Tag: business continuity solution

IT Consulting Firm in Los Angeles: The Importance of a Business Continuity Plan

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IT Consulting Firm in Los Angeles: The Importance of a Business Continuity Plan

Creating a business continuity plan can save your company from a disaster and is critical to partner with an IT consulting firm in Los Angeles. A data breach can occur anywhere, whether it is within your business, a third-party vendor, or even a subcontractor. Having a disaster recovery plan can help you avoid suffering from mass data loss and enable you to bounce back, stronger than ever. If you have yet to create a backup plan, here are a few reasons why it is dangerous to not have one in place:

Damages Brand

Being a well-known company and having a stellar brand is an invaluable resource in today’s business environment. Losing large amounts of data that is irretrievable can have damaging effects on your brand. This can make it nearly impossible to regain the trust of clients. Obviously, it is much too great of a risk to not create a data backup plan. The use of an IT provider can help you make one that meets the needs of your organization.

Downtime

Downtime can hurt any organization. It is critical to choose an IT consulting firm in Los Angeles that offers a business continuity plan to help you reduce any amount of downtime you experience. For example, if you lost massive amounts of data due to an office fire; you can quickly restore this data from an offsite cloud server. Instead of starting completely over, you will be able to bounce back with less downtime. On the other hand, if you did not have a backup plan, an office fire can be devastating and make it nearly impossible to recover.

Hurts Relationships

Another reason why it is crucial to have a recovery plan is that failure to do so can result in damaging relations with clients and vendors. Building strong and successful relationships takes time and all your hard work can be wiped out due to a massive data breach. Joining together with a managed service provider will add another layer of defense against data loss from user error, cyberattacks, or a natural disaster. Keeping data safe and secure, while being able to operate your business at all times, is the top priority for any IT provider. Always being available, while maintaining data security, will help build strong relationships with clients and vendors in your respective field.

The use of IT consulting in Los Angeles can help you create a business continuity plan that will help you recover from any disaster. At Advanced Networks, we help companies keep their data safe from the wide variety of threats in today’s world. Our staff is always available at any time and will be happy to answer any questions. Contact us today and let us set up a recovery plan that will ensure your business can weather any storm in life.

Design Effective Business Continuity Solutions with IT Consulting in Los Angeles

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Design Effective Business Continuity Solutions with IT Consulting in Los Angeles

IT consulting firms in Los Angeles can help your business achieve proper business continuity key performance indicators (KPIs) through consultation and service provision. A combination of both these strategies will often produce the most secure solution.

Be Strategic

In order to determine what will best safeguard your business, you need to know where to center your business continuity framework. You might consider these KPIs:

  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

RPO is the time it takes to get a specific application back online once a disaster has occurred. Meanwhile, RTO refers to the total time necessary for the reboot of your network after a substantial crash. You should run tests to see what the numbers are. How close are you to your objective in either scenario, and are you able to steadily get those numbers down? Figuring this out will help you know whether your business continuity solution has been adequately designed.

Once you’ve got your KPIs figured out, your next step is going to involve properly integrating your solution. Several steps this direction include:

  • Assigning RPOs and RTOs by application priority
  • Combining both on-premises and cloud solutions
  • Instituting optimization and monitoring support

Application Priority

IT consulting firms in Los Angeles can help you determine which applications should have priority over others in a total crash scenario. RTO is going to, in many cases, have to launch some applications sequentially. You’ve got to know what’s most important to reboot first, otherwise when the crash comes you’ll be operating out of a panic and could incidentally damage you network, which certainly is no good for business continuity. So, set up RPO and RTO not just to recover malfunctioning apps and networks, but to also do so in proper sequence.

Redundancies: Multiple Backup Solutions

You want as many sources of backed up data as you can acquire. Cloud backups that continuously backup your data are strategically valuable. Additionally, it makes sense to have a separate off-site backup solution in the event something happens to your cloud storage option, and an on-site backup in case either of the other two systems is compromised. You might even keep a hard drive updated with the most important data at regular intervals at your home property. The scope of your redundant backup solutions will depend on your budget. It’s generally a minority of businesses that can afford truly comprehensive redundancy solutions; so, perhaps you’ll start with on-site backups and a cloud solution. An MSP can help you determine what’s most affordable and realistic.

Optimization and Monitoring Support

Even if you can only acquire one backup solution, regular optimization of primary and secondary systems, as well as the most continuous monitoring you can source, can both prevent network crashes and facilitate more expedient, reliable business continuity.

Secure Business Continuity

IT consulting firms in Los Angeles through Advanced Networks can cost-effectively maintain the security of your network. Contact us to help advise you on the steps you should take in establishing a business continuity solution, as well as to attain consultation that can be a very real help when an unexpected disaster arises.

Using IT Consulting Firms in Los Angeles to Fortify Business Continuity Strategy

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Using IT Consulting Firms in Los Angeles to Fortify Business Continuity Strategy

IT consulting firms in Los Angeles are increasingly tasked with providing strong business continuity solutions, and it is no wonder why. Cybercrime is its own industry. It is a cash cow expected to have a $2 trillion economic impact by 2019.

Did you know that it is possible to take a video and “simulate” something that looks photorealistic, but is entirely contrived? Check this video out to learn more. Cybercrime today is not always going to be purely “hacking” related. Sometimes, you are going to have fraudulent pretenders deigning to represent your industry as a means of siphoning off money from your clientele.

This is the tip of the iceberg, realistically. More cybercriminal elements are at play in the background that are even known today. You must have business continuity and backup solutions at your behest. With that in mind, three defining aspects of such protections are worth close consideration:

  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR)

Recovery Time Objective

IT consulting firms in Los Angeles will serve your business better should they provide a reduced RTO. Recovery Time Objective refers to the time it takes for a network to come back online from the moment of a crash. The best business continuity is nigh-instantaneous. With cloud computing, data mirroring can be brought to the table, which makes it so that when your MSP detects a system crash coming, a “mirrored” network can be launched which conserves all data and operational ability. While the problem causing a crash is addressed, operations can continue as per the norm. This reduces downtime expenses and essentially pays for itself.

Recovery Point Objective

Many confuse RTO with RPO and it is easy to see why. Here is the main difference: RTO refers to getting the total network back online while RPO refers to getting a specific application back online. A great example might be a sales system for an inbound telemarketing agency. The program is cloud-based and used to process orders. Well, this is not the only aspect of network operations. If that particular order-processing portal crashes, the network remains. Complete network reboot would be unnecessary. The key here is fixing the application that went down. This is the RPO– -how fast you can get some directed application back online after it has crashed. The right MSP will do this faster than competitors will.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

BCDR is a combination of RPO and RTO combined with managed services support. Systems are monitored by an MSP to ensure that everything is in proper working order. Trends that are anomalous and could indicate cybercriminal activity can be seen and stopped before they compromise systems. Additionally, that which cannot be avoided can be more expediently recovered from. A power outage, a natural disaster, user error, or any other disaster can be overcome quickly with the concerted effort from an MSP through BCDR than, in most cases, internal solutions.

Upgrading Your Operational Security

IT consulting firms in Los Angeles that provide business continuity can be essential to operational security. At Advanced Networks, we provide top-tier BCDR, and all that comes along with it. Contact us for recovery solutions that can securely safeguard your operations against even the most unexpected disastrous situations.

IT Consultants in Los Angeles Help Maintain Business Continuity

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IT Consultants in Los Angeles Help Maintain Business Continuity

IT consultants in Los Angeles can be an integral component in maintaining business continuity. You don’t necessarily need to onboard the entirety of security services from a given MSP to experience the security of business continuity. Sometimes you can work with them on a basis of consultancy. However, there is such a thing as opportunity cost. That is to say, by doing something yourself internally, you’re likely to spend more money and take more time, limiting your outward marketing potential— or other operations that require some quotient of funding. With that in mind, following are several considerations to take into account as you go about designing your business continuity solution:

  • Malware is a primary threat to small businesses
  • Small businesses are a primary target of malware
  • The majority of security situations develop internally
  • Many businesses neglect to test backup solutions properly

Malware and Small Businesses

IT consultants in Los Angeles providing business continuity will definitely recommend that you defend against malware. Small businesses are more susceptible to things like ransomware because they can’t afford not to pay the ransom. Hackers understand this, and as a result, there are quite a few small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) who are primarily targeted— approximately 43%, in fact.

Malware is a big threat to your business— especially if you’re smaller. And as an SMB, you’re a primary target. If you don’t have some kind of business continuity solution designed to overcome such hacking problems, you’ve got greater than a four-in-ten chance of being compromised.

Majority of Security Situations Develop Internally

Complicating the issue is the fact that most of your greatest security threats develop internally. A lot of that comes from a lack of education. Basically, employees don’t realize that many of the issues which compromise systems come from their poor online etiquette. Many MSPs can actually help you educate your workers pertaining to best online practices; it’s wise to employ such solutions as best as you can.

Don’t Neglect Backup Tests!

It doesn’t matter how comprehensive, extensive, or expensive your backup solution is if you have not been careful to test it. Backup systems that are maintained by your business on-site are subject to entropy just like any other system. The same goes for physical backup solutions maintained offsite. The best marriage of cost-effective backup that simultaneously reduces maintenance costs and invokes redundancy solutions will often come from a cloud computing solution. Cloud backups are maintained by the providers of the cloud solutions they purvey. It’s in their best interest to ensure all systems operate correctly. This is especially true when things like shared liability come into the equation. HIPAA predicates fines for MSPs who don’t properly secure clients in accordance with HIPAA regulations. Ergo, MSPs and cloud providers who may be in a position to provide such services must be very careful they don’t get fined. This is one of many reasons why many SMBs outsource to the cloud for backup.

IT consultants in Los Angeles can help safeguard your business in ways you may not even have the ability to anticipate. Contact us at Advanced Networks for security you can trust.