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Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Ferrum Technology Services has been serving the Elgin area since 2007, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

How to Tell Your Hard Drive is About to Fail

How to Tell Your Hard Drive is About to Fail

Digital storage is one part of computing that has seen astronomical growth over the past several decades, and with the solid state drive (SSD) more affordable than ever, you have to wonder how well your old hard disk drive (HDD) is holding up. Despite the cost difference between the two, the HDD is a viable option, albeit a mechanical one that is prone to breakdown over time.

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It’s Not Worth Having a Backup Solution if it Doesn’t Follow These Fundamental Rules

It’s Not Worth Having a Backup Solution if it Doesn’t Follow These Fundamental Rules

We focus pretty heavily on data backup as an important solution that all businesses should use, and for good reason. It can be all the difference between losing your business’ future or preserving it. We know you don’t like to hear it, but investing in a proper data backup solution is well worth the cost, even if you never have to use it.

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Having Solid Backup Practices Can Save Your Business

Having Solid Backup Practices Can Save Your Business

Data backup is something that all businesses need in some capacity. The reasoning for this is simple: you can never predict the future, so your business’ life is never guaranteed… unless, of course, you plan for the worst. Today we want to share with you some best practices as they relate to data backup and disaster recovery, practices which we hope will give you the confidence that you can recover from even the worst-case scenarios.

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Strong Backup Practices is as Easy as Counting to Three

Strong Backup Practices is as Easy as Counting to Three

Individuals are increasingly understanding the value of their data, and that is a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of small and medium-sized businesses are operating today without any type of data backup protecting their business’ data, and that, of course, is bad. It is important that if you don’t have a dedicated data backup and recovery strategy in place, that you work to fix that immediately. Today we’ll tell you why. 

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Tip of the Week: Properly Preparing to Respond to a Data Breach

Tip of the Week: Properly Preparing to Respond to a Data Breach

While nobody wants their company to suffer a data breach, the nature of today’s workplace makes these occurrences harder and harder to avoid. In fact, chances are that you’ll eventually encounter one, which makes it important to prepare to deal with it when it comes about.

Here, we’ve outlined a few steps to help your business weather the storm:

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March Is a Big Month for IT

March Is a Big Month for IT

The calendar is chock-full of novelty holidays, March specifically starting with things like World Compliment Day (you look great, by the way) and ending with the very scientific Bunsen Burner Day. However, while things like National Pears Helene Day—March 15—are fun, some of these days touch on more important topics.

Let’s go over some of the novelty days in March that can provide us with some IT best practices to keep in mind.

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Data Loss Is a Potentially Devastating Scenario

Data Loss Is a Potentially Devastating Scenario

Business owners are now concerned about how they are spending capital on solutions to help them to avoid procedural interruptions. One issue that all businesses should be aware of—and work to mitigate—is the loss of data that can cause these interruptions.

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A Good Backup Should Allow Business Owners to Rest Easy

A Good Backup Should Allow Business Owners to Rest Easy

Your business’ data is extremely important to the livelihood of your business and as a result, you need to have plans in place to protect it. Sure, you can invest in all the top notch cybersecurity tools and services, and they may keep you from getting your data stolen or corrupted, but what happens if something terrible happens to the servers that it is stored on? No level of threat detection is going to save a server if it is charred, under water, or its components are completely fried. 

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Defining the Variables of Business Continuity

Defining the Variables of Business Continuity

When considering a continuity plan for your business, you need to consider some scenarios that may not ever happen. This is called risk management and it is the basis of keeping your business up and running regardless of the situations that it encounters. This month, we thought we would outline some of the variables that need to be addressed when creating a comprehensive business continuity plan. 

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Tip of the Week: Maintain and Backup Your IT

Tip of the Week: Maintain and Backup Your IT

Imagine for a minute that you work in a small factory or machine shop. Some wind comes through and drops a 200-year-old maple tree through the roof onto the machines that you use to create your product. The devastation is total. If you have a second factory built to scale from the first, you could just ship your workers over to that one and keep productivity high. Chances are, however, there is no second factory. Your business is done until you can get the situation fixed. It could take days, weeks, or even months to get your business back on track; and if the stats are any indication, it probably won’t. 

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Backups Leave Your Business Secure

Backups Leave Your Business Secure

In order to function properly, the modern business needs data. With the predictions of serious cyberattacks, like ransomware, that have been made for the coming year there is no business that can neglect its data protections. Here, we’ll discuss what these predictions are, and what you need to do to prepare.

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Delivering Efficiency with Managed IT, Part IV

Delivering Efficiency with Managed IT, Part IV

It’s true that managed IT service do a lot to make technology accessible to small and medium-sized organizations that wouldn’t typically look immediately to technology to fix parts of their business. One of the innovations that modern business has made is that they prioritize a smarter approach. Apart from data storage and database management, modern businesses are using the data their marketing, sales, fulfillment/distribution, and support departments take in to see exactly how their business is actually functioning and make sound business decisions as a result. Today, we’ll take a look at how the managed IT service provider can help a business with its data management.

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Retrieving Data Once It’s Been Deleted

Retrieving Data Once It’s Been Deleted

Chances are you’ve found yourself in a situation where you have accidentally deleted an important file. However, it’s possible that you can restore the data, depending on the scenario. We’ll walk you through the processes required just in case you find yourself scratching your head over a potentially deleted file.

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Data Backup Carries Powerful Value

Data Backup Carries Powerful Value

World Backup Day is a time when every business should contemplate whether or not they have proper data backup strategies in place. Considering it was about a month ago, did your organization take the time to think about it? Granted, there isn’t a single day in the year that could explain what your data means to your business, the importance of data backup, and that your businesses should always do what it can to avoid data loss.

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A Brief History of Data Backup

A Brief History of Data Backup

While data backup is a necessary component to any modern business’ success, the idea itself certainly isn’t modern. The act of protecting information dates back to before dates were even an inkling, when humanity was still writing data on cave walls to preserve it and notching animal bones to aid in primitive mathematics. Let’s review the history of data preservation, and how we’ve gotten to our current point.

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Disasters Come in All Sizes

Disasters Come in All Sizes

Each organization has a different definition for how they define a disaster. One business might feel that they can get away with losing a few files here and there, while another might need every file to be secure and protected against data loss. Regardless, the importance of being able to define the severity of a disaster cannot be underestimated, as you will need to properly gauge just how much hot water your business has landed in before it can pull itself up by the bootstraps and push forward.

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How to Protect Your Business with BDR

How to Protect Your Business with BDR

How would your company react to the worst-case scenario of your technology failing during a critical moment? By this, we mean a server unit failing or a hardware failure causing a catastrophic loss of data. There are other situations where you experience a similar loss of data, including natural disasters that completely destroy physical infrastructure; yet, the end result is the same, and it keeps your business from functioning as intended.

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What Recent Natural Disasters Remind Us About Our Business

What Recent Natural Disasters Remind Us About Our Business

With several large storms, wildfires, earthquakes, and floods trampling major cities all over the world, the concept of data backup and disaster recovery is a particularly relevant topic. Business owners must confront whether or not they are prepared to handle such events, because if they don’t, they’ll be risking the future of their business.

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Business Continuity In 3 Easy Steps

Business Continuity In 3 Easy Steps

Business continuity is an incredibly important part of running a business, but some smaller organizations underestimate just how crucial it is in the event of a disaster. Although FEMA estimates that more businesses are taking advantage of business continuity than ever before, not enough are. Business continuity is something that must be planned for, practiced consistently, and updated as needed. Does your business have a business continuity plan?

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How Easily Could A Freak Event Take Down Your Business?

How Easily Could A Freak Event Take Down Your Business?

Your business is much more vulnerable to dangerous entities than you’d care to admit. Think about it--all it takes is one unexpected event to cause untold amounts of chaos for your business. To make matters worse, these events are often outside of your control. Data loss incidents might be unpredictable, but they can be soothed thanks to a little bit of preventative management.

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