Nothing Beats Having a Plan

“The worst ___ ever!!!”. That’s a phrase that is incredibly overused. We use it to emphasis how bad something really is. When I hear that phrase, I immediately listen, but always with a grain of salt. Very few stories ever live up to the proper level of respect that “The worst ever…” deserves. The tale I am about to tell you is an exception.

Back in November of 2013, we received a support call from one of our best customers that some of the files on their server would not open. We remote connected to their server and discovered that their files were in the process of being encrypted. A few minutes later, a scary red window (see an example below – tell me that’s not scary) opened and gave all of us the bad news that we all feared. This customer’s server had Cryptolocker malware running.

This is, wait for it… the worst malware I have ever seen in my 20+ years in this industry! Without getting into a ton of technical details (otherwise known as techy-speak or mumbo-jumbo), this software locks your files out and requires you to pay a ransom in order to get them unlocked or after 72 hours the files will be deleted permanently. As you can see above, they even give you a countdown timer for you to watch before your files “blow up”.

As expected, the customer immediately asked, “What do we do now?”. We told them that they have two options. One, they could pay the relatively small ransom of $100 and see if the bad guys would unlock their files. Two, since we had a good, clean backup of their data prior to the malware being installed, we could restore the affected data from backup. The second option is more labor intensive, but there were no guarantees that the bad guys would truly unlock their files even if our customer paid the ransom. Since bad guys usually are not very trustworthy, the customer decided to take advantage of their disaster recovery plans and restore their data from backup. In the end, our customer was back up and running in a few hours and we were able to easily remove the malware from their server.

My point to sharing this story today, is to demonstrate how planning is everything, in today’s world of information technology (IT). Our customer survived this catastrophe by having a solid plan in place. The plan began when they hired our company to support their IT. Then they took our advice and implemented a data backup plan. That data backup was then periodically tested to make it would work in case of a disaster. This plan wasn’t formal per se, but when the need arose, our customer was ready to respond.

Nothing beats having a plan. What happens if you have a fire? What happens if you have a flood? What happens if your computer breaks? Have a plan. Find a smart person you can trust and make a plan. Don’t get caught in the middle of “The worst ____ ever!” without a plan.

How Long Can Your Company Operate Without Technology? (Don't Worry. This is not about Disaster Recovery...)

How long can your company operate with technology? In this case we are talking about information technology (IT). How long can your company make money, service customers, and meet its business objectives without access to computers, email and the Internet? The answer to that question has changed dramatically for companies in the last few years. And no, this is not a post about Disaster Recovery…

Businesses and their requirements, have greatly changed over the last few years. More and more companies now rely on information technology to not only produce and sell their products, but also to communicate with, and market to, their customers, streamline overall operations, and to rapidly evaluate their health and market position. Workforce mobility and flexibility are also drivers in the increase of information technology in corporate America. The impact of information technology is wide reaching in both large and small businesses.

Even with all of the aforementioned examples, many business owners are still not convinced that they need information technology to meet their business goals. Being an IT consulting company in Buffalo, NY, we have used a simple test to evaluate how much a business owner feels that they need information technology to run their business. We start by asking the owner, “How long can your company operate without technology?”. Most times we hear, “We don’t need the Internet or email or even computers. We can do everything by hand like we used to. We were successful before we had computers.”. At this point we then respond (while typically holding a power cable to some server rack or Internet router) with, “So I am going to go ahead and pull this plug…”. I think out of all of the times we have done this test, we have had the same result. The owner begins to sweat and jumps between us and the power cords, while at the same time, explaining what he really meant by, “ …we can do everything by hand like we used to.”.

Information technology is invasive. It touches everything we do and for most businesses, it needs to be functioning and stable. The irony is that most IT devices are still very mechanical and full of breakable, moving parts. Add to that, software that is typically created in a vacuum, and in complete disregard for other third-party applications that may also reside within a particular device. What most users are left with is a formula for eventual disaster. Information technology breaks. The faster that business owners understand and appreciate this, the better protected they will be from finding out the answer to “How long can your company operate without technology?”.

How can business owners protect their businesses from experiencing unexpected and unwanted IT downtime? Two words, Trusted Support. Find a company that specializes in supporting similar IT environments to yours. Fully vet them by asking for references, checking software and hardware certifications, ask a lot of questions and demand smart answers. Good, experienced IT support companies are out there and they are not always expensive. Look for a company that will put their neck on a line and offer you Do-Not-Exceed Pricing and Fixed-Price Support (a monthly/annual fee to cover all support issues). That way you know what you are going to pay before they do any work.

If you spend some time doing some research, accept that information technology is vital to your business, and that good, experienced IT support from a trusted IT support company is an investment in your company’s overall success, then you should never have to find out, “How long can your company operate without technology?”.