Backup and Disaster Recovery
Walking through the early stages of a disaster is a critical process for a business. To do this effectively, you need to know how things work and how they will be impacted or effected in various scenarios. Can you work from home if the office needs to close? Can you access everything you need to from anywhere you need to be? What happens to your systems if the office burns down, or you have a flood? How will you cope with no internet for a prolonged period? How long will it take to restore a cloud-based backup if you lose your data or get a virus? Building a disaster recovery plan should not involve a company like ours trying to scare you into spending large amounts of money. What it should do is highlight the potential risks and implications of different scenarios, in a way that allows you to make considered decisions, which balance risks and costs. We have lots of experience helping businesses build cost effective, practical disaster recovery plans.
Microsoft 365 Backup
Storing your data on cloud platforms such as One Drive and Sharepoint is undoubtedly more secure than on devices based on site, as it removes the risk of data being lost from hardware failure. It doesn’t remove all threats however as there is still a risk to your business of loss or damage to your data. Very often the largest of such risks can come from within your business, and for this reason it is always good practice to keep a second copy of everything. Below are some examples of how your data can be compromised:
- Accidental loss; This is where a member of staff accidentally deletes files.
- Malicious deletion; This is where a member of staff chooses to deliberately remove files from your cloud storage.
- Cyber attack; Whilst Microsoft cloud storage is more secure, it’s still not completely immune to malicious attacks from online criminals.
We offer an additional cloud backup service which is completely secure and takes a copy of all of your data each day and keeps it for an infinite amount of time. If the worst should happen and you discover damage or loss to your files, you can go back into your backups and recover them.
Virtual Server and Colocation
Many businesses are starting to move away from having servers onsite, for a number of reasons. They take up a lot of space, they are expensive to buy and maintain, they can be vulnerable and inflexible and they can become outdated. The alternative options available include renting servers in data centre (virtual / hosted servers) or renting space in a data centre to host your own servers (co-location). We can offer either of these options, but more importantly we can share our knowledge with you so that you can arrive at a the right decision, which is best for your business, both in terms of functionality and also cost.
Hybrid Cloud Deployments
Some businesses have servers on site, some have them in the cloud and some may decide that a blend of both is provides the right solution; this is called a hybrid environment. The key to setting up successful hybrid environments is to do in a way that it works seamlessly and effectively and this requires architecture and design, all of which we can do for you. When designed and deployed well, hybrid environments can prove very effective and user friendly and we specialise in getting this right for you and your team.
Office 365
Office 365 is becoming more and more common but is often under utilised due to a lack of understanding of what it can do or possibly a previous bad experience. We love Office 365 and we use it to run our business, from emailing and collaboration to file storage, backups and security. The fundamental part of a successful Office 365 deployment is that you know what you want to use it for and how [we can help with this] and that the vendor you chose knows how to install it cleanly and seamlessly into your businesses. When all of this is done well, Office 365 can literally change your life forever! We’re experts in Office 365 deployments for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Windows Virtual Desktop
Windows virtual desktop allows you to have a cloud based desktop that you can access from any machine at any time and from anywhere you want to be. This is a great home working solution and also provides you with more security and flexibility, having everything in the cloud. Once set up you can also save money on hardware as it requires less processing power from your computers and can also extend their life span.
Data Centre Solutions
Rather than switching everything to the cloud, you can also move your own servers into a data centre or use hosted servers which are dedicated to you. If you like the idea of having your own servers which are not in the office, we can provide data centre solutions for you and also perform migrations into new, highly secure and resilient environments. We can also help you with advice and guidance so that you can make more informed decisions on the best server environments for your business requirements.
Email Infrastructure
You can choose to manage your company emails through an onsite mail server or using a cloud solution such as Microsoft 365. Whichever your preferred means of managing company emails, we can help to setup and support these environments. We can also perform mass migrations should you wish to move from servers across to the cloud and will do this with minimal disruption and also in a way that ensures all of your old data is retained and moved smoothly to your new environment.