Coleman Technologies Blog
IT Blog
Darren Coleman
Friday, 11 April 2025
Are You Ready to Mitigate Any Potential Data Loss? You Need to Be!

There are plenty of reasons why a business might lose some or all of its data, ranging from cyberattacks to hardware failure. Unfortunately, there isn’t any real reason your business won’t be one of the unlucky ones.

This makes it imperative that you prepare for this eventuality. Let’s discuss how to do so with the help of data redundancy.
A Backup Isn’t a True Backup If It Doesn’t Follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule

Three copies of your data, two kinds of storage media, one offsite. That’s the gist of the 3-2-1 Backup Rule, a practice that helps ensure your essential data is accessible to you, regardless of what happens.

Where your business’ backups are concerned, redundancy is a good thing, as it serves as a form of protection. With a copy of your data to work on, a local copy to fall back on, and an offsite copy in case of a disaster, you can be much more confident that your bases are covered.
The Cloud is a Great Option

Speaking of an offsite copy, the cloud is probably the closest thing to the ideal solution as you’ll find. With the knowledge of what you need to back up on the regular, it is simple to find a cloud-based option that fits your requirements.

What really cements the cloud as the best option available to businesses, however, is its inherent accessibility. With your backup in the cloud, you can easily draw on it so long as you have a connection to the Internet. Plus, cloud providers are also highly motivated to ensure that your data is protected, as they are ultimately delivering a service.
Automation Ensures Backups are Taken

A backup will only help you if it is kept updated, which is something that modern automation can help you accomplish. By instructing your system to back itself up regularly—the right tool can achieve this as often as every 15 minutes—you can ensure you have access to the most data possible at all times.
Encryption Protects Your Backups

With your data backed up, it is also crucial that you properly secure it. Your sensitive data needs to be protected; encryption is a great way to do that. Cloud providers typically offer it by default, and you should implement it in the rest of your data storage as well.
Evaluate Your Backups

It’s critical that you know that your backups work… otherwise, you could turn to them in your time of need and discover that they either aren’t there or are so outdated, they will no longer be of any benefit to you if you need them. This makes it essential to regularly test your backups to ensure they will be effective when needed.
Develop a Disaster Recovery Strategy

In addition to your backup, you need to have a plan to put it to use, restoring your data and putting it back to work as quickly as possible. This disaster recovery plan needs to cover:

Where you keep your backups

How files and systems should be restored

Who takes the lead on the recovery strategy

All of it needs to reflect a dedication to minimizing the downtime you experience.
You Can Rely on Us for Help!

Find out how we can help you navigate your business’ backup preparations. Call us today at (604) 513-9428.

Coleman Technologies Blog

We can give your organization comprehensive IT services and 24/7/365 live support for a predictable monthly fee. Stop stressing about technology, and start focusing on growing your business.

Stop Worrying About IT and Have Your Business Remain Secure and Productive

Friday, 18 April 2025

Technology is the engine driving success in our community. From managing daily operations to engaging customers, reliable IT is no longer optional. Keeping that engine finely tuned—ensuring hardware, software, and networks are always up-to-date—presents a significant challenge. Technology evolves at lightning speeds, and managing it can feel like a constant, resource-draining battle, pulling you away from focusing on your core business.

Is your current IT setup empowering your growth, or is it quietly creating risks that could derail your progress? Many businesses operate with technology that feels "good enough," unaware of the hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface.

The High Cost of Falling Behind

Holding onto outdated IT infrastructure might seem like a cost-saving measure, but the reality is far different. Aging technology's hidden costs and risks can significantly impact your security, productivity, and bottom line.

Mounting Security Vulnerabilities: Older hardware and software often lack vendor support and miss critical security updates, making them prime targets for cybercriminals. A staggering 60% of data breaches exploit known, unpatched vulnerabilities. For a small or medium-sized business in British Columbia, the financial fallout from a breach can be devastating, averaging nearly $3 million, not to mention the damage to your reputation and potential compliance failures.

Productivity Drain: How much time do your employees lose to slow computers, software crashes, or system failures? Outdated technology is a major productivity killer, potentially reducing efficiency by as much as 40%. Due to maintenance and performance issues, older PCs alone can account for over 20 hours of lost productivity per employee annually. This constant struggle doesn't just impact output; it breeds frustration and can even affect employee morale and retention.

Innovation Barriers: Aging systems often struggle to integrate with modern software, cloud services, and productivity tools. This incompatibility prevents you from adopting new technologies that streamline workflows, improve collaboration, and give you a competitive edge. Your competitors might already be leveraging these tools, so it’s essential to keep up and surpass them in any way possible.

The In-House IT Treadmill: A Difficult Path for Businesses

Some British Columbia businesses attempt to manage IT updates and maintenance internally. While the intention is good, this approach often creates its own set of significant hurdles.

Keeping pace requires deep expertise across diverse and rapidly changing fields like cybersecurity, network management, and cloud technologies… a breadth of knowledge difficult for a small internal team to maintain. Furthermore, the time commitment is substantial. Regularly researching, testing, scheduling, and deploying updates, alongside routine maintenance and troubleshooting, pulls valuable time away from strategic initiatives and core business functions. Often, internal teams find themselves stuck in a reactive "break-fix" cycle, constantly putting out fires instead of proactively preventing them.

The financial burden is also considerable. Hiring, training, and retaining even one skilled IT professional involves significant costs, including salary, benefits, and ongoing training, easily exceeding $88,000-$120,000 annually. Add the necessary investments in specialized management tools like monitoring software and Mobile Device Management (MDM), which can carry hefty upfront and ongoing costs.

On top of all this, when things go wrong, the cost of downtime adds up alarmingly fast: potentially thousands of dollars per minute.

We’ll Be Your Proactive IT Partner

This is where Coleman Technologies steps in. As a dedicated Managed Service Provider (MSP) here in British Columbia, we shift your IT management from a reactive burden to a proactive, strategic advantage. We take the complex, time-consuming task of keeping your technology up-to-date entirely off your shoulders.

Our approach is built on proactivity:

Managed Updates and Patch Management: We handle the complete update lifecycle. Our team identifies necessary software and system patches, rigorously tests them for compatibility, and schedules deployment across your servers, workstations, and applications at times that minimize disruption. This ensures your systems remain secure against known threats and perform optimally.

Hardware Lifecycle Management: We don't wait for critical hardware like servers or laptops to fail unexpectedly. We proactively assess your equipment, track warranties and lifecycles (typically recommending replacement cycles of 3-5 years for key devices ), and develop a strategic replacement plan. We manage the procurement, configuration, and deployment, ensuring you always have reliable, secure, and efficient hardware supporting your business.

24/7 Proactive Monitoring: Our advanced tools constantly monitor the health and performance of your IT infrastructure. We often detect and resolve potential issues before they impact your operations, significantly reducing the risk of costly downtime.

Partnering with Coleman Technologies brings tangible benefits to your British Columbia business: enhanced security posture through expert management and multi-layered protection, improved system reliability and performance, predictable IT costs through a fixed monthly fee, and access to our entire team of certified specialists for less than the cost of a single senior in-house hire. Most importantly, we free you and your team to focus on what you do best: running and growing your business.

Focus on Your Business, We'll Handle the Tech

Keeping your IT infrastructure current, secure, and efficient is non-negotiable in today's business environment, but it doesn’t have to be your burden. Coleman Technologies provides the expertise, proactive management, and peace of mind you need. Let us handle the complexities of technology updates, cybersecurity, and lifecycle management so you can concentrate on achieving your business goals right here in British Columbia.

Ready to take IT worries off your plate? Contact Coleman Technologies today for a no-obligation IT assessment for your business. Let's discuss how we can keep your technology current, secure, and working for you. Call us at (604) 513-9428.m.