Coleman Technologies Blog

Imagine, for a moment, just how much you have to lose from a data loss incident. Your business depends on its data, and if it suddenly loses access to it, you could be in a position where downtime significantly impacts your bottom line. In situations like this, you have no time to waste. You have to get back in the game as soon as possible or you risk losing so much traction that it could be hard to keep the doors open.

With this in mind, you can’t possibly achieve this goal without data backup. You have to think of it in terms of a potential loss incident--essentially it is professional risk management. While it’s true you don’t want to make decisions based solely on the what-ifs, it’s hard not to justify it in this case. What it boils down to is this: if you don’t have data backup and suffer from a disaster, your business will, more likely than not, fail. Therefore, the best way to ensure the possibility of success is to implement data backup and prevent a potential loss incident from surfacing in the first place.

Basically, the sheer fact that you know you need to back up your data is enough to justify having a solid backup solution.

The point that we are trying to make is that we shouldn’t have to convince you to go all-in on your business’ data backup and disaster recovery solution. It should be common sense. After all, you’re trying to preserve your business and its future against the possibility that a disaster scenario cuts its life short. You have no reason not to invest in something that could potentially save your business. It doesn’t matter whether it’s from a natural disaster, user error, or hardware failure--there is always the chance that an unforeseen event could spell the end of your organization.

The right data backup solution can go a long way toward keeping your business afloat, even in a worst-case scenario. To find out more about BDR, reach out to Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428.

Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) are incredibly important elements of any successful business, as without them, you’re just one disaster away from a world-shattering wake-up call. We take a strategic approach to data backup and disaster recovery that considers your daily data backup needs while recognizing its long-term benefits. Let’s discuss how you can ensure that your business can use BDR to survive any potential threat the world throws at it.

Data Backup Strategy

Data is both an asset and a crutch, as the more of it your business utilizes and collects, the bigger the target on your back is. The looming threat of hacking attacks reminds us that the opportunities data presents can be snatched away instantly. While standard security measures are essential for all businesses, it's crucial to keep in mind that even the most meticulously crafted plans can unravel when faced with challenges and unforeseen circumstances. Data backup takes some of this guesswork out of the equation, as you’ll know without a doubt that your assets are safe and protected.

Take Advantage of Automation

Automation is a technology that, again, takes some of the variables out of the equation—namely, human error. With automation, there’s no more fretting over whether the backup was configured correctly or if it was executed manually by your staff. Automated backup systems resolve these worries by eliminating the need for manual intervention, ensuring a seamless backup process. You can also test these backups to ensure they will work when you need them most.

Eliminate as Much Downtime as Possible

When it comes to mitigating the costs associated with downtime, a robust disaster recovery plan is the clear solution. A well-crafted strategy anticipates and addresses all conceivable scenarios, minimizing the impact of data loss incidents on business continuity. By investing in a comprehensive disaster recovery solution, businesses can ensure their recovery process takes as little time as possible, all while keeping data loss to a minimum. This helps to eliminate expenses caused by prolonged downtime.

Ensure Your Business is Sustainable Long-Term

Would your business be able to survive without access to its data? We doubt it. Imagine for a moment that you lose access to all of your data, including that of customers, operations, and any intellectual property your business leverages. You’ll lose your competitive edge and ability to make effective data-informed decisions, engage with clients, and acquire new customers. Effective security measures and data backup practices—including storing them off-site and in the cloud—are not just good practices for the future of your business; they are critical ones.

Outsourcing your data backup and disaster recovery practices can go a long way toward keeping your business sustainable well into the future. To learn more about how Coleman Technologies can contribute to your business’ long-term success, be sure to contact us at (604) 513-9428.

Data Value in Business
The first thing that you need to know is that losing data is a very big deal. In fact, there is an entire field of study created to deal with this very issue. Called infonomics, this can put a dollar value on an organization’s data. While some organizations continuously deny that data has a tangible value, it is becoming more evident than ever that those organizations (typically insurance and accounting) have a vested interest in data’s value remaining intangible. Every other business can be sure that their data has monetary value.

With the acknowledgement that the analysis of organizational data can help businesses run a more efficient and profitable business, any standard enacted to properly evaluate this asset would be made to promote a strategy of organization-wide data security. If you need to justify spending capital on a data protection and redundancy strategy, you should be able to ascertain what the actual value your data has to your organization. A few ways you can value data include:

• How much capital would it cost to replace lost data?
• How much revenue is dependent on that data?
• How much money could you make by selling or renting the data you have?
• How much capital will you have to spend to protect this data?

However, you look at your organization’s data, it is an asset, and as those assets are compromised on your network, or removed from your network, you need to have a solution in place to get that data back.

Data Backup
The first step in any data recovery strategy is data backup. At Coleman Technologies, we believe that the best data backup strategy is to promote redundancy. In order to do so we promote a strategy that backs up data locally AND offsite. This presents options to make data recovery more efficient.

Our BDR service initially backs up your entire network. Since backing up an entire network will take a long time, and any downtime is extraordinarily costly, setting up a backup solution that protects the data you need without taking down the network at all, is important. Our BDR keeps data redundant on multiple hard drives and provides an organization with the much-desired data security it is looking for from a comprehensive solution.

Disaster Recovery
The first thing that has to be said is that the best data recovery strategy is one that never has to be used. However, data loss disasters can (and do) happen, leaving your business to pick up the pieces. The best way to do this is to have a dedicated disaster recovery platform in place that takes two crucial factors into account:

• Recovery Point Objective (RPO) - The interval of time that might pass during a disruption before the amount of data lost exceeds the maximum threshold that your business can weather.
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO) - The duration of time within which data or business process must be restored after a disruption before it can be considered a complete break in continuity.

By thoroughly managing your disaster recovery program, your organization is sure to be able to get its data back--and its business’ processes up and running--to ensure that your business is able to sustain operational integrity. For more information about how to get a data backup and disaster recovery working for your business, call Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.

The Types of Backup
Here are four of the most common types of backup that you can expect to see in an office environment:

• Full backup: This type of backup makes a copy of all selected files in their entirety. Most backup solutions will have to initially go through this process, and since this is such an intensive process, it will take longer than other data backup types. If this is your preferred method of backup, it will likely have to be done after-hours, as it takes a long time and could tie up processes that are needed during the workday.
• Differential backup: This type of backup only backs up changes made to the data. This allows for faster backups, but the process of recovery is much slower.
• Incremental backup: This type of backup is much like a differential backup, with the main difference being that an incremental backup will always back up the data regardless of if a full backup was completed or not.
• Mirror backup: A mirror backup makes a real-time duplicate of the source and backs it up. This creates complete redundancy, but it also comes with various issues. For example, if the material is deleted by mistake, the mirror will also be deleted. This reason alone dissuades IT technicians from using mirror backups as a viable solution for their backup needs.

Now that the types of data backup have been explained, we’ll go over some of the backup-related terms you might want to know.

• Business continuity: A business continuity plan is designed to help your business get back in proper functioning order if you’re ever hit by an unfortunate situation. All organizations need to have a business continuity plan in place.
• Disaster recovery: Disaster recovery is specifically there in the event your business suffers from a disaster involving data loss. This includes cyberattacks, sabotage, user error, and even weather-based disasters that destroy infrastructure.
• Recovery Point Objective (RPO): RPO is a benchmark that represents which data will be recovered by your business if it wants to get back to normal business operations following a disaster.
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): RTO is a benchmark that represents the time needed for your business’ data to be restored. Minimizing this number is critical to keep downtime as low as possible.

Coleman Technologies can help your business by equipping it with a comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery system. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

While not all of your data may be equally valuable, data loss is a bad thing across the board. This is precisely why Coleman Technologies offers comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery solutions.

Backing up your data allows you to sidestep the potential catastrophes that would come with the loss of your most critical information. Here, we’ll review a few situations that could put this data at risk to demonstrate how crucial having a backup really is.

Situation: Actual Disaster Event

Just about every business on Earth could potentially be impacted by some kind of weather event. Some deal with hurricanes, some deal with high winds and tornadoes, others with earthquakes and floods… you get the picture. Unfortunately, whichever one impacts your business, there isn’t very much you can do in the moment - which is why it is important to prepare now, so you can reopen again after the fact. Many don’t prepare, and therefore, don’t reopen.

Acting proactively and maintaining a backup allows you to more quickly bounce back after disaster has struck, allowing your business a second chance.

Situation: Data Corruption or Theft

Cybersecurity is a huge topic today, as there are many, many threats out there designed to target businesses. Take ransomware, for example: all it takes for you to lose access to your files is for an employee to click on the wrong thing. Not good.

However, using a BDR (in conjunction with a comprehensive business continuity plan) to keep your files safely backed up enables you to quickly restore data from an onsite backup copy of your data, while keeping another copy offsite for redundant protections and simplified migrations. This keeps you safe from a variety of threats, including ransomware and many other forms of malware. 

Situation: The Classic Office “Whoops!” Moment

The BDR is supremely useful in that it gives you an on-demand resource to pull your data from, on demand, as it is needed. This is particularly handy if a team is collaborating on a project, and somebody accidentally deletes something absolutely critical to the project. With a backup, your progress won’t be lost to bad luck.

A BDR allows you to breathe a little easier about your files and their security. To find out about adopting one for your business, reach out to Coleman Technologies today. Call (604) 513-9428 to get started.

Keeping Your Strategy Simple

One basic strategy to sorting out your data is to backup the files that you can’t feasibly replace otherwise. This simple, yet effective approach could easily save your business… but, why go through the effort of sorting through your data at all?

Seeing as your data is one of - if not the - most important resources that your business has, why not just back up all of it?

This endeavor becomes much easier with the Backup and Disaster Recovery appliance that we offer, as it can easily map out and replicate your data stores. Now, it must be said that not every business generates enough vital data to justify a large investment into a data backup. However, as we mentioned above, today’s threat landscape means that what data you do have needs to be protected.

Your Backup Options

There are several different varieties of data backup for you to consider, keeping in mind what it is you are backing up and when you need those backups to be ready. These backups include:

Full Backups

As you may have gathered, a full backup copies all of your data and configurations and saves them to a single platform, whether that be a NAS (network attached storage) device, a cloud backup, or tape (pro tip: don’t use tape backup).

This has the benefits of offering a comprehensive backup that you need, with quick restoration times for single files or folders. A full restore takes a much longer period of time to complete, and full backups are more expensive due to the greater need of storage space. Any backup strategy will typically start off with a full backup.

Incremental Backups

This kind of backup keeps track of any changes that are made to data, which allows it to be used for data that is continuously updated. The costs of an incremental backup are quite reasonable, making it a good choice (despite not being totally comprehensive) for a business that generates large amounts of data.

Differential Backups

Similarly to incremental backups, a differential backup keeps track of changes that are made between the times that a full backup is run, keeping their backups more up to date.

Mirror Backup

This kind of backup is best for redundancy, as it creates a mirror image of the system that is being backed up. While these backups are the fastest to restore, they also take up the most storage space.

Depending on your business’ particular needs, a backup can be run weekly, daily, or even as frequently as every 15 minutes.

Following the 3-2-1 Rule

The 3-2-1 Rule is a simple way to remember what you need to maintain if you want to keep your data protected enough. Here’s how it breaks down:

• 3 copies of your data
• 2 stored on different media types
• 1 copy offsite

This strategy makes it so your data is both secure, and convenient to you.

To learn more about data backups and best practices concerning them, reach out to Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428.

Multi-factor authentication is great when it works, but when it doesn’t, it can leave you in a pretty difficult situation. After all, what happens when all of a sudden, you cannot access your secondary authentication methods? We’re here to help you bypass this particularly challenging and frustrating scenario.

First, let’s look at how and why you might accidentally get locked out of your MFA methods.

How Might You Get Locked Out of Your MFA Solution?

Multi-factor authentication works by shoring up the problematic password and augmenting it with other, secondary methods of authentication that are more secure. The logic is simple; two keys for a single lock is more effective than one. You might use a password and a fingerprint scan, or a password and a USB key. Here is a brief rundown of various MFA methods:

• Something you know: A password, passphrase, or a PIN.
• Something you have: Something you own or have in your possession is required to access the account, like a key card, smartphone, or hardware-based security key.
• Something you are: Think biometrics, a fingerprint, or retina scan—something to confirm your identity.

By requiring more than just one form of authentication, it becomes much more difficult for an attacker to get into an account.

Of course, requiring two keys also means that if you lose one of them or forget one of them, you cannot access your account, leading to the exact opposite problem of hackers infiltrating your account.

Potential Solutions to Your Dilemma

Rather than give up immediately and start over, let’s consider two paths you might be able to use to gain access to your locked account.

You might be logged in elsewhere.
Most services and applications using MFA will have a website and an app, and chances are at least one of them will still have you logged in, if you’re like most individuals who dislike the hassle of logging into your account every time you have to use it. You can sometimes check the settings to discover an option that will let you temporarily disable two-factor authentication. You will probably have to provide the password, so make sure you don’t accidentally log out until you have finally gotten control of your account again.

Customer support might help.
Customer support might not be the most ideal solution to your problems, but it’s an effective one. Simply put, you never know what’s possible until you ask about what is possible. There might be a simple way you can get back into your account. If there isn’t, there might still be a way too, but it could take up to a couple of days before it takes effect.

Really, the best way to address this issue is to not find yourself in it in the first place. If you have to open a new account just to get around this frustration, make sure you contact the vendor to disable the old account so that no one can take advantage of the old one.

What Other Options Do You Have?

Most modern MFA tools have contingency plans built into them specifically for situations like these. One way is to set up multiple methods of secondary authentication, like having secondary phone numbers, email addresses, or biometrics in place, providing you with more ways to get into your account should you lose access to one of them.

Many MFA platforms also provide users with recovery keys or backup codes that you can use to communicate with the MFA platform, further guaranteeing that you are the designated user. If you generate one of these codes, you’ll want to ensure that it is protected in a safe place, preferably one with encryption.

If you go the security key route, you should consider getting a second key as well, just in case. Some services enable you to get multiple keys tied to your account specifically because they understand how easy it is to lose something important like this. Plus, if you ever upgrade your key, you’ll have the old one to use as a backup.

Let’s Make Sure Your IT Works

One of our big responsibilities as a managed service provider is making sure you get the value you expect out of your technology, which includes accessing your resources and accounts as needed. We can help you ensure that you are always connected to what makes your business run. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Lock. Everything. Down.

Did you know there are entire websites out there, devoted to providing the default factory passwords for different devices? They aren’t on the Dark Web, either - this is on the visible, indexed Internet. Imagine if I were to come in with some idea of what brand of routers you had… if I had the right default credentials with me, I could easily access your router and wreak havoc in your business.

You need to consider every potential access point into your business and ensure it is properly secured. The same goes for any online accounts associated with your business, like cloud storage. Take the time to make sure that everything is secured with a password that meets best practices, and if memories are an issue, use a reputable password manager to simplify the task for your employees.

This also goes for your physical location. Many access control solutions exist that enable you to keep track of who accesses a certain area, and when, with the added benefit of keeping those without authorization out.

Keep Your Antivirus Updated

Many people may assume that, once they’ve installed an antivirus/antimalware solution, they are all set. The trouble is, more malware is being developed all the time, and there’s a good chance it is being developed to help the malicious software get past your antivirus. As it happens, the developers of the antivirus are aware of this, and frequently add new threat definitions to the software to make it more effective.

However, all the threat definitions in the world will do diddly-squat if your antivirus solution isn’t updated to include them. This is why it is important to keep an eye on your network’s health and take the time to check that you have the latest definitions included.

Keep a Backup

Finally, you have the nuclear option against malware… mutually assured destruction, that only you can recover from. That is, as long as you’ve been maintaining a proper backup.

If you should fall victim to a malware infection, completely wiping your devices and quite literally starting from scratch with them is your best hope of getting rid of it. However, in order to keep yourself from crippling your own business while doing so, you need to maintain an ace in the hole. By keeping a backup that passes best practices, you can be sure to have your data if you have to sacrifice your original copy.

Coleman Technologies can help you do all of this, and more. Reach out to us at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

Data Is a Big Deal

Your company’s data is one of its major assets, and you take quite a bit of effort to protect it. You deploy antivirus, firewalls, intrusion detection, and other security tools designed to mitigate exposure to malware, hackers, and other deplorable situations like:

• Human error (negligence and mistakes)
• Sabotage and theft
• Hardware malfunction
• Power surges
• Software corruption

The minute something gets through your network’s defenses, you are in deep trouble. If disaster hits your business and you don’t have a reliable backup, you could not only lose continuity, you could lose it all. This wouldn’t be so dire if you have a comprehensive business continuity strategy in place. Business continuity plans are just potential solutions to problems that threaten to take the business down. 

There are hundreds of different situations that could result in substantial data loss, but irregardless of the situation your business is in, having a strong backup and recovery plan lets you be prepared for any eventuality. 

Today, there are a lot of different ways that you can back up your data and applications, but there really is only one that offers onsite and offsite backup, incremental backups, and the ability to recover data on demand. This solution is what we call a BDR. Short for backup and disaster recovery, our backup service allows you to configure the backup solution to fit your company’s demands, while also providing all the high-end redundancy features that any business could need. 

If your business is looking to protect its data from the litany of ways it can be corrupted or lost, the BDR is right for you. Call Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428 for more information.

Why Do You Need Data Backup?

This is pretty self-explanatory. Your business is constantly under threat. You may not realize it because you’ve been fortunate enough not to have any threat be bad enough where your operational and financial data is actively at risk. That may not always be the case, however. Consider how important your data is and think about all the things that could happen where you would have to deal with data loss. Situations that stem from natural disasters, scams and hackers, hardware failure, and human error can all trigger data loss. That’s a lot of variables to cover to keep hoping that nothing will happen. 

The health of your business depends on that data. There is employee data, financial data, vendor and customer data, and most importantly operational data that needs protection. At Coleman Technologies, we have seen a lot of different solutions to the data redundancy problem. We’ve seen people use tape backups, we’ve seen people back their data up to a network attached hard drive, we’ve even seen businesses neglect the process altogether. Today, there is a better way.

Get BDR From Coleman Technologies

We take data backup extremely seriously because it makes protecting our clients’ digital assets that much easier. It’s good for us, but it’s really great for our clients. The Backup and Disaster Recovery service we provide works several ways to protect a business’ digital assets. They include:

• Complete customization of backup - A company has full control over their backed up data. They can choose what data they need to protect and our technicians will build a solution to those standards. This allows businesses to keep costs low if they only have certain data to back up and also allows them to backup everything if they so choose. 
• Following best practices - In the IT support industry there is something called the 3-2-1 rule. It is considered a best practice because it protects an organization’s data in multiple ways. With our BDR service, we follow this best practice. It means that we keep at least three copies of your data, with two being stored onsite, and one offsite. This means that if your business is hit by a disaster your organization will still have a working copy of your data that you can restore from the cloud, but if you just have to restore data because someone accidentally deleted something that you needed, you can restore it from your network-attached device.
• Incremental updates - One of the best features of our BDR service is that you don’t have to run your backups after work hours. Once your data is uploaded to the BDR and the cloud, it then can incrementally back up data frequently. This provides an organization the ability to lose less data if something were to go wrong. 
• Professional support - As with any of our services, the solutions are tested, maintained, and managed consistently to provide the best possible situation for your business. Our expert technicians know that investing in technology can sometimes be a hard decision, but with the BDR, it is an extremely safe investment. 

If you would like to learn more about data backup, data recovery or how it fits into your disaster recovery and business continuity plans, call our knowledgeable consultants today at (604) 513-9428.

Business can get messy, particularly when variables outside your control are involved, which could spell doom for your organization. We’re talking, of course, about instances where your organization might be under a particularly large threat—instances where your data is at risk, which could jeopardize your future. Thankfully, there are options to mitigate this risk.

You Cannot Control Natural Disasters, but You Can Control These Factors

The big consideration for protecting against data loss in an uncontrollable disaster is to think ahead. You must implement proactive measures if you want to protect your data as it needs to be. First, let’s cover what constitutes a data loss incident and what some of the most popular reasons for experiencing them are. Then, we’ll dive into the popular ways you can mitigate the risk.

Common Data Loss Incident Occurrences

Here are some of the common situations that could lead to data loss for your typical business:

• Natural disasters, which include hurricanes, electrical storms, tornadoes, winter weather, floods, and fires.
• Data loss caused by user error, such as improper configuration of systems or a failure to perform duties as needed.
• Cybersecurity incidents that lead to data compromisation, corruption, or theft.

Implementing Backup and Disaster Recovery

The one big thing that the above have in common is that they immediately threaten your data infrastructure. When your data is unavailable due to any of the above, you need to have data backup and disaster recovery systems in place to keep downtime and data loss to a minimum. Typically, a BDR solution will work by backing up your data to multiple secure locations off-site if your infrastructure is damaged. It can then restore your data to any device designated to get operations back in order.

Securing Your Infrastructure

Of course, natural disasters are far from the only danger to your business’ data infrastructure. Cyberthreats and hackers exclusively target your technological assets in hopes of either disrupting your business operations or profiting from your data. One of the most dangerous threats out there, ransomware, is so wicked in its deployment that often the only feasible way to get your data back is to restore a recent backup.

We always recommend that businesses protect their infrastructures with both comprehensive security measures and adequate data backup and disaster recovery methods. Coleman Technologies can help your organization overcome the many challenges of data loss prevention, backup, and disaster recovery. To learn more about our solutions, call us at (604) 513-9428 today.