Tag: data backup

How IT Support in Long Beach Can Help with Data Backup

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IT support Long BeachA reliable IT support firm in Long Beach is the solution to data backup to ensure you never lose critical data. An outsourced IT team can be more reliable than an in-house staff when it comes to making sure there are always fresh backups of everything.

Here are some points to remember about the most efficient ways to back up data:

Avoiding Old Fashioned Storage Methods

By outsourcing to an experienced IT support team in Long Beach, you ensure that your files will be backed up regularly in more than one place. It’s also likely the team will advise against old storage methods such as tape. While tape is still used by businesses as an affordable storage solution, it’s not the medium to choose if you need reliable backups in an emergency.

A tape can stretch, which damages data. It can also get dirty, tangled or broken and it’s sensitive to temperature. Storing data on tape is also inconvenient in the sense that it takes time to rewind and fast forward to find specific resources. Like all physical media, it’s also vulnerable to a natural disaster such as flooding.

Cloud Backups

Storing files in the cloud is a much easier strategy and can be free with some vendors. Cloud backups can even be automated and stored off-site in various locations to increase the odds the data will be safe from physical destruction.

There are three different types of cloud solutions to consider for backing up data. A private cloud is an intranet that is ideal for storing the most confidential information. A public cloud is used by various people for email, social media, and other popular online activities. Public clouds are not as private but are useful for storing less critical data at low costs. third type of cloud is a hybrid.

Disaster Recovery

Establishing a data backup and disaster recovery plan is essential for any business. This plan maps out what steps will be taken in the event of a disaster such as a power outage or a cyber-attack. Having such an emergency plan in place will help keep the staff calm, as panic can make matters worse. The recovery plan should be rehearsed periodically to ensure that it runs smoothly in a real situation. It should indicate how much downtime, if any, is expected and how long the business will be on a backup server.

Conclusion

Your IT support provider in Long Beach can handle backing up your data so that none of it ever gets lost. Contact us at Advanced Networks to learn more about data protection so that you can focus on your core business goals.

IT Services in Los Angeles: 6 Tips to Have More Reliable Disaster Recovery Solutions

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Work Smarter, Not Harder

IT services providers in Los Angeles often operate under a strategy that emphasizes intelligent work, rather than hard work. You can bang your head against a wall for hours and maybe you’ll make a dent. That’s hard work. Yet, it doesn’t yield the same result as using a drill and a drill holds no comparison to dynamite. The smarter you are, the less work will be necessary. The same is true when it comes to disaster recovery. Following are six tips to help you have more reliable, sustainable, convenient, cost-effective recovery at a maximum of efficacy, silhouetted by a minimum of complication:

  • Faster recovery, not faster backup
  • Appropriate history of backups
  • Essential applications and data backup
  • Incorporate offsite (and/or online) backup solutions
  • Test restoration procedures

Faster Recovery, Not Faster Backup

When you’re backing up systems, IT services providers in Los Angeles will advise that you focus on the recovery rather than the speed of the data storage. If you are able to back things up fast but it won’t boot correctly after a disaster because of transmission errors; then you’ve basically wasted time and money for a false hope. Provided the process of backup doesn’t restrict essential systems from operating, let it take as long as necessary. For the most part, such backup solutions are background operations on the network. They work with your MSP in order to get this disaster recovery measure right.

Appropriate History of Backups

It won’t be feasible for you to maintain backup solutions all the way back to the 90s. Perhaps this is possible, IBM and other big-ticket organizations of the same kind are likely doing this very thing. For most businesses, keeping comprehensive data records decades in the past just isn’t feasible. It takes up much unnecessary space. Figure out what you need and how far to maintain backup history. Likely, you’re safe dumping old backups every five years. By then you’ll have transitioned to an, exponentially, greater echelon of computational solutions; which can retain older data without compromising available space. This will differ per business. Again, consulting an MSP can help give you the most accurate information in this regard.

Essential Applications and Data Backup

Your primary backup solutions should surround those operations which are integral to your business. Ensure your necessary operational parameters are taken care of before you back up secondary data. You need to know what is most integral to operations.

Incorporate Offsite (and/or Online) Backup Solutions

If an earthquake swallows the shopping center where your servers are located while you have no online or offsite backup, you lose all that data. It just makes sense to incorporate strategic redundancy via external backup solutions maintained offsite.

Test Restoration Procedures

Lastly, the most comprehensive backup is useless if you can’t restore your systems from it. Test your solutions, regularly, to ensure they’re working as they should. Then, when disaster strikes, you know you’re safe.

Obtaining Secure Backup Solutions

IT services in Los Angeles through Advanced Networks include disaster recovery solutions. Contact us to comprehensively safeguard systems in the most effective reliable way. Disasters happen, and you can’t predict when. So, be appropriately prepared.

How IT Consulting Firms in Los Angeles Can Prevent Data Loss

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Data loss can be the downfall of any organization. If your business doesn’t regularly back up its data or if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan, you run the risk of seeing your company collapse. It helps to search for IT consulting firms in Los Angeles that can make sure security breaches and other disasters can’t wipe out your business.

Reasons for Data Loss

A cyber attack is one of the most damaging events a company can face in the digital world, but there are other ways that data can be lost or destroyed. One of the most common ways that data is unintentionally altered, lost, or deleted is through employee error. When a worker is in a hurry, they may inadvertently delete, overwrite, modify, or misplace a file due to lack of focus. These mistakes often happen in virtualization and cloud computing environments.

Software failures can cause file corruption during various stages of data processing. This leads to being denied access to the file. Errors in the code may result in such software failure. When a virus or malware enters your system, all kinds of chaos may occur. How does this happen? Once again, it goes back to human error when a worker clicks an email attachment sent by a hacker, posing as a familiar entity.

Hardware failures can also cause data loss due to an aging system. Hackers have the capability to damage hardware as well as software. They can shut down a hard drive through the combination of open ports and malicious code. If malicious software is allowed to infect your network, it can destroy all your data. Other reasons for data loss are natural disasters, such as fires or flooding. These can knock your system offline by causing physical damage to your equipment.

Keys To Data Protection

There really is no excuse for a company to put itself at risk of data loss these days. While it may be impossible to stop a cyber attack or a hurricane, it’s fairly simple to preserve your data by making multiple copies. Ideally, at least one of these backups should be done offsite, such as at a third-party data center. Daily backups will ensure that even your most current data can be restored.

Another strategy that IT consulting firms in Los Angeles use to protect data is a disaster recovery plan. This concept maps out procedures to follow when a catastrophe of any kind occurs that threatens your business continuity. You will need to decide what type of media to use for storage.

Some companies still back up data on tape, which is affordable but inconvenient. Tape requires rewinding and fast forwarding to locate data. Furthermore, stretched tape will degrade data. That’s why more modern companies use the cloud or virtualization which allow data to be restored quickly. Another strategy is to educate employees about cybercrime and set policies that limit access to certain websites and applications.

Conclusion

Data loss can be prevented by taking proactive measures. Preparing for disaster is the best way to prevent it. To learn more,contact us at Advanced Networks. We are one of the experienced IT consulting firms in Los Angeles that can make your network more secure.

IT Support in LA: Tips to Safeguard Your Data

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One of the most common things IT support providers in LA do is help clients preserve digital assets in terms of information. Backup and data recovery (BDR) is an important feature here. It is getting to the point where not having such protection is actually a legal liability and you can be fined for it; that is the case with HIPAA, anyway.

Now, HIPAA specifically pertains to the healthcare industry. You may be in a business with no such government organization scrutinizing operations. But then again, that is more of an outlying reality than something generally defining most network-intensive operational situations.

Following are several tips to help you ensure disaster recovery solutions are comprehensive and will work how you need them:

  • Ensure that regular backups happen
  • Test backup systems comprehensively and regularly
  • Ensure backup copies are maintained outside primary facilities
  • Virus protection solutions must be contemporary and active
  • Make sure cutting-edge firewalls circumference your business

Ensure Regular Backups

IT support providers in LA can back up systems instantaneously through the cloud. Whenever new data is entered into a system, it is automatically backed up. However, this may be more expensive for some agencies, and additionally, such disaster recovery solutions can bog down the system. This is certainly intolerable for businesses that must use every ounce of technological assistance in daily activities. If you cannot use the cloud option, you want to have backups at least at weekly intervals; daily is better.

Test Backup Systems

You need to do full backups, which incorporate an entire data “restore.” This should be done at least once a month, if not once a week. Technology has a frailty that does not escape entropy. Components could easily break-down in a test backup server without you knowing it the day before a crash occurs. Again, it is generally more comprehensive and cost-effective to work with an outsourced IT solution. However, that may not be your prerogative. If you do keep backup solutions on-site, just be sure you test them.

Offsite Data Copies

You want to have a backup solution beyond your primary facility. Outsourced cloud computing can be this offsite backup. Additionally, you can keep hard drives in safe storage, or you can have an entirely separate remote backup server. Whatever option works best for you will be more than adequate. Keep in mind you can save more via the cloud.

Virus Protection Solutions

You need to have antivirus or anti-malware software available and operational. This should be the latest antiviral software, and it is not any good to you if it is not activated. So, ensure it is both new and activated— update (and patch) regularly; MSPs can help you manage.

Firewall

You need the latest in firewall protections surrounding your business. Technology transitions, no “static” firewall option will do; hackers always find a way around. Ensure you always have the latest firewall.

Disaster Recovery Solutions

IT support in LA through Advanced Networks can help you institute firewalls and virus protection of the latest kind, offsite data protection, assist clients in the test-backup process, and provide continuous backup via cloud computing innovations. Contact us for the latest in network protection helping safeguard an environment with expanding cybercriminal activity.