Monthly Archives: November 2016

The Importance of Backup Disaster Recovery (BDR)

Data Backup, ,
20161028

Cloud backup is a valuable part of a backup disaster recovery plan that ensures your data is secure.

Businesses rely on a complex network of servers to maintain their business operations, but their owners may not understand the various risks that exist in the present landscape. It’s important for business owners to choose different forms of protection against threats and to provide for disaster recovery. A comprehensive plan includes how to back up on-premise and off-premise servers.

Is Your Company at Risk?

Business servers and employee workstations are vulnerable to risks from inside and outside the organization. Your machines could have greater needs for backup disaster recovery (BDR) than you realize. It’s important to conduct a risk assessment to identify the key threats that could affect your servers. While yo might not buy a preventive solution for every risk, you can choose protective solutions for each server.

Do You Need More Equipment?

Your company may also decide to purchase special equipment that physically backs up data stored on each server. Even if you purchase one solution, bear in mind that your backup devices may also sustain damage. Some business owners mistakenly believe that sufficient protection for new servers many spending money once. The reality is that business servers require additional protective measures over their lifetime. Business owners like you need to prevent the actions of malicious people who target businesses. They’re constantly finding new ways to hack business IT systems.

Protecting Servers on the Premises

Some of your servers are located on-premises, and others are at other sites. It’s easy to believe that your building’s security systems can protect all servers, such as security personnel physical inspection of all work areas at night, employee monitoring software, and employee user profiles with frequently changed passwords. Even with these security practices, every server that you own could be compromised. For example, an employee could accidentally delete information or intentionally damage a business machine. Any disruption to a server’s normal operations produces downtime. If multiple servers go down, then your company cannot meet its obligations to customers.

Avoid Downtime

You don’t want downtime in your company. The longer the downtime, the higher the costs to your business. Without adequate backup solutions, important business data could be lost forever. You want to avoid the negative impacts on customers and business partners. You should invest in a comprehensive solution that will back up your data and take over for damaged servers.

Considering the Risks

We have only covered some risks to normal operations, which could be everything from hackers to building fires. A good backup disaster recovery provider will get your servers back up within minutes. If an adverse event damages on-premise machines, your server applications and associated data are immediately backed up. Their respective tasks are assigned to remote servers. Your business applications shift to the cloud and continue to run. For this peace of mind whenever adverse events affect your on-premise servers, count on a relationship with our virtualization company. We want to serve your needs.

What If Your Servers Are in the Cloud?

Not all businesses rely on internal servers, especially organizations that are subject to government regulations for protecting consumer data. Many applications are in the cloud, which means you aren’t able to physically protect servers at their exact location. An external provider’s servers may also sustain damage or total loss. What your company might need is a comprehensive solution that provides backup and recovery solutions to both internal servers and cloud-based systems.

Get Protected

It pays to use proven disaster recovery partners in ways that fit your company’s existing network of servers. Discover the benefits of backup disaster recovery through a partnerships with our company. For more details, please contact us today.

How to Use Dynamic DNS

How To, ,
20161104

Using a dynamic DNS can help ensure your home business’s online presence is runs smoothly.

You’ve been building up the computer systems for your home business. It’s reached the point where it’s worth putting them on their own Internet domain. It’s a little tricky, but you can do it.

Here’s the issue. Every device on the Internet has an IP address. It’s a set of four numbers, such as 10.1.1.1. People don’t access the Internet by IP addresses, of course; they use domain names. A Domain Name Service (DNS) maps domain names to addresses; for instance, www.example.com might have the address 10.1.1.1.

If you’re a big company with a lot of money, you can get a fixed IP address that belongs to your domain. It will rarely change, if ever. But for most of us, there’s a problem: There aren’t enough addresses to go around. If you’ve got an account with an Internet service provider, it allocates an address dynamically to you, using a pool of addresses. It can change at any time.

If you want to register a domain for your home-based system, that’s a problem. The IP address which you have at the moment could belong to someone else in a few hours. Still, there’s a way to do it. Some DNS registrars provide a service called Dynamic DNS.

(There’s another IP address scheme, called IPv6, which eliminates the problem by providing a lot more addresses. It hasn’t caught on universally, though, and till it does you need an old-style, IPv4 address.)

Setting up Dynamic DNS

With Dynamic DNS, your registrar keeps your IP address up to date on its server through all its changes. Your equipment has to notify the registrar of each change. The software that does this is called an update client. There are two ways to set it up.

One way is to have your router act as the update client. Many routers support this feature. This is the simpler approach, since you don’t have to install any software in your computer. You just need to configure it according to your provider’s instructions.

The other way is to have the update client run on your computer. That’s more reliable, since you can install software tailored for or recommended by your provider.

When should you use Dynamic DNS?

Dynamic DNS has some problems. A dynamic IP address can’t be cached as much as a fixed one, so there’s more overhead looking it up, affecting performance. If your client misbehaves, you might disappear from the Internet. Free services are available, but they usually limit you to certain domains or subject you to ads and “nagware.” A paid account isn’t expensive, though.

When does it make sense to use a home-based system with Dynamic DNS, rather than getting a free or inexpensive hosted site? Everyone’s reasons will be different. Here are a few possibilities:

  • You want to access your own computer easily when you’re on the road.
  • You’ve got specialized software which is very resource-intensive or otherwise problematic for a hosted system.
  • You have unusual computer hardware which is essential to what you’re doing.
  • You just like having full control of the host computer.

If you’ve got a specialized service that you want to run on your own equipment, you can still have your website hosted and use a subdomain (e.g., myservice.example.com) for your unique software. Every subdomain that you control can have a different IP address and different DNS service.

Hosting your own domain means extra responsibility. Any published domain becomes a target for crooks cruising the Internet for sites to attack. You have to be extra careful to configure your firewall and set up strong passwords to keep intruders out.

If you really need your own domain for your own equipment, though, Dynamic DNS is the way to go, and it’s not that expensive or difficult.

SystemsNet provides support and managed services to keep your computer systems running smoothly. Please contact us to learn what we can do for you.

IT Monthly Management Reporting: Setting the Standard to Measure Business Growth

Manage Service, ,
20161021

IT monthly management reporting can enable your business to better track progress and pinpoint problem areas.

When students are in school, how do they keep track of their progress? With report cards, right? Well, imagine never getting a report card when going through school, some students might like this idea. Indeed, with the innovative BI software tools available today, “report cards” have become indispensable, data-rich tools for businesses. Let’s explore this more by looking at how IT monthly management reporting sets the standard for business growth.

 

Clarification and Understanding

There are many different set-ups when it comes to businesses’ IT departments (some more complicated than others), yet all business managers need clarification and understanding of their business’s growth. This growth needs to be based on facts and data, rather than feelings or suspicions.

IT monthly management reporting takes the guess-work and feelings out of the equation, giving managers real BI to work with. Yes, there are compartmentalized reporting for different systems, yet what’s really needed is a comprehensive overview of all IT management systems and functions.

Businesses thrive with profitable routines and are always tweaking and adjusting systems for optimal efficiency, so having a standard to measure the effects of these changes is key. That, essentially, is what IT monthly management reporting is: a standard to measure business growth.

Pin-Point Troublesome Issues

During the day-to-day workflow, inefficiencies in IT systems can have a ripple effect on other processes. The work around solutions to these supposed “mysterious anomalies” (which interrupt the otherwise seamless workflow processes) can turn into permanent routines without proper remedies. IT monthly management reporting pin-points these troublesome issues, thus, alleviating any mysterious anomalies.

IT monthly management reporting shows managers how healthy their IT systems are, showing the results of the comprehensive IT system monitoring and data collection of their businesses’: hardware, software, cybersecurity systems, and complete network infrastructure. These reports pin-point the weak (unhealthy) areas that need to be optimized, upgraded, or replaced. With real data, managers can make confident decisions with the IT changes needed.

The Standard Measurement for Business Growth

Of course, making sales for the products and services offered, is the main growth desired by businesses, yet the IT department (and the systems it manages) is what facilitates this growth. The IT systems need to be able to handle business growth, therefor, IT monthly management reporting is the standard to measure a business’s growth.

From this monthly report, managers will see clearly where the bottleneck is in their workflow. Maybe this is constant interruptions with servers, random cyberattacks, ordering system glitches, or a number of other problem that can (and do) occur with inefficient IT management. The monthly report is, essentially, surmising the effectiveness of a business’s IT management. Businesses that are efficiently managing their IT department have more room for growth.

Routine IT Management Reporting Keeps MSPs and Clients on Same Page

IT monthly management reporting keeps MSPs and their clients on the same page with any developments concerning their IT systems. This is an important aspect of the monthly reporting, because with remote IT monitoring and management, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes activity going on in a given month, such as: upgrades, data back-ups, security patches, etc.

This monthly report is a communication tool between MSPs and their clients, fostering a business relationship with clarified objectives and a mutual understanding of IT management issues. Of course, this report is delivered in a “language” both parties can understand fluently, so a unified understanding is realized for optimal IT development strategies. This may include: upgrading systems, repairs, workflow process adjustments, and/or a simple clarification of IT reality.

Summary

With all the IT management services MSPs offer, IT monthly management reporting isn’t usually the reason businesses outsource their IT departments, yet as we can see: it plays a vital role in business growth. This monthly report sets the standard from which a business’s growth is measured, at least concerning the IT systems that facilitate the sales; it also clarifies troublesome areas and keeps MSPs and their clients on the same page of IT management understanding.

SystemsNet understands the important role that IT monthly management reporting plays in business growth. This report helps our clients understand what IT changes to make, in order to develop streamlined systems that facilitate efficient workflow processes for increased sales and productivity.

Our comprehensive IT management services (remote and/or on-site) offers businesses the flexibility, expertise, and innovative solutions needed for optimal business growth – IT monthly management reporting is the standard we measure this growth with. If interested in learning more, please contact us today.