taking a full snapshot of their environment. As an example, for a long time people did file-based backup. They simply backed up the files on their computer. In reality, you don’t want to backup just the files on the computer.

Using an old-school analogy, you want to put the tape in the VCR and hit play. That’s what we call a snapshot. We say, “Ok. This device has failed. Let’s do a restore to a point in time and then we can just go from there.”

In the era of ransomware, crypto viruses, and other threats to business operations and data, you want your business to be able to be back up and running as fast as possible. Whether it’s a server or a computer, you need to be able to hit that VCR play button for a certain point in time. This allows the business or the person to move forward as fast as possible.

This environmental snapshot is important. Statistics from World Backup Day, which occurs on March 31 each year, shows one in 10 computers is infected with viruses each month yet 30 percent of people have never backed up their data. This statistic alone demonstrates the importance of having automated backup software such as Mozy working on a regular basis to protect your business.

How can these mistakes be avoided?

The best way to avoid these common business backup mistakes is to ensure you have proper procedures in place that meet the specific requirements of your business and that they are functioning properly. Confirm that your business network is backing up weekly and consistently test a full restore of your systems to ensure that everything is backing up, so you never have to worry. Check to ensure that your data is not only being backed up regularly and backing up everything, but be sure that your recovery plans are functioning smoothly as well.

Be sure to do your homework when looking for the best backup and recovery plan for your business. PC Magazine put together a piece in January, “The Best Cloud Backup Services for Businesses for 2019” with a full chart of backup software options in the Cloud. The chart compares various software with ratings for everything from price to encryption in transit and regulatory compliance.

Check with your internal IT manager or consult with a third-party IT vendor such as ORAM Corporate Advisors to make sure you have the right processes and procedures in place. This third-party consultant can also help you with regular testing to make sure your network is backing up as it should and that your recovery system is also functioning effectively and efficiently. They can make software recommendations based on the unique needs of your business. For many businesses across several industries, such testing can also achieve regulatory compliance requirements as well.

If you have questions about developing a backup and disaster recovery plan, implementing it, or for testing, please call the experts at ORAM at (617) 933-5060 or contact us online. Schedule your free initial consultation today to achieve your IT goals within your budget.

Moving Enterprise Resource Planning Applications to the Cloud

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Many small businesses use a variety of applications from QuickBooks to Salesforce to handle the needs of company operations. Though larger businesses can use the same mishmash of applications, most have moved to a single Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application that meets the same needs but in a single application. With such an excellent resource available, most companies are now focused on moving their ERP apps to the Cloud. 

Keeping Up with the Times

As technology has grown and we have become more mobile as a society, the ERP software is moving to the Cloud for improved access and speed. Hosting the ERP in the Cloud makes the app more user-friendly for a dispersed work environment. In other words, by hosting its ERP application on the Cloud, a company can share the benefits of the application with a distributed workforce. Individuals and departments in different locations such as remote employees, branch offices, and salespeople in the field can access the ERP quickly and effortlessly.

While ERP applications are big software that can be cumbersome and are often cost-prohibitive for small businesses, larger businesses have realized the many benefits a single application has to offer. For starters, an ERP can fully integrate all aspects of sales, production, human resources, accounting, and more under one application. Rather than deal with eight to 10 applications to handle business like most small companies, large companies can work with a single ERP application.

Additionally, ERPs build workflows that eliminate jobs as the various modules can “talk” to one another to complete multiple phases of a project that once took many people. For example, the manufacturing module of an ERP can communicate with the accounting module to signal that a product has been finished so the client can be automatically invoiced. With processes locked into place, it requires fewer people to handle operations meaning companies can save money on manpower.

Benefits of Moving ERPs to the Cloud

Savvy small businesses transitioned their apps to the Cloud long ago in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS). This allowed small businesses to work more nimbly while adapting faster to changing technology and our modern mobile society. The ERPs of the past often slowed larger companies down when it came time for such technology and working world adaptations due to their sheer size, much like turning the Titanic versus a tugboat.

The good news is that as larger ERPs have improved over the years, there’s been a push to move them to the Cloud. No longer do companies have to bog down their networks and limit employee access by hosting their ERPs locally. Today, moving business ERP apps to the Cloud offers many benefits including:

  • Faster Access to Business Systems
  • Ease of Management of the ERP
  • Simple Access for a Remote and Distributed Workforce
  • Allows for Unhindered, Seamless Growth

Transitioning to the Cloud

At ORAM, our advisors caution companies to avoid biting off more than they can chew when transitioning their ERP application to the Cloud. We highly suggest moving one department at a time after serious transitional planning. The order of operations and departments that are moved to the Cloud will depend on the unique needs of each company.

The biggest mistake businesses make as they transition their ERP apps to the Cloud is the lack of accounting for on-premises and legacy systems. Most companies have older systems in place they still utilize that need to be able to connect with the ERP once it is moved to the Cloud. For example, if a company has a large envelope printer from 1984 it still uses, that legacy system needs to be able to communicate with ERP to continue business operations without interruption.

The way to best approach moving ERP applications to the Cloud is with much discussion, forethought, and planning. You’ll need to look at your overall business workflow and operations. Employees on the front lines in each department can offer insights into processes, procedures, regular deadlines, and operations that may impact your transition plan.

In addition, consultants like those at ORAM can offer assistance with proper planning. Should your business require assistance in transitioning its ERP application to the Cloud without negatively impacting your business, the experts at ORAM Corporate Advisors can help through our consulting services. Call us today at (617) 933-5060 or visit us online.

The Modern Office and Business Continuity

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What you need to know to protect your company

The modern office requires that all components of your business environment work together harmoniously to ensure the best use of your IT infrastructure and seamless scalability as your business grows. One of the major components of the modern office is business continuity. This is an imperative piece of a solid IT plan for every company regardless of size or industry.

Business Continuity                 

When IT professionals discuss business continuity, they are generally referring to a proactive approach of having the right processes and procedures in place to ensure mission-critical functions continue to work properly in the face of a disaster or while a business is recovering from one. When it comes to business, there are many moving parts that still need to continue operating smoothly whether your company experiences a devastating fire or a nasty data breach.

The IT and business statistics are shocking. In the last five years, one in three organizations were hit by a virus or malware attack, according to DataCore, and more than half of companies (54%) experienced downtime that lasted more than eight hours. That’s a full day of work lost! While DataCore shows only 35 percent of outages are caused by natural disasters, 45 percent of outages are operational and another 19 percent are due to human error. These site outages can cost businesses thousands of dollars in lost revenue and restoration costs for every incident. Gartner, Inc., a global research and advisory firm, estimates that only 35 percent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) have a comprehensive business continuity plan and the financial loss for every hour of downtime can reach into the thousands even for SMBs.

Business continuity requires comprehensive planning before tragedy strikes an organization to allow them to overcome long-term challenges that would otherwise stop them in their tracks. With prior planning, business continuity ensures your entire business returns to full functionality as fast as possible following a crisis. That means everything from vital employee records and payroll to stored data access and email.

Think Cybersecurity

One of the first steps in a complete cybersecurity plan is business continuity. To start, you’ll want to ensure your business employs the best technology to combat the latest threats from ransomware and malware to other types of breaches. This means updating protections such as antivirus and firewalls, using multifactor authentication, and engaging your employees in ongoing, meaningful cybersecurity training.

Cybersecurity plans, which are typically handled internally by the chief information security officer (CISO) in larger businesses, should be designed as a living document that can expand and adjust when necessary to meet the changing needs of your business. Small to medium enterprises often don’t have a dedicated CISO so they can outsource this responsibility to organizations like ORAM Corporate Advisors.

Written Information Security Plan

As part of your business continuity plan, you’ll need a written information security plan (WISP), which also happens to be a requirement of many regulatory bodies, especially for businesses who contract or subcontract with the government and financial institutions. While government regulations vary from state to state and with the federal government, in Massachusetts this written document should contain, “certain minimum administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect” personal information such as names, driver’s license numbers, social security numbers, and financial account numbers. You’ll need to check with both your state and federal government to determine which regulations impact you as well as any industry-specific regulations. This is another place a CISO or third-party IT vendor can help.

Your WISP should designate an individual responsible for maintaining your IT program. This may be a business owner, CISO, or even a trusted advisor such as ORAM. It will also need to identify any reasonably foreseeable data security risks as well as protect and restrict access to electronic data that may include personal information for your employees and/or clients. This plan should also outline the oversight of third-party service providers and ensure those providers comply with local, state, federal, and industry regulations as well.

Because your business and its processes, risks, and procedures are unique, your WISP will be very specific to your organization. It cannot effectively protect you from culpability in the event of a breach or loss if it doesn’t address the particular risks of your company or if it includes practices that have not been put into practice in your business. Through coordination with your IT team and/or third-party IT vendor, you will need to identify “reasonably foreseeable risks” to ensure your WISP includes the practices your business adheres to.

In addition to IT functionality, your WISP will also address the non-technical operations that will still need to work in a disaster situation to keep your business moving forward. For example, it might address the accounting measures you have in place to keep employees and bills paid and clients invoiced if the worse should happen.

What Crisis Looks Like

Stolen laptops, lost cell phones, and an employee clicking on a phishing email that infects your entire network. These are all crisis that can and often do occur in the business world. Think of all the critical information that can be lost, stolen, or even held ransom. What do you do and who do you talk to? This is where planning ahead and having a WISP helps. It will outline how to respond to a variety of incidents.

Lost your company cell? Your WISP will inform you of who to call to wipe the lost phone and deactivate it before serious damage can be done. Did your organization experience a data breach? Your WISP will have identified a data backup plan so that nothing is completely lost. Has a virus made accessing email impossible? Your WISP will have determined if your email is stored locally, in the cloud, or both to decide how to get it up and running again fast. This thinking ahead with recommendations by your IT team or third-party vendor will help ensure you have continued access to business email which is the lifeblood of most commerce today.

Recovering from Incidents

One of the best things your WISP will do is outline policies and procedures for how to react and recover in a crisis situations. Regardless of the disaster that strikes, your WISP will point you to who to contact and how to react. Part of your WISP will address incident response and crisis management to minimize the impact when things do go awry, as they inevitably do.

Incident response and crisis management involves having the ability to maintain critical business functions during a disaster scenario. It also encompasses having plans in place for a rapid recovery from catastrophic incidents. If your business were to experience a flood, fire, or data breach today, would it be able to recover quickly and efficiently? Business continuity is all about having a plan in place that expects the unexpected and is prepared to handle it.

When it comes to IT and business continuity, the big question is, “How do you operate tomorrow?” If you don’t know the answer, it’s time to get a plan in place starting with an evaluation of the foreseeable risks your organization may face and a WISP to address them. Think of it as an insurance plan that also helps your business with regulatory compliance. When disaster strikes, your business’s IT team, CISO, or third-party IT vendor should have already given you advice. Hopefully, you have followed it. Then you know who you can call when things go wrong so they can tell you how to react to keep your business moving full-steam ahead.

If your company or organization needs assistance with risk assessment, developing a WISP, and planning for business continuity, call the trusted advisors at ORAM today at (617) 933-5060 or visit us online. Our experienced professionals are here to help and we are dedicated to partnering with small businesses to assist them in achieving success.

The Value of Remote Assistance

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Who is managing your business when you take time off?

Who provides back up when your IT team is unavailable?

What if you come across a problem that is beyond your technician’s scope of knowledge?

A dedicated remote support service team can make sure that your business’s IT network runs smoothly 24/7.

Even if your in-house team is capable of managing any IT related problems, a remote service support provider can offer several advantages:

  • TIME:

Customers usually expect an immediate response to their questions. A lag in response time can create customer dissatisfaction. ORAM Corporate Advisors offer prompt responses to any IT question. Our team of qualified and experienced IT professionals ensures immediate and on-demand customer service.

  • COST:

Why waste your internal resources and money on buying the tools and technologies that don’t work? IT consulting companies in Boston come equipped with knowledge as well as the latest equipment to ensure that your organization doesn’t suffer because of downtime. Consulting IT companies in Boston come without the burden of additional costs associated with regularly training the in house team. ORAM Corporate Advisors remote support will ensure your business runs efficiently and within your budget.

  • EXPERTISE:

What happens when your network issue seems unsolvable? ORAM Corporate Advisors have a proficient team of industry experts who will quickly identify and resolve the issue. Expert advisors will always be at your beck and call to solve every IT related problem with remote support service.

  • MONITORING:

Real-time monitoring and maintenance can be costly. With a remote assistance provider like ORAM Corporate Advisors, your IT network will always run smoothly and with the highest security protocols available,

So what are you waiting for?

If you operate a business and are looking for IT consulting companies in Boston that can provide you timely and adequate remote assistance, ORAM Corporate Advisors is your one-stop solution.

ORAM Corporate Advisors offer strategic and comprehensive IT consulting and business solution services across all industries from medical, finance and hospitality. They provide competent, 24/7, 365 remote support services to ensure your business keeps running with less downtime.
For any and every IT consulting and remote assistance support service, reach out to an industry specialist at ORAM Corporate Advisors.