Technology

Dependence on technology is high for the majority of modern businesses.  If your data is stored on servers, you have till systems or rely on a telephone system to communicate with customers then you need to plan for Technology Continuity & Recovery.
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Technology Articles

To BYOD or not to BYOD – that is the question

Being able to use your own device (laptop, smartphone or tablet) at work and being able to connect seamlessly to other devices and the organisation’s network sounds great. However, Julian Thrussell, Security Specialist at Ultima Risk Management (URM) raises two notes of caution.   Support A major concern with BYOD is the time and cost…

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ISO 27001: What is it and why is it so popular?

ISO 27001 is the International Standard for Information Security and is one of the most popular process-based standards. In this article, Lisa Dargan, Business Development Director at Ultima Risk Management (URM) provides a summary of its purpose, value and why it has been updated.   What is the Purpose of ISO 27001? ISO 27001 provides…

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Not – Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

Migrating your data to the Cloud can have a significant positive impact on the Resilience of your business, although as Martin Collins of Ultima Business Solutions writes, you do need to select your vendor carefully: The growth in the number of distributed workforces and the need for increased resilience is driving the need for computing…

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Identifying threats to your business

Thanks to Travelers insurance in the USA for this simple but effective guide to Identifying threats to your business. Travelers Insurance Guide to Identifying threats to your business It is always great to see large insurance companies (with extensive marketing budgets) take an active role in promoting Business Continuity.  Yes they have a vested interest…

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Lost Your Data? – Maybe not

So the worst has happened, you have lost your data or device and it isn’t backed up or your back up has failed – what next? Don’t worry, all is not necessarily lost. Take a look at this video of what our colleagues at Kroll Ontrack, the Data Recovery experts can do: Or for an…

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Technology FAQs

If I lost access to my office how would I replace PC's & Servers for key team members?

Loss of access to your offices implies that the contents of the office are unharmed and can be used again as soon as access is regained.  Effectively you will need a short term replacement PC’s and Servers delivered to an alternate office location.  Our expert partner network can provide short term technology rental or alternatively many of our Workplace Recovery partners provide office space pre-equipped with hardware, please Contact Us for more details.

We have a small on site data centre with backup to tape. If we lose the data centre how quickly could we replace the servers?

Depending on the specification of the servers replacement should be fairly quick from the manufacturer or rental provider, the issue will be where to put the servers assuming your data centre is beyond quick repair.  We can provide fully managed data centre space through our partner network, however you will need to factor in the lead time to cross connect the equipment to your data network or establish VPN connections.  It is far better to set up a Disaster Recovery (DR) infrastructure ahead of the incident and we can help you with that, please Contact Us

We are dependent upon our telephone system. What steps can we take to make this system more resilient?

It sounds as though you have an office based switch, which is in effect a single point of failure.  You may want to consider upgrading to a Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone system which provides on premise functionality and a back up to a cloud based switch. Good VoIP systems will also provide remote login capability for remote working which can be really useful for Recovery situations.

Our data network keeps running slow making it impossible to work, our provider assures us it is not their fault, what can I do?

Finding the root cause of a network problem can be difficult.  You may need to appoint a specialist Network Diagnostics/Network Assurance engineer to fault find the problem. We work with expert partners that can provide the monitoring equipment and expertise to find and resolve the issue.

Will migrating our data to the cloud be more resilient than operating local servers?

A well run Cloud infrastructure should in theory be more resilient than running your own servers.  However you do need to investigate your vendors Continuity arrangements in detail as some providers are super resilient and others can be less so.  Also bear in mind that you will be dependent upon availability of connectivity to the Cloud.  If you need assistance with choosing or reviewing a Cloud provider please Contact Us