ITS Technology Blog

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know you should be backing up your computers and server. But here’s something you probably DON’T know that will come back and bite you:
 Simply having a backup of your data is NOT ENOUGH to guarantee you could be back up and running fast in the event of a disaster.

Having a data backup merely means that you have a copy of your company’s data stored somewhere; it does NOT mean you have a way to instantly restore your network back to normal.

For example, if your network crashed because of a hardware failure, your entire company is down, period. No e-mail, printing, accessing the database, customer records, and more. Until whatever caused the problem can be fixed (which might involve ordering replacement parts), your business is closed. 

So You Reach For Your Backup Only To Discover…   Your information is there, but without a server, you have nowhere to load that information, and no way to access it. On top of that, a backup only holds your data, not your operating system, settings, or software applications. So even if you can load the data, you can’t actually use it without re-loading all the software applications—no small feat. Even IF you have all the software disks and key codes (most people don’t), it could still take days — possibly weeks— to rebuild, and the costs can run into the thousands.

That’s Not The Half Of It The three most common causes of server downtime are hardware failure, software corruption and human error. But nearly 20% of businesses suffer damaging downtime from fire, flood, theft, or other natural disasters, and 44% of them never recover—and that’s mostly because they didn’t have a disaster recovery plan in place. 

A disaster recovery plan covers more than just backup. It maps out how to get your business restored and running again in every possible scenario. For example, if another company in your office building has a fire, the police may quarantine your building preventing you from even entering your office. Or if a major storm knocks out power, Internet or the phone lines, you need a plan “B” for servicing customers, taking orders and keeping things rolling. 

3 Crucial ComponentsTo A Disaster Recovery Plan

 1. Have One! As the old adage goes, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” When it comes to disaster recovery, nothing could be more accurate.

If something happens to your office, will your employees be able to work from home? Do you have an alternate plan for your phones? Where would you temporarily set up shop? How quickly could you get technology equipment you need to function like computers, scanners, or printers? How will you access the Internet? Make a point to document the answers to these questions.

 2. Onsite Server “Virtualization.” In a downtime situation, virtualization is basically a business owner’s lifeline to his business. Once only available to big businesses with deep pockets, this now affordable technology can literally get you back up and running just as you were before the disaster… in as little as 24 hours. If the disaster doesn’t take out your whole office, virtualization can have you back in business the same day.  Here’s how it works. A second server makes exact copies of everything on your server—operating system, software applications and data—every 15-60 minutes.

This server replica, also known as an “image,” can take over if your main server fails or gets corrupted. No need to re-load software, reconfigure your network, or re-load your data. In as little as 30 minutes, everyone in your company can get back to work, just as they were before the downtime. Compare this to the days or WEEKS it could take without virtualization; the productivity and money savings is staggering. Side Note: If you are still using old tape backups, you NEED to throw them away and virtualize your server with an offsite backup!

3. Offsite Image of Your Server. Fire, flood, theft, natural disasters, or even faulty office sprinkler systems can physically damage your office equipment, including your server and your backup system.

 Head this off by having an exact copy (an image) of your server’s operating system, settings, programs, and data sent daily to an offsite location. Also make sure this image can be quickly loaded on to a server and shipped to you. With this in your plan, a tornado could rip open your office and destroy everything, yet you could be back up and running within a few days.

Need Help In Writing Your Company’s Disaster Recovery Plan? Call Today: 702-869-3636

Symantec Corp. has released the findings of its global 2010 State of Enterprise Security study. The study found that 42 percent of organizations rate security their top issue. The company doesn’t consider this surprising, considering that 75 percent of organizations experienced cyber attacks in the past 12 months. These attacks cost enterprise businesses an average of $2 million per year. Finally, organizations reported that enterprise security is becoming more difficult due to understaffing, new IT initiatives that intensify security issues and IT compliance issues. The study is based on surveys of 2,100 enterprise CIOs, CISOs and IT managers from 27 countries in January 2010.

“Protecting information today is more challenging than ever,” said Francis deSouza, senior vice president, Enterprise Security, Symantec Corp. “By putting in place a security blueprint that protects their infrastructure and information, enforces IT policies, and manages systems more efficiently, businesses can increase their competitive edge in today’s information-driven world.” Security is of great concern to global enterprises. Forty-two percent of enterprises rank cyber risk as their top concern, more than natural disasters, terrorism, and traditional crime combined. Reflecting that perception, IT is intently focused on enterprise security. On average, IT assigns 120 staffers to security and IT compliance. Enterprises rated “better manage business risk of IT” as a top goal for 2010, and 84 percent rated it absolutely/somewhat important. Nearly all the enterprises surveyed (94 percent) forecasted changes to security in 2010, with almost half (48 percent) expecting major changes.

Enterprises are experiencing frequent attacks. In the past 12 months, 75 percent of enterprises experienced cyber attacks, and 36 percent rated the attacks somewhat/highly effective. Worse, 29 percent of enterprises reported attacks have increased in the last 12 months.

Every enterprise (100 percent) experienced cyber losses in 2009. The top three reported losses were theft of intellectual property, theft of customer credit card information or other financial information, and theft of customer personally identifiable information. These losses translated to monetary costs 92 percent of the time. The top three costs were productivity, revenue, and loss of customer trust. Enterprises reported spending an average of $2 million annually to combat cyber attacks.

Enterprise security is becoming more difficult due to a number of factors. First, enterprise security is understaffed, with the most impacted areas being network security (44 percent), endpoint security (44 percent), and messaging security (39 percent). Second, enterprises are embarking on new initiatives that make providing security more difficult. Initiatives that IT rated as most problematic from a security standpoint include infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a service, server virtualization, endpoint virtualization, and software-as-a-service. Finally, IT compliance is also a huge undertaking. The typical enterprise is exploring 19 separate IT standards or frameworks and are currently employing eight of them. The top standards include ISO, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, CIS, PCI, and ITIL.

“Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank is a good example of an organization that has put an effective security strategy into place with an emphasis on addressing issues proactively,” de Souza said. “The company has a complete solution set of products and services that provide 24-hour protection, threat monitoring and response, all for a fixed annual cost. This approach is more cost-effective than securing a network after it has been compromised.”

Make sure your company’s security is up to date and your data is protected by calling ITS today!
702-869-3636

Is your computer plugged in?  Do you use a power strip with a surge protector?  If so, you are a heartbeat away from disaster and don’t even realize it. The same electricity you depend on to run your computer and network is also trying to destroy your data. 

Believe it or not, electricity is one of the biggest threats to your computer network and the data it contains. Here are four computer power problems you must know about and how to prevent them.

Transients – Commonly known as surges and spikes, these are caused by lightning storms, wind, squirrels shorting out power lines, auto accidents, etc.  Several times each week these spikes can travel up the power cord into your computer damaging everything from power supplies to motherboards.  Conventional wisdom says use a power strip with a surge protector and you are safe.  As usual, conventional wisdom is dead wrong.  After several months, these surge protectors become useless having been zapped by the surges they were designed to protect against. 

Blackouts – Whether momentary or prolonged, the sudden loss of power can corrupt your PC to the point of not being able to start up again when the lights come back on.

Sags – This is when the power drops below normal.  Have you ever seen the fluorescent lights flicker for a moment?  Then you have witnessed sag.  Sags are more common than surges and are caused when equipment like air conditioners, blow dryers, water heaters, laser printers, copy machines and other electrical equipment are turned on or come out of sleep mode.  A typical small office will experience 30 or more sags each day.  Sags cause many of the weird and unexplained problems computer users complain about every day.

Noise – Ever been watching TV and seen fuzzy pictures and/or white lines or dots when you turn on a blender or vacuum cleaner?  This is the result of electrical noise. While a fuzzy TV picture is an annoyance, this electrical noise causes many computer problems including loss of data.

So how do you protect yourself from electrical problems? The most simple and inexpensive solution to all four of these hazards is a battery backup.  The battery backup (also known as a UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supply) senses when there are problems with the power and automatically switches to the battery protecting you from computer damage and data loss. 

Choosing the correct battery backup for your computer or server can be tricky.  Having one with a battery too small is the same as having none at all.  For most desktop computers, a battery backup with a 500VA or larger rating should be sufficient to keep you going through momentary power problems.  Protecting your server requires detailed knowledge of the server functions and power consumption in order to pick the right battery backup solution. 

If you want help in determining the right protection for your specific network, give ITS a call: 702-869-3636

Have you ever experienced a problem with your printer and didn’t know who to call? The problem could be from the printer itself or develop from the connection.

So, how do you know if your printers are networked? Consider the method in which your computer connects to the printer and where the printer is located. If your printer is on your desk and there is an umbilical cord that shoots jobs between the printer and your computer only, then you do not have a net-worked printer.

However, if your printer is on the other side of the office in a copy room and you occasionally have to put up a fight with your coworkers to process a large job, you are undoubtedly using a networked printer.

At the first sign of trouble, check the print queue. Keep in mind how your printer is accessed by your computer. If it is not networked, try a full shutdown following these three easy steps before calling in a technician.

1. Visit the Start Menu, if you are a Windows user, and choose Settings, then Printers and Faxes. This takes you to the list of printers available for you to use. Simply click on the printer in question and another window will appear called the Print Queue, that shows a list of jobs currently loaded into the printer.

2. Visit the File option on the menu bar at the top and select Cancel All Documents. This will clear the document queue. Be sure to watch the queue to ensure all documents are canceled and disappear before you proceed.

3. Then turn off the printer and shutdown your computer, take a walk for three to five min-utes with the machines off. When you return, turn on the printer, then the computer, and retry the job.

If you work with networked printers you may need an office manager or system administrator to ac-cess the print queue on the server computer and clear the current jobs. Remember, if you do not clear the queue, turning the printer off and on may not help.

Check for obvious physical issues? This may sound like a given for troubleshooting, but check the power cable and paper trays to ensure the printer is in proper working order.

We once received a call from a panicked office manager who had a half dozen jobs in the print queue and the printer kept turning off and on by itself. She was at the end of her rope.

The jobs were taking an eternity to print and she was constantly having to babysit the machine. What she didn’t realize was, the power cable had jiggled loose making the power connection unstable. When we arrived onsite to assess the situation, it took us all of three seconds to push the plug back in on the back of the machine and get her up and running again.

The paper trays may be another area for error. Even if your printer doesn’t read an error, it doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Take a moment to pull out the paper tray (s) and remove the paper. Fan through the paper and check the guides. Make sure there are no bent corners on the paper or wrinkled sheets as this may jam the printer. Then replace the paper in the tray and make sure the guides are tight against the sides of the paper, then retry the job.

Don’t have time to run through the troubleshooting techniques? Give us a call. We are here to help. Take a breather and let us handle the work.
702-869-3636

Wireless hotspots are changing the way people work. These wireless local area networks (WLANs) provide high speed Internet access in public locations—as well as at home—and require nothing more than a notebook PC with a wireless card.

From coffee shops to restaurants, airports to hotel lobbies, hotspots are ubiquitous. They are the de facto connection method for travelers and remote workers to access the Internet, their e-mail, and even their corporate networks.

Hotspots range from paid services, such as T-Mobile or Boingo, to free connections at your local coffee shop or library. But they all have one thing in common: These are all open networks that are vulnerable to security breaches. And that means it’s up to you to protect the data on your PC. Here are a few tips to make working in public locations more secure.

1. Try to choose more secure connections. It’s not always possible to choose your connection type—but when you can, opt for wireless networks that require a network security key or have some other form of security, such as a certificate. The information sent over these networks is encrypted, which can help protect your computer from unauthorized access. The security features of different networks appear along with the network name as your PC discovers them.

 2. Make sure your firewall is activated. A firewall helps protect your mobile PC by preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Internet or a network. It acts as a barrier that checks all incoming information, and then either blocks the information or allows it to come through. Microsoft XP or newer Windows operating systems come with a firewall, just make sure it’s turned on.

3. Monitor your access points. Chances are, there are multiple wireless networks anywhere you’re trying to connect. These connections are all access points, because they link into the wired system that gives you Internet access. So how do you make sure you’re connecting to the right one? Simple—by configuring your PC to let you approve access points before you connect.

Windows Vista takes the guesswork out of connecting to hotspots because you are automatically prompted to approve new connections. In addition, after you approve a connection, you assign it a profile for future use.

4. Disable file and printer sharing: File and printer sharing is a feature that enables other computers on a network to access resources on your computer. When using your mobile PC in a hotspot, it’s best to disable file and printer sharing because when enabled, it leaves your computer vulnerable to hackers. Remember, though, to turn this feature back on when you return to the office.

5. Make your folders private. When the folders on your mobile PC are private, it’s more difficult for hackers to access your files. 

6. Encrypt your files. You can protect your files further by encrypting them, which requires a password to open or modify them. Because you must perform this procedure on one file at a time, consider password-protecting only the files that you plan to use while working in a public place.

7. Consider completely removing sensitive data from your notebook PC. If you’re working with extremely sensitive data, it might be worth taking it off your notebook PC
all together. Instead, keep it behind the corporate firewall and use your company’s VPN to access it when necessary. This way, you have multiple safeguards in place.

 A few simple precautions can help make working in public places more secure. And by selecting the best connections and adjusting settings, you can enjoy
productive and safe work sessions no matter where you are.