Data is the most important asset of your business. Data could be anything from accounting records to credit card numbers, tax records, phone numbers or even your company’s website. Your data is among the most important commodities to your company. We all know this, but yet, why do so many of us fail to protect our data?

Let’s say you had been working on a project for months. You had spent hours in development. Tinkering until the website was the exact setup you want and then, BAM, disaster strikes. Your hard drive dies and you lose all of your work. How could this of been prevented? Backups, which brings us to the importance of March 31st.

You see, March 31st is the World Backup Day. No, it’s not an official holiday, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of the day. We all have data that is very important to us. This data takes many forms and if we lost it, could greatly affect our businesses. World Backup Day, March 31st, is a day set to remind us to backup our data. If you haven’t already, why not? Have you seen the backup options over at TurnKey Internet? Something to fit everyone’s situation.

So April 1st comes around, with March now in the rear view mirror – and people shout April Fools – but if you don’t want to be the subject of a tragic April Fools day gone bad we hope you took a moment to make sure your business has a backup plan, and that its working. Every year we replace computers, servers, laptops and more – so its easy to forget to make sure each new device is being backed up – but March 31st is a great day to remind yourself each year to double check them all in your office.

Need help getting your company’s backup and disaster recovery plan up and running? Visit turnkeyinternet.net/myplan to receive a FREE consultation!

Choosing to migrate your company’s IT infrastructure and data to the cloud is no easy decision. However, the number of benefits that the cloud offers to you and your business can make this change well worth it. The cloud is able to offer you many more security features and guarantees for your data than you typically have in your own on-site server room. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits migrating to the cloud will provide.

Better Data Security

Possibly the most important aspect of cloud storage, data security is the main priority of cloud services. With some high-profile companies becoming the victims of data breaches in the last couple of years, cloud providers have upped their investments in access control, identity management, intrusion prevention and virus and malware protection. These improvements have resulted in increased security protocols and more protection for communication between users and servers.

Improved Availability

Cloud providers are exceptionally reliable. The connection is on 99.99 percent of the time, only going down for maintenance, and you will have access to your applications and data at all times and from practically anywhere. Data stored in the cloud is available to those who need it no matter where they are located. With today’s internet connections via mobile devices and smartphones, you will be able to access your data and your applications no matter what you are doing.

Reduced Costs

Migrating all of your data to the cloud will allow you to reduce the size and cost of your on-site location. For example, you will be able to remove servers, lower your software costs and potentially reduce IT staff without compromising the integrity or security of your data. Most cloud storage is paid on an as-needed basis, so you will only pay for the amount of server and infrastructure capacity that your business needs, and you can change that amount at any time.

Finding the Right Data Center

Once you have decided that storing your information in the cloud is the right decision for your business, you will need to find the right provider and data center. You are placing all of your important data in the hands of this provider, so you must make sure that you choose the right one. Technology is constantly changing and improving, and you need to be able to trust that your cloud provider will keep up with the evolution of security needs. Before choosing a data center, you should inquire about the physical security of the facility, what back-up measures for power and internet are in place, as well as what level of support is available to you if you need it.

When you are searching for a data center, ask potential candidates about their compliance to SSAE-18 and SOC. This set of standards measures the amount of control that a service organization maintains over your sensitive data and financial information. An audit will report any flaws in data flow. You should also inquire about compliance to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This regulation ensures the security and privacy of private health information that is stored on cloud services. A HIPAA audit will demonstrate holes in the security of such specific and sensitive data. If your data center choice is compliant with both of these standards, you can rest assured that your sensitive data will be monitored and its integrity will be maintained.

TurnKey Internet owns and operates its own private, SSAE-18 SOC  1 & SOC 2 certified, HIPAA compliant data center located in New York’s Tech Valley region. Our data center was a former U.S. Government building that was purchased by TurnKey in 2010. It is made to U.S. Federal Government standards, with 1-foot thick concrete along the perimeter, plus additional reinforced walls and security enhancements. We have installed advanced security systems, and infrared based surveillance monitoring cameras. Employees all undergo background screening, and clients are not permitted within the facility except with photo ID and escorted by trained security personnel at all times.

Owning our data center, we have been able to design, build and maintain every aspect of its construction to provide an ideal hosted server environment. This allows us to provide our clients fast, secure and reliable performance at all times. We’ve also been able to leverage the state-of-the-art in green technologies, making our data center among the most energy-efficient world-wide. For more information, visit https://turnkeyinternet.net/datacenters

From buying insurance policies to installing security cameras, you take every possible step to protect your business from disaster. But you power on your computer and are met with a screen that claims to have encrypted all of your files. Unless you pay a fee before the timer expires, the program will delete your files forever. Although each situation will be different, this is what will likely happen when ransomware strikes your business.

If you store your customer data, tax information, contracts or any other important files on your network, your business can suffer. Not only will ransomware lock your files, but it can also destroy your reputation if your customers find out that your servers are not secure. When the future of your business is on the line, you can’t afford to leave yourself exposed to the threat.

Taking preventative steps to minimize the effects ransomware is a lot easier than trying to remove it. Once the ransomware takes over a computer, you won’t be able to recover your files without paying the ransom. To ensure your business is ready for a ransomware attack, you should focus on some key areas:

Employee Education

Criminals and hackers will use a range of tactics to infect a business or organization with their malicious software, including sending an email containing an infected link to one of your employees. The infected email can even be made to appear as if it came from one of your company’s email addresses. The moment your employee clicks on the link, the ransomware will jump into action and hold your files hostage. Also, if a member of your team is infected at home and brings a flash drive to work, you could have a problem on your hands.

Teaching your employees how to stay safe online is one of the top ways to protect your business from such attacks. If you want to avoid taking unneeded risks, prevent your employees from using personal devices on your network. Ensure that each person who works for you knows not to click on links unless they are sure that no danger is present. When someone from your company sends an email, have your team call the person to confirm that the email is legitimate. In addition to showing people how to stay safe when they use your network, consider putting policies in place to add an extra layer of protection.

Cloud Backups

Ransomware can easily spread across your office network, encrypting and possibly deleting all of your company’s files. If you want to do everything that you can to avoid such a disaster, consider getting an off-site dedicated server or cloud backup solution for your business. Doing so will allow you to store copies of your files outside of your infected office network, so that you can recover them after an attack.

One thing to keep in mind when searching for a cloud backup provider is storage limits. If your business has a large amount of data that will need to be backed up into the cloud, consider looking for a provider that offers an unlimited storage option.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

No matter how prepared, you can never totally eliminate the threat of ransomware. Even if you have taken the step to backup all of you company’s critical files, you can still be left with the daunting task of restoring all that data as well as needing to recover your company’s entire IT infrastructure. This is where Disaster Recovery as a Service or DRaaS comes in.

With a DRaaS solution, you can have a complete backup of your business’s vital IT infrastructure at an off-site datacenter. Entire operating systems, whether it be physical or virtual, databases or individual files and folders can all safely and securely be replicated to a datacenter. Data can then be securely pushed back down to your office location, or it can even be restored into a virtual cloud environment, utilizing Cloud Replication.

Cloud Replication

DRaaS solutions that feature Cloud Replication allow for the restoration of data to a virtualized server. Utilizing an off-site datacenter’s cloud infrastructure, data can be made available instantly, then accessed remotely from anywhere in the world over multiple, redundant, high speed networks. This removes the bottleneck of local internet service providers bandwidth availability, and saves potentially hours of business critical time by bypassing the need to wait for your onsite systems to restore and be back in working order.

Should a disaster occur in which your infrastructure is no longer available or accessible to be restored, the need to purchase new hardware can be completely eliminated. Utilizing a DRaaS solution can have your business back online in minutes, not days. Employees can continue their work from home, remotely accessing images of their old workstations running live in the cloud, ensuring your business does not skip a beat.

Be Prepared When IT Disasters Strike

TurnKey Internet is Upstate New York’s only Tier IV featured Data Center providing 100% Guaranteed Uptime. We offer Colocation, IT Infrastructure, New York to California replication, on-premise 24×7 expert local staff, and the Cloud solutions to help your business succeed.

TurnKey’s DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) solution offers live Cloud Replication for your on-premise IT infrastructure to our Tier IV featured Data Center in a secure virtualized hybrid environment that is instantly available and securely accessed remotely from anywhere.

Don’t gamble, call TurnKey Internet at 518-618-0999 or visit turnkeyinternet.net/myplan to receive a FREE consultation of your company’s Disaster Recovery Plan.

Over the past few years malware infections have seen an exponential growth. They are becoming more sophisticated, using newer methods that are not only harder to detect, but also require less user interaction. One of the more prominent forms of malware, especially in recent days, is called Ransomware.

Ransomware is form of malware, or malicious software, that carries out its attack by encrypting the data on a computer or server, then blocking access to that data until a ransom is paid.

Security researchers report attackers are not only upgrading their ransomware to make it more unbreakable, they are also using unique methods of distribution. In some cases, these methods require no user interaction at all. In the past, most ransomware infections occurred via phishing attacks, which required a user to click on a malicious website or email link. But these newer attacks are less dependent on user interaction and more dependent on unpatched software or Operating System vulnerabilities or poor security practices.

Ransomware is spreading faster and is self-replicating within organizations and businesses before coordinating ransom demands. It is critical that companies take the needed steps to prepare and protect their network as well as their local and cloud-based servers. The damage of ransomware encrypting and disabling all of your corporate data within seconds or minutes is real and has lead to some high profile cases including hospitals being locked out of all their data due to ransomware.

There are some easy yet vital best practices you should follow to protect yourself and your company from becoming victims of ransomware. First and by far the most important, backup your data. Second, consistently keep your software and systems up-to-date. Third, make sure you are utilizing some form of antivirus and malware protection software on your PC’s and servers. Finally, BACKUP YOUR DATA! Yes, I know I said that already, but this step is so critical it’s worth mentioning twice. If you don’t currently have a backup solution, there are many cloud-based disaster recovery and backup options to choose from, such as TurnKey Vault.

Your primary goal is to protect your users, not just your network. Whether they are on a laptop, tablet or smartphone, your users need to be protected everywhere.  However, it is unreasonable to assume that you will be 100% protected from every threat that exists. New more advanced methods to attack computers and encrypt their files are popping up everyday. This is why your number one priority should be to backup your data regularly.

Make sure whatever backup solution you deploy offers data encryption, supports both desktop PC’s and Macs, as well as Linux and Windows based servers. A backup solution like TurnKey Vault offers live cloud replication which will get you back on your feet in minutes in case of a true disaster by creating a live cloud-based copy of any PC workstation or Server accessible from anywhere over the Internet to get you access to your data and applications quickly.

Is your company prepared for a catastrophe that could result in the loss of your data? You’ve most likely taken out insurance to protect yourself against natural disasters, robberies and similar catastrophic events. Your data should be no different. The only difference is that this type of insurance involves making one or more copies of your information so that it can be accessed if something happens to the original data, whether it’s the result of one of those catastrophic situations mentioned above or it’s something like a hardware failure or a disastrous infection.

Onsite Backup

Onsite backup involves you copying your data to a separate or shared drive that is located on the same premises as your primary data source. The most significant benefit of this plan is that you can always have your secondary data right there. If something happens to your primary computer system, it’s normally easy to start utilizing the backup sources, and you don’t need to have an internet connection to do so. The cost of utilizing this type of data backup is usually relatively low, and the process of backing up your data with this method is normally pretty simple.

However, several significant disadvantages exist as well. A natural disaster such as a flood or tornado that destroys your original data will often take out your backup data too if it’s being kept onsite. And if somebody breaks in and steals your primary data, doing the same to your secondary data too can be done on the same trip.

Cloud Backup

Those taking advantage of cloud backup options will have their data sent to a remote datacenter on a regular basis. Probably the most significant benefit of going this route is that multiple copies of your data will can be made to stored on multiple servers located in a variety of places. That way if something disastrous happened to one place or server where your backup data was stored, you could simply access an alternate. Your data is safe at these locations as it is encrypted before being stored, and you will generally enjoy unlimited or nearly unlimited storage capacity. Another benefit is being able to automate the process so that you are not dependent on somebody remembering to back up the data.

An indirect benefit of utilizing a cloud backup method is that those who are authorized to do so can easily access the data, whether they are located across town or even on the other side of the world. This is a great benefit for organizations with multiple locations or remote staff.

However, some cons exist with this method. It generally costs a little more to go this route instead of backing up your data onsite, although that is countered by not needing to purchase your own backup equipment. How quickly you can retrieve your data is also going to be very dependent on your office’s internet speed, something that is a non-issue if your data is onsite. You also have to make sure that you research and trust the datacenter provider you are using to back up your data remotely.

What to Back Up

Determining what needs to be backed up should be addressed before you look at how you back it up. You can back up everything, otherwise known as a full backup. This obviously requires the most storage space as well as the most time. However, it helps ensure that you will be completely back up and running in a timely manner if some disaster causes your primary data source to no longer be accessible.

However, this is not always necessary. In that case, consider an incremental or partial backup. An incremental backup involves the backing up of only files that had been created or changed since the last time your data had been backed up. This tends to be much quicker, but you do need to then ensure that you have access to several incremental backups in order to fully restore your data. It can also be difficult to organize your files or to find a specific one if you are downloading several incremental backups after disaster struck.

A partial backup means that you are only backing up part of your data, presumably the most valuable portion. However, the difference between a partial backup and a complete backup is usually minimal, meaning that, with a few exceptions, you might as well just back up everything.

Organizing Your Backup Plan

Keep some important details of your backup plan in written form. This includes exactly what’s being backed up, when and how often that occurs and who is responsible for ensuring that it occurs at the time it’s supposed to and to the thoroughness that is expected.

Do you want to back up everything that is located on computers at the office? What about data located on laptops or cellphones that are taken to and from home? Is your email or website backed up? Do you want them to be? Do you possess physical forms and documents that you want scanned into electronic form and then backed up in that form so that you are set if something such as a fire or flood destroys the hard copies?

Focus initially on the most important data, whatever would cause the most damage were the information to become inaccessible. These files should also be backed up more often. Of course, it does take time and money to back up your information, but it is well worth it when you consider the repercussions of losing access to it for a considerable time period or forever.

When businesses save files to their hard drive or another storage device, they often feel as though their data will always be available when they need it. That assumption, however, is dangerous and can cause any company to lose their important files. Data corruption, hardware failure and malicious attacks are just a few of the threats that can harm your files, and those who fail to back up their data will be out of luck. Confused and frustrated, these individuals often find out the hard way that they should have taken action.

If you don’t want to repeat the same mistake, then it’s time to take a look at the different ways that you can protect your data from being destroyed. Taking the right steps will give you peace of mind because you will know that your files are not in danger. No matter if you are trying to safeguard family pictures or business contacts, the following information will help you reach your goals.

Cloud Backup

When protecting your data is your No. 1 goal, you might feel as though creating a local backup is enough, but it’s not. If all of your files are stored on the same server, then you will still lose everything if that server gets destroyed. The good news is that you can combat this problem by utilizing a Cloud Backup solution. This option involves uploading the data that you want to protect to ‘The Cloud’ – a cluster of servers located in a remote, secure datacenter.

If something happens to your main or local storage server, cloud backups enable you to still have access to the files that you need. Best of all, your data will be available anytime, anywhere, and from nearly any device.

Set a Schedule

After learning about the importance of keeping backups, many businesses either dedicate a server to secure their files or rent one. At first, they put in the effort to create backups on a regular basis, but they don’t remain dedicated to the process. As time goes on, they often stop using their backup servers. To avoid that situation, you can determine how often you need to create backups and set a schedule.

When you do so, staying on track will be that much easier. Some people backup their files one time each week, but others do so every night. The number of backups that you want to create will depend on several factors, but the important part is to remain consistent.

Set a Retention Limit

Once you have a backup system in place, you want to decide on the amount of time that you will store your data. Many businesses will delete some backups every few months or years, but you might need to keep some records for as long as you can. For example, tax records should be saved for seven years if you don’t want to encounter problems.

Although deciding which files to keep is not always an easy task, prioritizing your data can help. The length of time that you will keep each backup will also depend on the amount of storage space that is available to you. So if your current solutions are not meeting your needs, then it could be time to consider upgrading.

Use Encryption

Backing up your data is a smart move, but you also need to protect your files from unauthorized individuals. Criminals try to target servers that have the least amount of protection because they want to access data easily. If you don’t secure your files, then you could become a victim. If you own or manage a business, then you are also putting your customers’ data at risk, which is not acceptable.

When you encrypt your data, you scramble the code in a way that makes it all but impossible to read. Even if someone can obtain your files, they will not be able to do anything with them. Only those authorized with the decryption key will be able to actually view your data.

Final Thoughts

Don’t make the mistake of ignoring the threats that can destroy your data. If a business loses its clients’ contact information, then that business could fail. Even if a company can recover from data loss, the fallout could have a lasting impact on its reputation. If customers don’t think that a business takes steps to keep their digital information safe, then they will find a company that does.

As technology continues to improve, you will start to depend on it more and more each day, and the dangers involved with not protecting yourself will only increase. Backing up your data right now could be a choice that saves your business from failure, and you should keep that fact at the front of your mind when you are making your decision.

Looking for the easiest way to protect your data while utilizing all of the best practices mentioned above?  Look no further than TurnKey Internet’s next-generation Cloud Backup solution – TurnKey Vault.  What makes TurnKey Vault the absolute best Cloud Backup solution on the market is our system was built from the ground up with business users in mind. From encryption so strong that even we can’t see your data, to the most advanced features on the market – like Live Cloud Replication, bare metal recovery and the ability to restore a server, PC or even an entire office of computers, live, in real-time, into a fully functional, cloud-based virtual environment accessible from anywhere over the Internet.

TurnKey Vault’s next-generation Cloud Backup technology offers true Business Continuity and peace of mind through cloud-based redundancy that allows you to restore anything, anytime, anywhere. For more information, visit TurnKeyVault.com

LATHAM, NEW YORK (October 5^th, 2016) – Leading Datacenter and Cloud Hosting Solutions provider TurnKey Internet, Inc. announced today that it is expanding its Datacenter and Cloud-based infrastructure into California. The Datacenter expansion builds on TurnKey Internet’s existing New York Datacenter by offering geographically specific and redundant, high-speed Cloud services from both their East Coast and new West Coast Facility.

The West Coast Datacenter, located in Los Angeles, California, offers multiple transit backbone providers with fiber network redundancy as well as physical security features such as Biometric hand scanners, IP cameras, 24/7 monitoring and manned building security. The facility also features multiple Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Units, on-site Generator Protected Power, and advanced Fire Suppression and Detection systems.

TurnKey Internet’s next generation online backup service, TurnKey Vault, will now include both East Coast and West Coast disaster recovery storage locations which offer full Cloud replication, bare metal recovery, and encrypted backup & restore.

TurnKey Internet’s high speed Cloud platform, offering Cloud based virtual private servers will also now be offered from both West Coast and East Coast Datacenters. Colocation and Datacenter services will also be offered from both geographical locations.

“Extending our Datacenter, Colocation, and Cloud-Hosted services to California matches our vision of giving customers access to a ‘turnkey’ platform that delivers unmatched value and performance,” said Adam Wills, CEO of TurnKey Internet, Inc. He continued “This geographical expansion is an exciting step in the development of our Cloud-Hosted platform. Our clients can easily deploy and manage their Cloud infrastructure across multiple geographic locations. This provides a better experience by providing redundancy and performance increases through delivery of applications closer to the end-user.”

For more information about TurnKey Internet’s latest expansion or to speak with a Cloud Hosting Solutions expert, visit www.TurnKeyInternet.net

About TurnKey Internet

Founded in 1999, TurnKey Internet, Inc. is a full-service Cloud Hosting Solutions provider with Datacenters in New York and California specializing in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to clients in more than 150 countries.  Services offered in both East Coast and West Coast, USA – include Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Dedicated & Bare Metal Servers, Backup & Disaster Recovery, Online Storage, Web Hosting, Managed Hosting, Hybrid Solutions and Enterprise Colocation. Headquartered in New York’s Tech Valley Region, TurnKey Internet’s Flagship Datacenter offers SSAE 16 Type II certification powered exclusively by on-site Solar and Hydroelectric sources to provide a 100% renewable energy footprint. In 2013 the facility was designated as the 37th ENERGY STAR® Certified Datacenter in the United States.  For more information, please call (518) 618-0999 or visit www.turnkeyinternet.net/media

Disaster can strike at any time. From earthquakes to tornadoes to hurricanes, there is a wide variety of natural disasters that can take place and cause incredible damage to a business. In addition to natural disasters, businesses may also be harmed by fires, floods or IT issues. It is essential that businesses of all sizes have a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan.

Here are some of the issues that a business may face following a disaster and how they can ensure business continuity in the aftermath.

Dealing With Displacement

Many disasters can result in major physical damage to buildings and stores. This means that companies should have both an evacuation plan in place and a plan for dealing with the displacement that generally comes with major damage to a building. It may be days or weeks before a building is suitable for people to work in after a fire or a flood, and employees will still often still need a centralized location to work out of.

Organizations should determine ahead of time if employees will be expected to telecommute, if arrangements will be made to rent other facilities or if staff will be routed to other business locations. Some businesses may want to find a middle-ground where employees meet at certain locations a few times a week but do the majority of their work from home.

Employee Communication Systems

One of the major issues that companies run into, even when not dealing with a disaster, is how to communicate effectively. In many cases when there is a disaster, employees are no longer able to go to their normal workplace or call into a specific office to find out what is going on. Therefore, it’s important that a communication system is set up before a problem arises and one is needed.

There are a variety of ways to tackle communications following a disaster, including having a certain phone number that employees call to find out updates about the business. Alternatively, a mailing list or web page can be set up that allows employees to find out the status of a business and what they are expected to do.

Keep Copies of Physical Records

Although the paperless office has been a dream for decades, few businesses are completely digital. Most companies offer paper invoices, and customer contracts are almost always printed and signed in pen. This means that there is often a large amount of paperwork that should be stored in a computer but is not.

To ensure that physical records will still be accessible after a disaster, businesses should have a system in place for making and keeping copies of paperwork. A scanner can be employed to capture images of paperwork, and there are object character recognition software suites that can turn the scanned images into text. Once paperwork is in a computer system, it can then be uploaded to the cloud.

This brings us to one of, if not the most important component of a successful Disaster Recovery Plan, utilizing the cloud

Take Advantage of The Cloud

Cloud computing has changed the way that many businesses handle disaster recovery and business continuity planning. One of the biggest changes that being able to use a cloud backup has brought to the business world is the ability for smaller organizations to use the type of data recovery systems that historically were only available to large organizations.

Now, any business’ disaster recovery plan can include complete data backups that are off-site and redundant. Prior to cloud backup systems, businesses were often limited to storing data backups on-site. If a fire broke out or servers were damaged in some other way, on-site data would be lost. Off-site backups frequently required manually making copies of data and/or moving storage media to a different location before cloud computing streamlined the backup process.

The cloud now allows data to be saved automatically, and many businesses are working off of cloud-based systems at all times. Another major benefit of using the cloud for backups is that many other types of data storage have significant failure rates. Tapes, in particular, were used for decades as a method of storing backup data, but it has been found that they have about a 10 percent failure rate.

Cloud computing offers redundant file storage, so unlike with tapes or even hard drives that could potentially fail, data saved to the cloud is almost guaranteed to always be available. Systems can be set in place to back up data automatically, and cloud storage allows you to keep multiple copies of records with different time-stamps.

Another major benefit of using these types of backup systems is that they can be used almost anywhere. So long as an employee has access to the Internet, they should be able to log into the cloud and access business files and applications.

The Cloud is helping businesses recover their most critical systems and data faster, while also avoiding the expensive infrastructure costs of onsite or in-office datacenters. Leveraging the cloud is by far one of the best, most cost effective ways to protect your company and ensure business continuity when disaster strikes.

The latest wave of computer security news may sound like the headline of a new Bruce Willis movie – but Ransomware is now part of the daily conversation between not only security experts, but unfortunately by office managers and PC users across the globe having to deal with the ramifications.

This year malware infections, more specifically ransomware, have seen an exponential growth. They are also becoming more sophisticated, using newer methods that are not only harder to detect, but also require less user interaction.

Security researchers report attackers are not only upgrading their malware to make it more unbreakable, they are also using unique methods of distribution. In some cases, these methods require no user interaction at all.

In the past, most ransomware infections occurred via phishing attacks, which required a user to click on a malicious website or email link. But these newer attacks are less dependent on user interaction and more dependent on unpatched vulnerabilities or poor security practices.

These new breeds of ransomware are utilizing more advanced methods to attack computers and encrypt their files, before you even realize what’s happened. You are then forced to either pay the ransom or hope you have a backup recent enough to prevent any lost data.

To protect yourself you need to follow best practices, such as

1. backup your servers and PC’s
2. backup your servers and PC’s
3. see item (1) and (2) above (seriously!)
4. keep your software and systems patched and up-to-date
5. Have a corporate gateway firewall with advanced threat protection
6. Have / Install / Update local AntiVirus and Malware Software protection
7. Always avoid opening un-expected emails or attachments
8. Avoid clicking to web sites you don’t recognize (especially if sent in email)
9. if you aren’t backing up your servers and PC’s already – stop reading and visit https://turnkeyvault.com/

It’s pretty simple – the same things that protect your office data and servers from most threats apply here, but the damage of ransomware encrypting and disabling all your corporate data within seconds or minutes is real and has lead to some high profile cases including hospitals being locked out of all their data due to ransomware!  Don’t let your business fall victim to the bad-named villain of a Bruce Willis movie – ransomware is among the most costly cyber threats actively attacking businesses right this very second.

Make no mistake – backing up your data is a must have in any security policy, and utilizing a secure remote cloud based backup solution such as  TurnKey Vault is ideal.  Make sure whatever backup solution you deploy offers data encryption, supports both desktop PC’s and Macs, as well as Linux and Windows based servers.  A backup solution like TurnKey Vault offers live cloud replication which will get you back on your feet in minutes in case of a true disaster by creating a live cloud-based copy of any PC workstation or Server accessible from anywhere over the Internet to get you access to your data and applications quickly.  If ransomware takes over your office network you can spin up a backup live copy of your servers and PC’s with TurnKey Vault from a time before the ransomware took over your office – and will have you saying “Yippee Ki-Yay” just like Bruce Willis as the ransomeware data hostage takers wont ever see a dime, and you will have all your data safe and secure.

When discussing Cloud Backup with our staff here at TurnKeyVault.com I am reminded of a saying from the Late Billy Mays, that said “Prevention doesn’t Sell”.  The famous  pitchman, and star of his own Reality Show “PitchMen” often said that your product has to have a visual “wow”, and prevention based products just don’t sizzle because you can’t effectively demonstrate and produce the WOW effect for potential buyers.

Backing up your data, to the cloud or otherwise, is basically prevention; prevention from disaster, your own financial and corporate demise is what you ultimately are hoping to prevent.  Recently some new advances in the cloud backup space have come to market, that specifically being business continuity backup services that have added some new WOW to a prevention based product line giving it some new sizzle that is getting the attention of business owners and IT managers alike.  It may not have the WOW effect visually on TV of getting a stain out of a shirt, but the right backup solution will save you time, and ultimately keep you employed if you ever need it.

Cloud backups

 When I say cloud backup, what immediately comes to mind? I personally imagine a white, puffy cloud in the sky that resembles a vault. Was that what came to mind for you? If not, that’s quite all right. A cloud backup is a piece of software that takes a snapshot of your server or desktop computer and then stores the data in the cloud. What exactly do I mean by the cloud? The cloud is a piece of software or data that is stored off-site that can be accessed from any location. Cloud backups allow for greater flexibility than a local disk or tape backup. A disk backup or tape backup has the limitation of only being able to access the data locally and can be damaged, lost or stolen leaving you without your backup data when you need it most.  Even with cloud backup, to get back up and running from a disaster requires that you setup new computers, and copy back your data, and in many cases reconfigure and re-install most of your applications.  That’s how local and cloud backups have done things for years and quite frankly it doesn’t sizzle any more like it used to.

Now there is some WOW factor – the next generation of cloud backup service offered by TurnKeyVault.com offer live cloud replication and complete business continuity.   Cloud Replication allows restoration of your cloud-based backed up data to any virtualized server in rapid fashion.  That means you can restore your desktop or server including the entire operating system, applications, licenses, settings, and all your data to a perfect copy just as it was before the disaster struck.  Providers like TurnKey Vault even offer fully automated cloud replicated desktops and servers that utilize cloud-based infrastructure to make your data available instantly and allow you to access them remotely from anywhere in the world.  The key aspect here, the sizzle, is that cloud replication removes the bottleneck of the traditional backup technologies that would rely on local internet service providers bandwidth availability, and saves potentially hours of business critical time waiting for your systems to be back in working order.

Should a disaster occur in which your infrastructure is no longer available or accessible to be restored, the need to purchase new hardware and set it up in a new office can be completely eliminated. Utilizing cloud infrastructure you can be back online in minutes, not days. Employees can continue their work from home, remotely accessing images of their old workstations running live in the cloud, ensuring your business does not skip a beat.  Prevention may not sizzle on TV commercials – but in the IT world, knowing there is a business continuity plan regardless of possible disaster scenarios will leave you thinking of the WOW of your new backup plan.