Technology Tuneup for Fall

Network World - Summertime ends when the kids trudge back to school, meaning this week or next, making students and parents blue. The fall season for making green starts now, particularly if you're in retail or connected in a big way to retail, which the majority of small businesses are. So let's check out your backup, your collaboration abilities with customers and suppliers, and any new equipment you may need. Oh, and don't worry about Windows 7 yet.

While about two-thirds of small businesses would never think of betting the payroll in Las Vegas, they do roll the dice with their business every day because of poor or non-existent backup systems. Dollar for dollar, I believe a good backup system is the most critical business survival tool small businesses have. Yet most studies show only about a third of small businesses have a complete backup process in place.

Let's see whether you're in the two-thirds of businesses tempting fate or the third with good, nay, excellent backup systems. We need to test not your backups, but your restoration processes. Remember that users never think about backup, they just beg for files to be restored now and then.

This is a two step process. Put the names of all your computers, personal and servers on small pieces of paper. Put those papers in a hat and mix them up. Pull one of those papers out and pretend that computer or server suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke. If that computer's a laptop, pretend it was lost or stolen, meaning any USB hard drive used for backup disappears as well.

How long does it take you to find and restore all the files from that lost computer? If two hour or less, you're in great shape. If two days or more, you're in really bad shape. If you don't even know where to start the restore process, go buy some good luck charms and hope your good fortune continues.

For the second step of the process, identify which data files are most critical in your business. Put those names on a piece of paper and find your hat. Pull one out and see how long it takes to restore that file if it disappeared suddenly.

How long does it take to restore your customer information files? Your payroll files? Your Accounts Receivable? Your tax withholding files?

Unless you're one of those rare, well prepared small businesses, you’ll need to revisit your backup systems and fix the holes. Today, cloud-based SaaS (Software As A Service) backup options exist for all sizes of businesses. Files need to be backed up locally for fast retrieval, but also remotely in case your backup system dies or gets stolen. SaaS vendors make this possible for pennies per gigabyte stored per month. You can keep rolling the dice, but remember the rule in Las Vegas: the house always wins if you keep playing long enough. Bad backups will cost you sooner or later.