Data Protection
In today’s ‘always on’ world data protection is no longer a process that companies can leave to chance or deal with once an issue arises. Businesses have now realised the response to a variety of issues such as fire, flood, user error, power outage or un-authorised network access need a proactive approach to ensure integrity is kept at the highest level. Data loss is a serious event in today’s business world and in many cases the data is in fact the main asset of the company, an asset they rely on to generate their income.
There are a variety of statistics available on the web that shows the effects of data loss and insufficient data protection:
- A company that suffers more than 7 days data outage will never fully recover, 50% will be out of business within 2 years.
- An estimated 25% of businesses do not reopen following a major disaster.
- 80% of firms that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year.
When you look at these statistics it is clear to see that a company must have a dedicated strategy in order to ensure total availability of their data. There are a variety of options available in today’s IT world that can give total protection or part protection to a companies data needs.
Power protection
A strong UPS strategy ensures availability wherever data is created, transmitted or stored. We need to remember that without a steady supply of power, systems would not operate and the world would have no access to data.
In today's ‘always on, always available’ world where businesses can't stop and downtime is measured in lost revenue, Uninterruptible Power Supplies provide protection against some of the leading causes of downtime, data loss and hardware damage caused by power problems (spikes, surges and brown/black outs), temperature fluctuations and human error.
By implementing UPS technology in their IT infrastructure companies have the ability to work through power problems as if the event had never happened.
Backup
The term ‘backup’ refers to making duplicate copies of business data in order to restore information in the event of a data loss or to archive important files over a period of time for various legislative reasons.
A backup system would be required to contain multiple copies of data across a single or multiple sites so data storage requirements can vary from a basic tape, optical or disk based device, to a complex solution providing geographical redundancy, data security, quick access and portability.
For more information see the Backup section on this site.
RAID
RAID stands for ‘Redundant Array of Independent Disks’. RAID is a process of logically treating several hard drives as a single volume that provides fault tolerance over a single drive.
Hard drives are made from various moving components, some complex, that are renown for failing when least expected. RAID offers the ability to deploy real-time data recovery in a system when a hard drive fails, increasing system uptime and availability while protecting against data loss. Multiple drives working together also increase system performance.
For more information see the RAID section on this site.
Data security
Businesses today need to provide Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability for all critical data residing within their Infrastructure. The ability to utilise applications such as Web, E-mail and Instant Messenger is now prevalent in the way that we transact business. The challenge is that although these applications improve business efficiencies, they also bring with them higher security implications.
The use of the Internet has brought with it such problems as malware, spam and identity theft.
Users now deem the use of Internet as part of their daily life, in and out of the office.
By using technologies such as anti-virus, anti-spam, Firewalls and Intrusion Prevention Systems, it is possible to mitigate some of the risks highlighted above.
