News

If You Believe a Tape is a Safe Way to Backup Your Company’s Data…
Think Again!


Rick Endres of The Washington
Network Discusses The Benefits andSecurity of Remote Data Storage


ALEXANDRIA, VA – April 29, 2013 – What will happen to your company if you lose your valuable data? How will it affect your revenue? Employee productivity? Customers? These are serious questions every business owner needs to ask because losing your data will determine your survival or immediate demise. 

  Organizations of all sizes are generating and depending on larger amounts of data that must be readily available and easily accessible. This growth in data results in an ever-increasing data footprint - meaning more data is being generated, copied, and stored for longer periods of time. Consequently, companies have to effectively manage more infrastructure resources, including servers, networks, and storage, to ensure data is protected in a timely manner while at the same time providing adequate performance and capacity and securing data for access when needed.

  Do you store your data on a daily basis? Unfortunately, most companies cannot answer yes to this question. Events like disk crashes, server corruption, viruses and natural and human disasters can take your business permanently offline. According to a survey conducted by Continuity Insights magazine, KPMG Risk Advisory Services, and The Hartford’s Guide to Emergency Preparedness, more than 25% of all businesses experience a significant crisis in any given year – of those that do not have a data recovery plan, 43% will not re-open. It’s even scarier to learn that today’s most popular data storage method is to backup vital information on a data tape and let the IT manager take it home for safe keeping.

  A new inexpensive method that’s substantially more secure and seeing a rapid increase in demand is remote data backup. The remote system backs up files from the attached hard drive to a remote data center through the Internet. The system minimizes the amount of data transferred to ensure efficiency. After the first backup only the actual changes made to each file are transferred, rather than an entire file where only a few bytes may have changed. The data is then sent through an encrypted secured shell (SSH) connection for safety.
 
  Backups are typically set to start every night at a random time typically between 1:00 and 3:00 am. The speed of an organization’s WAN connection and size of data transmitted will determine the length of time to complete the remote storage process. Subsequent daily incremental backups will take much less time because only the changes will be reflected. In order to prevent long running backups from interfering with normal Internet usage during business hours, quality of service (QoS) can be configured to reduce the priority of backup relative to other data or limit the allocated bandwidth.

   By default, the system will email a weekly report to the email address designated for the company’s technical contact. The report summarizes the amount of data backed up each day, time, and total storage space used. 

   There are a number of products in the market that offer remote data storage; however, very few include additional features such as site-tosite VPN capability for secure communications, firewall protection backed by 24x7 technical support, secure WiFi to enhance wireless Internet connection and network performance tuning that optimizes VoIP and data traffic on a broadband connection.
 
  As we all know, a company’s most important intellectual property is their data. Therefore, as you evaluate your existing or potential business communications partner, make sure you ask about remote data backup as well as other features associated with it. A deer in the headlight response is a good indicator that it’s not included in their bag of tricks.

ABOUT THE WASHINGTON NETWORK, INC.


Founded in 1987, The Washington Network, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia, provides computer networks, VoIP phone systems, IT support and other technology solutions for associations and businesses in the Washington, DC Metro area. Serving clients without a large in-house IT staff, The Washington Network lowers operating costs while increasing worker productivity. The company’s flat rate managed services include remote network monitoring, preventive maintenance, help desk, redundant back-ups and on-site support. A member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, The Washington Network has been honored as the Chamber’s Professional Service Business of the Year.  Through its strategic membership in the Technology Assurance Group, The Washington Network serves and supports clients with multiple locations across the U.S. and Canada.

The Washington Network is located at 30 South Quaker Lane, Alexandria, Virginia 22314. For more information on The
Washington Network, call 703.212.7100 or visit www.WashingtonNetwork.com.