Versatile Technology Group, LLC - News Blog

They say breaking up is hard to do. But when it comes to choosing between your old familiar tape drive or risking your company’s data, it should be a no-brainer. Tape drives are notorious for failure – and if you are still swapping out tapes as your only backup source, here are 4 reasons you need to break it off:

1. Your tape drive is a cheater. Here you are, faithfully swapping tapes and taking them home every day (at least you do most of the time), feeling secure that your data is safe and that you could be back up and running again fast in the event of a disaster, right? Wrong.

Your tape drive only backs up your data – the information you have physically typed in; but your software programs, network settings, printer and Internet configurations are NOT getting backed up and cannot be recovered from the tape. That means if your server were to go up in flames (or simply fails) you would have to find all your software disks and authentication codes and REBUILD your server.

That task could take several days, costing you a lot of money and lost time. But thanks to vast improvements in backup technology, you can actually have a system that automatically backs up your entire server through a process calling “mirroring” which simply means it backs up an exact replica of your server. You benefit because if your server failed, a replacement server could be set up and delivered in hours AND would retain all your settings and software. Plus, no more swapping tapes – everything happens automatically.

2. You could lose an entire day’s worth of work. Ever lose an hour’s worth of work or a document because Word crashed? Now imagine losing an ENTIRE DAY’S worth of work. Frustrating, huh? Since tape drives can’t perform open file OR continuous backups, if your system crashes at the end of the day, all the documents, entries and work you (and your entire staff) completed that day is toast. And if Murphy’s Law applies, that would be the day you hammered through a grueling 30-page report.

Newer virtual backup systems will take a snapshot of your server every hour, saving your work from going into Never-Neverland. Plus, if you leave files open at night when you leave for the day (and we all do that occasionally), it will back up those files too.

3. Your tape drive will abandon you when you need it most. You can only retrieve the data from your tape with a compatible tape drive. If you have had your tape drive more than 2 years, it may be a phased out model, no longer available to order. This could mean that when you need to recover your data, you are unable to, even if the data is there.

4. You can’t trust a tape drive. Tapes have an average failure rate of 100% — they all fail, it’s just a matter of when. Plus, you have to remember to swap out tapes every day, which leaves room for human error. The bottom line is this: Tape drives are antiquated and an incredibly unpredictable way of backing up your company’s data. That’s why we urge all our clients to “break up” with their old tape drives and upgrade to VTG’s “insure:IT” service.

Not only is it very affordable, but it will continuously back up your entire server – including open documents -  every hour so you don’t have to lose a day’s worth of work. Then every night it will automatically backup a snapshot of your entire server offsite to a data center where it will be kept safe and secure until you need it.

No more swapping tapes, unpleasant surprises that your backups weren’t working, and no risk of being down for days trying to recover data from old tape drives. Plus you’ll gain the peace of mind that your data could be recovered fast in the event of a server meltdown or disaster.

Don’t delay! Call us for a free estimate on switching over to a backup system that you can actually fall in love with: 901-383-1050.

Five Solid Reasons Why You Should Throw Away Your Tape Backup And Switch To Our insure:IT Backup Solution This Month:

1. Because It’s FREE!!!
In case you haven’t been paying attention, we’ve been knocking ourselves out trying to get your attention to upgrade your current tape backup to our new insure:IT Backup Solution.  There’s a mountain of evidence and several smart reasons why you should upgrade your backup this month, such as:

2. You’ll be able to be back up and running MUCH faster in the event of a disaster; and a “disaster” doesn’t always have to be a catastrophic earthquake or business fire; data can also become corrupt or get erased due to hardware failures and software “glitches”.  With our insure:IT Backup Solution, you can literally be back up and working within 24 hours or LESS, where your current tape system could have you down for days—possibly even weeks— while we relocate all your software, re-build the server, re-install and configure the software, and retrieve your data.  That’s just crazy! Sure, tape backups are better than nothing, but now there IS a better alternative!

3. Tape drives have an average failure rate of 100% - yep, that means all tape drives will fail at some point, often without any signs or warnings! Tapes are very sensitive to heat and moisture; so if you are taking your tapes home with you in your car, there is a very good chance the data is useless. And the worst part is that tape failure often gives no warning whatsoever - the only way to know if your data is actually in a format that can be restored, is to perform regular, monthly (even weekly) test restores. When is the last time you did that with one of your tapes?

4. If your office gets broken into, is destroyed by a fire or flood, or gets hit with an earthquake, EVERYTHING is going down with the ship, including your tape backups and software disks. You just cannot afford to ignore the importance of having an offsite copy of your data! Plus, our new insure:IT Backup Solution will enable you to ‘plug back in’ and start working from any location—even if you and your staff are forced to maintain a “virtual” office for a period of time.

That’s Why We’re Pulling Out All The Stops To Give You A FREE Month Of Service!
Why would we do this? Couple of reasons… Because we’re in a giving mood.  So if you call us before May 31st, we’ll give you the first month of service absolutely free! Second, we know you are just busy and probably not thinking about your backups. After all, if it’s not broken, why fix it, right? Wrong! If your seat belt in your car was broken, you’d have it fixed ASAP even if you weren’t planning on crashing anytime soon. Same goes with your data backup. We hope you NEVER have to resort to an emergency backup, but if you do, you can have complete peace of mind knowing your data will be there and you can continue working regardless of what happens.

To secure your first month of FREE service, call NOW: 901.383.1050 or e-mail us at info@vtgtn.com. Click here to download a brochure on our insure:IT Backup Solution.

While spam, pop-ups, and hackers are a real threat to any small business network, there are 3 security measures that you should be focusing on FIRST before you do anything else…

Worry About E-mail Attachments, Not Spam
Sure, spam is annoying and wastes your time, but the REAL danger with spam is in the attachments. Viruses and worms are malicious programs that are spread primarily through cleverly disguised attachments to messages that trick you (or your employees) into opening them. Another huge threat is phishing e-mails that trick the user by appearing to be legitimate emails from your bank, eBay, or other password-protected entity.

Here are 3 things you must have in place to avoid this nightmare:
1. Keep your anti-virus up-to-date and enabled. Okay, this sounds like a no brainer, but it’s not uncommon for an employee to disable their anti-virus software unbeknownst to you. Which brings us to #2…

2. Train employees on what they are (and aren’t) permitted to do with the company’s computer, e-mail, Internet access, etc. One thing that should be on the list is that they should NEVER open suspicious attachments or respond to phishing emails. We highly recommend creating an AUP (acceptable use policy) to teach your staff what NOT to do.

3. Put monitoring software in place to not only maintain the health of employees’ desktops, but also to automatically “police” employees from accidentally (or intentionally) visiting a phishing web site, downloading a virus, or visiting questionable web sites and content online.

Fear Downloads Before Pop-Ups
Did you know that most computers and networks get infected with viruses because the user actually invited the threat in by downloading a file (screen saver, music file, PDF document, pictures, etc.).? Again, this comes down to training the staff on what they can and cannot do with your computer network; but the best way to avoid this from happening is to remove the temptation by installing monitoring software that will prevent employees from downloading unsavory items to YOUR network. We also recommend installing and maintaining a good firewall, which will block Internet traffic to and from dangerous sites.

Lose Sleep Over Backups Before Hackers
You are more likely to lose data from hardware failure, accidental deletion (human error), flood, fire, natural disaster or software corruption than a hacker. Sure, you should do everything to keep hackers out of your network, but not backing up your data to a remote location is crazy. At a minimum, you should have an onsite AND offsite copy of your data, and you should be testing your data backups regularly to make sure your data CAN be restored in the event of an emergency.

What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You
Since we are on the subject of protecting your network, can I talk straight? 99% of the business owners I work with wait FAR too long to have us check and update their computer network’s health and security. Because they are not performing regular maintenance, almost every single network we review is completely overlooking these 3 security risks! At some point, disaster will strike and they find themselves in a real mess with a network that is completely down (that’s when they call us in a panic). By then, the damage is done and it often costs thousands of dollars to restore their network back to normal. Even then it’s not uncommon for them to permanently lose irreplaceable accounting, client, and business data – not to mention hours of downtime. What saddens me even more is the fact that almost every one of these costly disasters could have easily been prevented if someone had checked their network’s security and health to remove these threats on a regular basis.

Why Should You Care About This?
Because your computer network is the core of running your business. Try to imagine what it would be like if you walked into your office one day to discover all of your data was lost or corrupt. That’s why regular maintenance is so important. REMEMBER: Keeping your network safe is a moving target; the security updates you installed today may be rendered useless tomorrow because new threats are emerging daily.