Five steps every business should take to prepare for a business interruption.

When people think of disasters, they generally envision hurricanes, tornados or floods – catastrophic events that devastate communities. But for a business, a disaster can be something as small as a failed switch or computer virus. These seemingly minor events can have a shocking impact on a business, often bringing operations to a standstill.

“The impacts of an interruption can be stunning,” says Bob Boyd, President and CEO of Agility Recovery Solutions, the industry leader in mobile business continuity solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. “Statistics indicate that about 60 percent of the businesses affected by a disaster will not survive because they do not have a recovery plan in place.” (more…)

Imagine that your business has a make-or-break presentation scheduled today with a prospective client. But after arriving at work this morning, you discovered that key files needed for the meeting are corrupt. The culprit: a virus-infected email message that one of your employees forwarded from the Web last night to everyone in the company.

It may sound like every business’ worst nightmare. But as the use of communications tools such as email and instant messaging (IM) proliferates, it’s a scenario that all businesses must wake up to sooner rather than later. If you’re serious about protecting your business’ intellectual property and other sensitive information, then you need a comprehensive privacy policy that addresses employee use of email and IM. This article will show you how to implement some privacy policy “best practices.”

Assess your risks Few people would doubt that email has revolutionized communications in today’s business world. According to the American Management Association’s 2003 “Email Rules, Policies and Practices” survey, 86 percent of respondents said that email has made them more efficient, while 51 percent said they are much more efficient. Gartner, meanwhile, forecasts that 70 percent of all corporations will use IM this year, and that by 2005 IM will represent 50 percent of all business-to-client communications. (more…)

Server virtualization is a great way for your IT organization to battle today’s economic challenges. You can reduce costs through server consolidation—which in turn increases ROI as you run multiple workloads on a single server. Plus, the ability to deploy new applications—and scale them up or down—boosts business agility.

But be mindful of pitfalls that can undermine these advantages. As companies large and small have learned the hard way, you can negate the cost-saving benefits of server virtualization by choosing an inefficient SAN storage solution that does not properly support the advanced requirements of virtualized environments. (more…)

Dear Friends:

Over the past several years we have experienced three major storms that have resulted in power outages lasting 5 days or more: The Mothers Day flood of 2006, the ice storm of 2008, and last weeks destructive wind storm. These extreme weather events are becoming more and more common.

The best way to protect your business from weather-related losses is Disaster Planning.

If a storm causes your business to lose electricity or if your PRI/Voice T-1 went down, how would your customers reach you? I&T can help you set up a fail-proof plan. Simple steps  like forwarding your DID to your cell phone  can keep your business running seamlessly during an outage. And with an I&T voice mail box on your main number youll have access to Call Detail Records so you can follow up with everyone who tried to call your toll-free number during the storm.

Dont wait for the next big storm to get your company ready. Call us now and set up a plan.

Best regards,
Pete

Learn about what you can do to quickly and effectively recover your business’ systems in the event of a disruption.

For most small and mid-sized businesses, computing systems and electronic information are necessary to conduct business on a daily basis. You shouldn’t have to think about disasters causing you to lose valuable resources and data, but the reality is that the risk of unforeseen circumstances and disruptions to IT systems is always present. If your IT systems go down, it’s not only inconvenient, it could cost your business a substantial amount of money. A study by Forrester Research estimated that the average cost of downtime for an e-commerce site is $8,000 per hour.

It is natural to depend on your information systems to be functioning reliably and effectively at all times. Whether your business needs to process certain orders by Christmas Day, or report financial data to the government to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, time is of the essence. By having a recovery system in place, you can help ensure a quick and comprehensive recovery if your business ever faces a disruption or unanticipated problem that shuts down your IT systems. (more…)