Are your computer systems storm-proof?

With severe weather season upon us, many people worry about what lightning strikes can do to their homes or businesses. What they don't think about is what a severe storm can do to their computer systems. I'm going to focus on the obvious protections you need to take, and some that might not be so obvious.

Surge Protectors and UPS's

Most everyone has a surge protector installed between their wall and computer, which is a good first step. Surge protectors will protect the delicate hardware contained in most computers from dips and spikes in power that can happen when unexpected power outages occur. If you don't have a surge protector, you should go out and buy one right now. A $15 investment will save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in the long run. If your system needs to be up all the time, or if you want to minimize the downtime from lost power, an Uninterrupted Power Supply, or UPS, can give you an inexpensive way to bring sensitive systems down gracefully. The price of a UPS has come down dramatically over the past couple of years, and for the ability to shut down a computer system on your own terms instead of the power company's, is a very good investment right now. Surge protectors and UPS's will not keep your computers safe from a direct lightning strike, however, so you have to do some up-front work to make sure you don't lose all the data you have acquired over the past few years.

Data Backups

If you are not regularly backing up your data, you have a potential disaster waiting to happen. A recent survey showed that almost 70% of all small businesses who had a catastrophic failure of their computer systems never opened their doors again. They simply went out of business because they couldn't re-create their data records in time. Are you backing up your data regularly? Good. But are you storing your backups in the same place as your computer? If so, another disaster awaits you. Sure, you've backed up your data religiously, but if your building burns down, your computers are gone, and so are your backups! Always store data backups off-site. One other mistake many people make is never testing their restore process. What good is a daily backup, if your restore process is not in place, or is faulty?

What to do about this problem?

CM IT Solutions offers a complete backup and restoration solution for your home or business. With Remote Data Backup, we provide a daily upload of your critical data to a secure, redundant site over the Internet. We also make sure your restore process will work every time. Remote Data Backup will notify you and us if your daily backup did not occur as scheduled, so that we can find the trouble right away, and get it straightened out right away. Depending on the amount of data you'll need backed up, we can do this for a little as $9.95 per month! Isn't less than $120 per year a great way to get peace of mind, and know that if the unthinkable occurs, your critical business records are protected?

Call Dave Richard at CM IT Solutions at 770-886-1760 for a free technology assessment that will examine all areas of your computer infrastructure, including data backups and restore.