{"id":13722,"date":"2019-01-03T10:29:58","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T15:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/avtech.com\/articles\/?p=13722"},"modified":"2019-01-03T14:49:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T19:49:09","slug":"business-continuity-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avtech.com\/articles\/13722\/business-continuity-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Continuity in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we start 2019, many businesses and organizations will be looking for ways to improve their uptime and availability, as well as increase revenue. After all, the two go hand in hand \u2013 if your business can\u2019t operate due to servers being down, or your phone system isn\u2019t working, you\u2019re going to lose money (and potentially customers as well). Those are just a few reasons why business continuity in 2019 is on the forefront of the minds<\/a> of many managers and business owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve talked a lot about business continuity<\/a> and Room Alert\u2019s role in helping keep our customer data centers, server rooms, IT facilities, and critical assets protected against downtime. It\u2019s also important to share how we are using Room Alert in-house to protect our own assets and ensure our uptime to help our users around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, every business continuity plan needs more than\nenvironment monitoring; our team identified several areas that we could improve\nin 2019 to help protect against downtime. We wanted to share what we\u2019re\ncurrently working on in our own business continuity plan to help spur some\nideas that may be helpful to your organization as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing runs without power<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Having power is critical to every organization. We\u2019re dependent, just like every other business out there, on all our offices having electricity to operate! Thankfully our headquarters is on a robust power grid that\u2019s led to very few minor electricity disruptions, however we are in a region that\u2019s impacted by both hurricanes<\/a> as well as blizzards<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every situation can be improved upon, so as we begin 2019 we\u2019ll\nbe replacing a number of aging UPS units in our server room, as well as in\nemployee offices. UPS units, like any other battery, lose charge over time and\nneed to be monitored and eventually replaced. Rather than wait for a power\noutage to discover UPS units that are no longer holding charges, we\u2019re proactively\nreplacing older units to ensure as much power coverage as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to new UPS units, we\u2019ll also be adding an automatic standby generator to help support other areas of the building not currently covered by backup power. A generator will also help support ongoing operations in the event the northeast is hit with a sustained power outage due to extreme weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Servers don\u2019t float<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unexpected water intrusions are a nightmare for any\nbusiness, and with the over-increasing reliance on computers, servers, and\nother sensitive network appliances, even the smallest leak could turn into a costly\nmulti-day outage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Flood<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Our team has been in the process of adding Flood Sensors<\/a> to areas of our building that have experienced water-related issues in the past, usually due to heavy rains or rapid snow melts. We also have some sensitive areas that have older pipes running through them, as our offices are in a converted historic mill; we\u2019ll be increasing the amount of Flood Sensors in those areas as some added protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water detection will help notify our team of any unwanted leaks, and to help mitigate potential water intrusion we also have Flood Protect & Control Kits<\/a> stored throughout our facility. This way we\u2019ll have ways of easily stopping leaks and cleaning up any water, should something unexpected happen. We\u2019re also adding Room Alert 3 Wi-Fi monitors<\/a> in remote areas of the building that aren\u2019t heated as much as the populated areas to help protect against frozen pipes this winter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a plan for remote operations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Last year we migrated our phone system from a legacy PBX setup\nto an online-based VoIP system that includes soft phones via mobile app. This\nmove has helped increase phone availability internally as well as with our\nusers. Should an extreme weather situation cause our office to remain closed,\nsuch as a travel ban during a blizzard, our team will be able to use our VoIP\napp to make and receive calls from their office extension using their cell\nphones. With customers in 186 of 196 countries, we can\u2019t let a little snow get\nin the way of working with Room Alert users around the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the VoIP phone system, we\u2019re also improving our data reliability by doubling the size of our available offsite storage, as well as increasing the frequency of our offsite backups. Moving to an off-premise VoIP setup allowed us to increase the data traffic on one of our Internet connections since legacy voice services were no longer required; that additional bandwidth is helpful with increased data backup traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make your business more resilient in 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t wait until an interruption causes your business to\nlose revenue and customers in 2019. There\u2019s no time like the present to review\nyour organization\u2019s business continuity plan and see where you can improve reliability.\nWhether it\u2019s adding environment monitors, increasing your data backups, or\ninstalling a redundant Internet connection, there\u2019s always room for improvement\nto help protect your organization. Make 2019 a year that you have minimal\ndowntime (or even better, no measurable downtime at all), and we hope that Room\nAlert plays an active role in helping you achieve 100% uptime. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we start 2019, many businesses and organizations will be looking for ways to improve their uptime and availability, as well as increase revenue. After all, the two go hand in hand \u2013 if your business can\u2019t operate due to servers being down, or your phone system isn\u2019t working, you\u2019re going to lose money (and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[36,50,57,66,139],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n