Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Gone are the days when businesses relied solely on manual tape backups conducted at specific intervals. Modern solutions like automated backup and disaster recovery (BDR) have made the traditional tape backup method obsolete.

In business, having a continuity strategy is extremely important. One term that you may come across when continuity plans come up is “failover”. Let’s define failover and discuss a few variables that need to be addressed regarding the issue. 

Tape backup has been used for a long time, and it was once the most prominent solution for data backup out there. Nowadays, it’s not used much at all, mostly in favor of better and more convenient solutions. However, there has been a slight resurgence in tape backup, so we want to look at why some companies might still use it, despite its flaws.

Data and technology drive modern business, and as such, data backup and disaster recovery are crucial to the continued success of any organization. There is so much at risk that it would be counterproductive to ignore these unforeseen disasters. Disaster Recovery as a Service, or DRaaS, is an effective way to combat the omnipresent threat of data loss.

Technology is center-stage in today’s business world, and when all it takes is a disaster to end operations for many businesses, it suddenly becomes incredibly important to have contingency plans in place… you know, just in case. Let’s go over how you should build an effective disaster recovery plan, as well as how to assess your company’s needs.

Data Backup and Disaster Recovery are essential components of any modern business. As businesses become increasingly reliant on digital data, it's essential to have strategies in place to ensure that your data is safe and secure in the event of a disaster. In this blog post, we'll cover the key components of an effective Disaster Recovery strategy to ensure the safety of your business' data backup. Read on to learn more about Disaster Recovery strategies and how to best protect your business data.

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.

If you’ve spent any amount of time around us, you’ve probably had the importance of data backup and disaster recovery preparation preached to you—probably more than once. However, as closely associated as the two are, they are not the same. Let’s explore the critical differences between these two processes so you can be fully prepared to attend to both.

Business continuity is one subject that not a lot of people know a lot about. Even those that claim to, often only understand the theory behind it and the practical applications of strategies and procedures necessary to keep a business running smoothly. This is largely because there isn’t a curriculum that presents a comprehensive outline on how to deal with disaster. This month, we’re going to share some continuity strategies that work, regardless of the situation, to get your business coordinated and back up and running fast following an unfortunate event.

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.

You need to be sure that your business is prepared for disaster, which will necessitate a disaster recovery plan. While there are many steps that go into creating one, we wanted to highlight a few in particular and outline a few best practices to follow for each. Here are three of the most vital elements of a successful business continuity strategy, with a few tips to help you fulfill them most effectively.

Disasters can happen when you least suspect them. Whether it’s a tornado that levels your office or an electrical failure which sparks a structural fire, a business-ending scenario could happen with little-to-no warning. You must be prepared to maintain operations even when it feels impossible, and part of this is being prepared to handle off-site operations.

In today’s age of ransomware, climate change, and worldwide pandemics, a lot can happen that could spell trouble for your organization. This is why it is so critical for your company to have a business continuity plan. There are many factors that contribute to a successful business continuity plan, one of which is a disaster recovery plan. But wait, aren’t those the same thing? Not quite.

Disasters are not something relegated to specific locations or industries. All organizations are susceptible to a data loss disaster or two, no matter which category they fall under. As a business owner, it should be your prerogative to protect your company from the various disasters that could create downtime, destroy data, and disrupt operations.

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. 

In light of the recent successful touchdown of Mars Rover Perseverance, it reminded me of a really fun story I read about a technical issue that NASA had a few years ago, and how it’s an extremely powerful message for anyone who relies on technology for their business.

I want you to take a moment and consider something: is your business prepared to survive any kind of data disaster? If you aren’t, you need to ensure that your systems—all your systems—can recover from whatever feasible event might impact them. This is what is known as IT resilience. Let’s dive in a little deeper.

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. 

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. 

Hope can be a big part of a person’s notion to start their own business. Needless to say that entrepreneurial hope doesn’t always consider that there will be a global pandemic that grinds the operational effectiveness that you’ve spent years building to a halt. Hope does, however, play a big part in the creation of a business continuity plan. Today, we’ll briefly discuss why you should never lose hope and how being prepared stems from the same notion as starting a business.