| It’s one of the most frustrating problems that bedevils the modern office. The workforce grinds to a halt when unable to access email or the internet and, more worryingly perhaps, crucial data is lost. Russell Lux, MD at outsourced IT and telephony business Luxtech, shows how to avoid this and what to do if disaster strikes. Don’t hire a server – unless you have to
It will take three to four days to get your email database configured. Much better to get an engineer on-site to fix your existing server immediately. Ideally, you won’t leave yourself in that position. It’s like running a car – if you fail to top up the oil, eventually it will fail. Use back up tapes
Put a back up tape or DAT’(digital audio tape) in the server and change it every single night. Either take it home yourself or get someone you trust to take care of it – preferably not someone who could use company data nefariously, such as a salesperson! Experts suggest you catalogue your back-up, retaining one each month in a fire-proof safe, plus one that covers the entire year. This protects against the threat of flood, fire and theft. After all, the tapes store a remarkable amount of data, including everything you need to run as normal, plus all the VAT and tax figures you’ll need to file your accounts at year-end. Get data backed up off-site
A relatively cheap solution that will get you up and running again fast. Depending on the size of the data it shouldn’t take more than three or four hours. Quick access to basic customer data will give you the opportunity to immediately explain away the problem and resume business as normal. Use a disaster recovery centre
This is an off-site location where your entire workforce can operate temporarily while a problem, such as fire, flood or theft, is resolved. For a monthly fee of around £2,000, centres offer ready PCs and a server. Plug your back-up tape in and you can be set up in three hours. Not something the average small business will extend to. It’s a costly insurance policy you’ll probably never need, but can you afford to do without it? Network Disaster Recovery, owned by the Phoenix Group, is one company to offer this. Mirror the hard drive
This involves something called ‘Raid Solutions’, which writes data across hard drives, providing you with a mirror version. It basically means that if you pulled one drive out you’d still be able to keep running. Hard drives commonly fail due to usage, but this can be an expensive solution for smaller businesses. It is likely to cost £2,000 to £4,000 for a couple of servers for a 50-person software-dependent business. Employ An it support firm
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