If you aren’t sure, or if you think it would only be a short period of time, read on. Below are 3 common, costly misunderstandings most business owners have about their data backup that give them a false sense of security:

Misunderstanding #1: Believing That Tape Backups Are A Reliable Way To Secure Your Data. Wrong! Tape backups have an average failure rate of 100% (no, that’s not a typo). What makes this even worse is that tape backups will APPEAR to be working, giving you a false sense of security.

Misunderstanding #2: Backing Up Your Data Will Allow You To Restore Your Network To Its Original State, Quickly And Easily. Wrong again! Having just a copy of your data doesn’t guarantee this at all. To help you understand, let me give you a simple analogy…

Let’s suppose we made an exact replica of all the items in your house right now and put them offsite in a storage facility – that’s a backup of your “data.” If your house burned to the ground (God forbid!) we would have to rebuild the HOUSE (which is the server, software and supporting environment) BEFORE we could restore all your items back from the storage facility. Obviously that takes some time. That’s why simply having an offsite copy of your data doesn’t guarantee you’ll be back up and running FAST. It could take several days – possibly weeks – before everything was restored; and that’s assuming you HAVE the data in a clean state and all the originally installed software disks.

Misunderstanding #3: Trusting Their Backup Is Automatically Working Without Doing Periodic Test Restores… I see this happening a LOT – a business owner thinks their backups are working because they don’t see any error messages or apparent problems. Then, when they need to restore a file, they discover the backups stopped working MONTHS ago and all that data is gone.

Want To Know For Sure If Your Data Is Safe?  Our FREE Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery/Network Audit Will Reveal the Truth…

During the month of November we are going to give away a FREE Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery/Network Audit – a $597 value. At no cost or obligation, we’ll come to your office and review your current backup to verify that your data is being backed up properly and could be restored in the event of a disaster. We can also show you the fastest, most reliable way to make sure you NEVER have to worry about losing all your data or being “out of business” because of a natural disaster, virus, hacker attack, hardware failure or other data-erasing disaster.

To claim your FREE diagnostic service call, go online to

http://www.iservpro.com/free-stuff/  or call us at 317-522-4099. This offer expires November 30, 2010.

As a business owner you naturally want to be sure that the infrastructure of your computer network is protected from any unauthorized access.  In conjunction you want to insure that your computers, peripheral devices, network connectivity and so forth are continuously monitored for stability and staff productivity. 

Unfortunately many people have no idea where to start or how to achieve any of this.  Fortunately, however, this is where your experience managed services provider (MSP) can help.  

The following is a list of areas your MSP should be covering in order to insure your and data is secure and your network continues to run smoothly.

• A commercial grade security appliance (firewall) will make sure hackers, malware and infections don’t get into your infrastructure. iServPro works with a number of industry vendors.  One of these is Fortinet and their Fortigate series is the solution we recommend to our clients.     
• A quality endpoint security, like Trend Micro’s Worry Free Business Security Product, will ensure that viruses and spyware don’t infect your computers and servers.
• Your MSP should also implement policies on the servers which allow permissions based on job functions of the employee to access different areas of the network and internet. 
• If you have a wireless network your MSP can encrypt your passcodes for the highest level of security so unauthorized users/hackers cannot access the network wirelessly. 
• Your MSP should continually be applying the latest critical security patches to your Windows desktop PC’s, laptops and Windows servers.
• All corporate e-mail should be run through a system that checks for spam, viruses and phishing attempts.
• In addition to all these tasks, your MSP should regularly verify that your back-ups are complete and that a disaster recovery plan is in place.

If you are unsure if your current provider is meeting these requirements, please feel free to contact iServPro.  We will be happy to conduct a third-party review of your infrastructure and policies.

Is your current IT provider meeting or exceeding your expectations?  As the small business owner have you even set the expectations for that relationship?

Obviously when you purchase a service, especially IT support services, it is because it’s not your area of expertise.  You now have to rely on someone else to set up, fix and manage these systems.  You have invested in these technologies so that you can improve your business.  Does your current IT provider partner with you to help you achieve your business goals?  If your systems aren’t running smoothly and your vendor isn’t being effective it will negatively impact the quality and level of services you provide to your clients.  But how can you be sure you are getting what you are paying for?

Here are some things you need to have proof of from your IT support:

• Are they qualified to do what you are paying them to do?
• Are they monitoring your system?
• Do they alert you to problems before it affects your business?
• Are they keeping your systems and antivirus software current?
• Are your business critical systems being backed up daily?
• Have they provided you with a disaster recovery plan?
• Have they implemented security policies and hardware to keep your business, employees and data safe?
• Are they a true “partner” to you and your business?

If you unsure if your current “computer guy” is providing these services so that you ARE getting what you are paying for, you can find the answers for a reasonable price.  We at iServPro will be happy to conduct an independent, third-party audit of your systems to put your mind at ease.

As small business owners we often say, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”  But when it comes to technology service, when something breaks your business can bleed money rapidly.  Being proactive in managing your business’s   technologies will not only save you time — it will increase the productivity of your staff, as well as boost your over all profits.   

Unfortunately, many business owners wait until there is a major problem before they think to ask for help from their “computer guy.”  This tactic will most definitely leave them with a much higher cost to get back up and running than had they been proactive.  Here’s an example, a $1 million company will lose nearly $500 per hour for every hour during a technology outage.  You can add to this the hourly rate from the “computer guy.”  And, if he isn’t qualified to do the work they will have to wait even longer for a resolution.  As they say, “time is money.” 

Another common mistake business owners make is to assign their most computer savvy staff member to be their “in-house” IT technician.  This just takes this employee away from their other duties and can put the business at risk from a poorly maintained and unstable technology environment.

By being proactive and utilizing your trusted IT services provider you can stay a step ahead of disaster.  Through iServPro’s Proactive IT Services  (Bronze, Silver and Gold packages), your business will be maintained and monitored so you and your staff can remain productive and profitable while saving the cost of a full-time IT employee.