Our job is “proactive network management”, ex: we try to prevent problems before they occur.
A good analogy is your car; you change the oil regularly, carry a spare tire and make sure your tires are properly inflated and rotated. Will this guarantee you won’t have any problems? NOPE! Will these actions prevent many problems the occur because of neglect? YEP! Will these simple actions (take ahead of time) reduce the impact of the inevitable problem? YOU BET!
Most of this is common sense!
So why, tell me, do some business owners (even some who are on our managed services plan) neglect the basic necessities of preventative maintenance?
I think it is because computers and networks have become so reliable that many people forget what it is like to be down and without any access to the critical data and functions that their businesses rely on to services their customers.
A shame really!!
Just recently, we had a customer completely ignore all recommendations and run into a huge problem! First, they were using what we call a “white box” for a server, ex: built out of pieces and parts in someones garage. Second, they elected to NOT go with our backup solution and ‘roll their own.’ Third, they ignored repeated warnings from us of the risks they were taking.
Of course, the inevitable happened; a drive failed in their server. Now normally this should not be a problem but the cheap RAID card in their server would not gracefully recover the array – there was some conflict with the RAID card’s BIOS an the motherboard on the server (yet another really good reason to always use well known manufacturers; like Lenovo; for critical components)
In the end, we had to pull teeth to get this system cobbled back together again, costing the customer days of lost productivity.
It pains us to have to repeat this story over and over again (it happens at least once per year without fail!) when small and inexpensive solutions can be put in place to completely eliminate problems with data recovery.
Good Networking!
Eric Hobbs
Technology Associates
ehobbs@technologyassociates.net
919-459-0109 – Direct
Things to Think About…
- Prepare for the worst.Know your recovery plan ahead of time. Don’t wait until the junk has hit the fan before you worry about disaster preparedness
- Trust your Partner. Find a good partner and trust their recommendations – a good partner is looking out for your best interests. If you don’t truct your partners recommendations; this should tell you something! Find a new partner!
- Don’t scrimp on critical components. Don’t be penny-wise-and-pound-foolish where critical network components are concerned.
