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.

Read On For An Easy Way To Remember Your Passwords And Maintain High Security…One of the hardest habits we struggle to get our clients to break is writing down their passwords on sticky notes by their PC. Obviously this is a security risk. Another bad habit is choosing really easy-to-remember passwords such as “password”.

But admittedly, it CAN be hard remembering all of those darn passwords that are always changing. To solve this little dilemma, we’re suggesting to our clients to stop using passwords and use “pass-phrases”.

What is a “pass-phrase” you ask? They are letters and numbers put together in an easy-to- remember phrase such as “GoEagles09!” These are MUCH easier to remember than a random cluster of letters and numbers, which means you won’t have to write them down on a post-it note anymore!

Pass-phrases can be built from anything, such as favorite quotes, lines from movies, sports team names, a favorite athlete’s name and jersey number, kids’ names and birthdates, pets, and so on.

All you need to do is be a little creative to get numbers, letters and punctuation into the phrase. Since introducing this to our clients, we’ve found (believe it or not) they actually have fun doing this! Just don’t get so proud of your pass-phrase that you share it with others!