Your data is the lifeblood of your business. Unfortunately, there are many risks to that data today. Many risks can be defined as accidental, such as inadvertent deletion by a user or failure of a hardware component. There are unforeseen problems, such as human error a system upgrade or migration. There are also malicious risks, such as viruses that delete critical files or disgruntled employees causing damage.

Without a tested proven backup solution you risk everything: databases, email, files, network services, firewall settings, software licenses, etc. The importance of a comprehensive backup strategy cannot be overstated.

A backup strategy defines your business data needs and then translates that into the appropriate hardware/software and configurations within your environment. To often backup solutions setup years prior haven't been re-evaluated with the current business needs and become outdated. This dilemma rears its ugly head during the worst possible time, when a system fails or data has been lost. Then, its too late.

Gray Matter Computing advocates proper documentation and regular testing of your backup solution.

High Availability

High availability is one of catch phrases that have come to mean many different things. Vendor marketing has often exacerbated the problem. The first thing to do is develop your business requirements and analyze the TCO for your various business units before investing in new High Availability technology. There are different levels of availability that need to be considered within the context of your business needs. Many aspects need to be considered when evaluating your high availability needs.

• What systems should be highly available: network, firewall, email, databases, financial applications, etc.
• What level of availability is acceptable: Zero downtime, 99.999% uptime, 80% uptime.
• How long can recovery take: Fail over within milliseconds, recoverable within minutes, hours, or days.
• What is the budget: Any level of availability can be achieved but at what cost? What is the cost of downtime versus cost of new hardware solutions?
• Who will maintain the solution: Many new solutions offer High Availability but expensive require outside consultants or vendor specific engineers to maintain.

This is just a starting point to evaluating your realistic high availability needs and applicable solutions. No matter the business requirements and the solution you choose, Gray Matter Computing has the expertise and partners to plan, implement, and support your High Available System. In addition, our engineers will provide your staff the documentation in easy to follow procedures so that you have the power to manage your email and recovery from disasters without having to rely on outside consultants in the future.

Storage Solutions

The expansion in data needs that has occurred within the last 5 years has mandated newer more innovative ways to manage and maintain data. Backup windows are shrinking, data recovery times are shrinking, and sheer amount of data is growing so fast that in many situations convention solutions have been ill prepared to keep up. But as new vendors put their marketing departments on full spin and jockey to position their storage packages it has become increasingly difficult to determine the best solution for your needs and budget.

Gray Matter Computing understands your dilemma and can help you determine when you might need a storage solution, what benefits you will receive, and which ones fit within your budget.