Tag: disaster recovery solutions

How IT Support Los Angeles Helps Your Business Stay Running

Posted on by Mackenzie Craft

In today’s age, businesses more often than not have to rely on technology. Whether you are a financial firm, restaurant or an IT company there are piece of technology that make sure payments come into your business. These piece of technology might be a website or a payment processor. Your business might by reliant on data and personal health information. All of this technology and information needs to be secure and maintained.

There are a few ways to make sure your business’s technology is Maintained

Make sure you partner with a Managed IT Services Los Angeles company

If you have your business setup with a Managed IT Services Los Angeles Prover will give you the piece of mind that when your technology needs improvements, everything will be ok. A Managed IT Services Los Angeles company will also set you up with a Account Manager that walk your through on-boarding and difficult IT Decision.

Have an IT Support Los Angeles Service for your business

IT Support Los Angeles is critical when running your business. These companies offer unlimited IT Support for any of your employees whenever you need it. This service give you the peace of mind that your employees can keep working throughout the day. Plus nothing is worse than having work to do and your computer is broken own.

Why Your IT Support Los Angeles Company Should have Haas

If your IT Support Los Angeles does not have Haas/Hardware-as-a-Service, your outdated technology is going to be a financial risk. With hardware-as-a-Service, you will have the benefit of “leasing” your technology, which will allow your business to free up capital used for IT expenses. “Make you could give yourself a raise”

Why Backup and Disaster is essential for your IT Support Los Angeles Provider

When a disaster strikes a well versed IT Support Los Angeles Company is always there to help. They will make sure your company is set up a backup and disaster recovery plan by making sure you have a backup of everything. This backup makes sure your business does not lose everything that it has built and that all your customers data is secure. A quick fact, on average 93% of all business that go through a disaster and do not have a backup and disaster recovery plan goes out of business within the next year. This backup and disaster recovery plan is one of the most important insurance plans you can have.

 

All of these services make up a well rounded IT Support Los Angeles Provider. You company will be safe from lots of hardship and your employees efficiencies will improve. If need to find out more information about IT Support Los Angeles visit our page.

IT Support in LA: The Future of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Posted on by contact

The Future of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

A string of natural disasters and online attacks have prompted organizations around the world to establish and test their business continuity and disaster recovery measures. If you don’t have such systems in place or haven’t updated them in a while, our IT support providers in LA can help.

Here’s a look at what to expect for business continuity and disaster recovery in the new year:

A Push to Migrate Data with Prospective Threats in Mind

An increasing number of organizations are shifting toward being proactive against attacks and natural disasters as to being passive or reactive. Some will go as far as migrating data to avoid a specific threat. Business owners and managers are taking the bull by the horns, proactively planning for attacks, natural disasters and other forms of interference. Organizations will spend that much more time, money and effort attempting to identify risks that have the potential to hijack or ruin data. Preparation is now the name of the game.

An Increase in Cryptojacking and Ransomware

Ransomware attacks might be less random than in the past yet they are larger in scope. It appears as though cyber thieves are transitioning to targeting massive organizations as opposed to the small and medium-sized businesses that were in hackers’ sights this past year. There is an emerging shift in targeting those with large amounts of information.

Cryptojacking schemes appear to be on the rise. This attack relies on compromised websites to sabotage devices and pilfer cyprtocurrencies. Cyber thieves access the targeted cryptocurrency instead of waiting for a business to follow through on a ransomware ransom payment. Ransomware really does have the potential to cripple your business. If you aren’t prepared it is time to establish the proper defenses. Our IT support experts in LA are here to help.

Company Reputations Closely Tied to Crises Responses

Look for customers and entire communities to begin judging businesses by their responses to crises. That many more people will focus on how businesses respond after natural disasters, ransomware attacks and other digital threats emerge. Those that respond with grace under fire will win favor amongst the buying public, protect their brand and stay in business for the long haul. After all, a business that cannot protect its data should not be trusted with customer information. Some customers might even go as far as judging businesses by their level of community support following a crisis.

Is your business continuity and disaster recovery up to par? Do you need assistance with IT or other tech solutions? Our IT support team in LA is at your service. Contact us at Advanced Networks for more information about our company and services.

Does Your IT Services Provider in Los Angeles Take Security Seriously?

Posted on by Admin

Does Your IT Services Provider in Los Angeles Take Security Seriously?

Whether you are looking for a new IT services provider in Los Angeles or already have an existing relationship, security needs to be your number one priority.

Hiring an MSP to manage internal IT needs is a smart move for small to medium-sized businesses. It gives them access to expert resources without the overhead cost of an internal full-size IT department. However, problems arise when an SMB fails to ensure their MSP take security seriously. Overlooking that could cost the SMB everything.

It can be difficult for a non-IT expert to gauge the security knowledge and expertise of an MSP. That is why it’s important for SMB owners and managers to educate themselves on the basics of IT security so they can ensure that an MSP will make it a top priority. Here are four basics to get you started:

IT Security

The basic definition of IT security is the protection of your company’s IT assets, including data, software, email, servers, PCs, laptops, mobile devices, and networks. Comprehensive IT security should have multiple layers that are constantly tested and improved. It starts with safeguards that protect the infrastructure from unauthorized access, malicious code, and internal malpractice. It includes comprehensive policies on computer use, password security, disaster recovery and external access.

Backups

Data losses happen all the time. A server crashes at the wrong time or a virus hits the network. Backing up critical data ensures quick recovery and minimizes a loss of productivity. The term “backing up” refers to copying computer data and archiving it to a local server and to an external site. The external backup ensures your business continuity in case of a local problem. The MSP should use the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with a minimum key length of 128 bits.

Disaster Recovery

If your company gets hit by a disaster, you need to be able to recover quickly. Disaster recovery planning for your IT assets should be part of any company’s internal strategy. This is especially critical in any MSP relationship. When you rely on an IT services provider in Los Angeles to handle your IT assets, you need to know that they will be there to help you recover from a disaster. An IT provider can create a well-designed disaster recovery plan for your business.

Compliance

Many industries, such as healthcare and legal services, have strict guidelines when it comes to handling sensitive data. Remaining compliant with these guidelines is a major business concern in these sectors. If your company is in one of these sectors, your MSP needs to be fully aware of the guidelines and have established policies and procedures for bringing and keeping clients into compliance. It will save your company money while protecting your brand at the same time.

Security needs to be a top priority when building a relationship with an IT service provider. Understanding the basics of IT security is the first step. If you are in the market for IT services in Los Angeles, contact us at Advanced Networks today. We have the knowledge and expertise in IT security to ensure your infrastructure remains safe.

How to Create a Disaster Recovery Plan with IT Services in Los Angeles

Posted on by Admin

How to Create a Disaster Recovery Plan with IT Services in Los Angeles

Valuable data can be lost in a wide variety of scenarios. Therefore, it is essential to understand how a disaster recovery plan offered by an IT services provider in Los Angeles can help your organization be prepared for any situation. The ability to balance both strategies will help keep your company protected. Also, partnering with an IT provider will help create a plan that is perfect for your business. Discussing various scenarios with employees will help them create an action plan that can limit the damage of a disaster and enable your company to bounce back. If you have yet to create a recovery plan, here is how a managed service provider can help your business recover from any scenario.

Accessible Backups

Each data backup should be easily accessible, as downtime becomes costlier with each passing hour. The use of a managed service provider can help you store data through an offsite cloud server that can be accessed from any location with an internet connection. On the other hand, if you store valuable data inside the office, it can easily be destroyed by flooding or a fire. This makes the backup of data within the office completely useless.

Continuous Testing

Failure to test a disaster recovery plan offered by an IT services provider in Los Angeles is a careless mistake that should always be avoided. Frequent testing of these plans will ensure everything is working properly and all your data will be safe and protected. It will, also, enable employees to be well-prepared, as they will have plenty of opportunities to practice action plans that deal with emergency situations. Ultimately, the more often you test these procedures the better everything goes according to plan and all your data will be easily recoverable.

Create A Communication Plan

Often, an overlooked method is to create a communication plan for each employee within the office. A managed service provider can help you create a program that alerts each employee if a disaster occurs. They can automatically receive these messages on their phones and each computer in their workstation. Instead of not knowing what to do, each message will have instructions detailing their next course of action. Each of these messages will be different depending on the disaster, as responding to a cyberattack is much more different than responding to a natural disaster.

The use of IT services in Los Angeles can help you create an effective disaster recovery plan that is best for your business. Advanced Networks is a managed service provider that helps organizations large and small to prepare business continuity plans. We understand the importance of minimizing downtime. It is our top priority to help you recover data that was lost through cyberattacks, user errors, or natural disasters. Besides retrieving data, we will ensure that you receive protection through security updates and provide additional training for each employee. If you have any questions, our IT staff will guide you through the many benefits of partnering with an IT provider. Contact us and let us create a plan that will help your business bounce back from any disaster.

IT Consultants in Los Angeles Provides Necessary Disaster Recovery Solutions

Posted on by Admin

IT Consultants in Los Angeles Provides Necessary Disaster Recovery Solutions

IT consultants in Los Angeles can be an integral component of disaster recovery. If you don’t have some kind of solution in place, you’re very likely to experience downtime. So, consider these questions:

  • Have you ever had downtime?
  • Can you afford to lose all your files suddenly?
  • When was the last time you experienced a system crash?

Downtime

IT consultants in Los Angeles providing disaster recovery can reduce downtime expenses, which are often substantial. If you only lose $1,000 an hour from downtime, then one eight-hour day of losses comes to $8k. 10 days like that in a year comes to $80k. If you can find disaster recovery solutions under $1k a month, you’ll find they pay for themselves many times over. If you’ve ever had downtime, imagine seeing that lost productivity essentially erased. With a cloud-based backup and disaster recovery solution, you’re going to see failover that reboots systems almost instantaneously. Data mirroring is one way this becomes possible. Basically, data is mirrored on the cloud, and when a system starts to crash, the mirrored network launches, allowing for continuing operations while whatever issue undermined primary systems are addressed.

Data Retention

You need to have data retention solutions that are continuously in play, because if you don’t, something could erase all your files in an instant and leave you no recourse. Consider ransomware, as an example. This is a program that holds your information for ransom under encryption. If you don’t pay the ransom, your files are destroyed, often within a 24-hour period. What’s worse is that you may be ransomed again if you don’t have a disaster recovery solution in place. Ransomware tends to hide itself and can be very hard to find once it has wormed its way into your systems.

System Crashes

Some businesses use data that must be maintained on-site for security purposes. Having a backup solution of this variety is commendable; but you’ve still got to test it as regularly as you can. When was the last time you had a system crash? Was it three or four years ago? Have you tested your backup recovery solutions since then, or have they remained invisibly operating in the background?

It’s absolutely essential to have a regular regimen of tests for your backup solutions. They’re no any good to you if they can’t restore systems when you need them most. This is especially true considering Moore’s Law predicts technology will double on itself every 1.5 years or so. This trickles down to businesses, for example, laptop purchased five years ago will be presently so anachronistic it’s near unusable. If you haven’t tested your backup in the last three to five years, you may not have one.

Securing Backup

IT consultants in Los Angeles providing disaster recovery through Advanced Networks helps you be sure systems are at their most secure in a perpetual way. You’re likely going to come against situations where tech doesn’t function as it should. Not having disaster contingencies in place is catastrophic. Contact us for backup solutions designed to avoid such situations.

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

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

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.

IT Support in LA: Tips to Safeguard Your Data

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Tips to Safeguard Your Data

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.