Disaster Recovery Plan?

Microsoft’s “Small Business Security Checklist” recommends various strategies to deal with the constant onslaught of viruses, the ever-present possibility of hardware failure (a hard-drive becoming damaged, for instance), and the permanent risk of hacker intrusion. In addition to a strong firewall and anti-malware software, all the files on your computer should have at least a weekly backup to a safe medium. But is this a realistic recommendation?

Honestly, when was the last time you backed up all the data on your computer or updated the virus definitions? If a thief were to break into your home or office and take everything, could you comfortably restore all your data? Would the “system restore” reflect your most recent advances? How much time would you have to dedicate to this activity to be back up and running? Most of us operate on the “auto pilot” provided by our system or trust that our IT department is on top of things – sometimes this works well, other times, it just doesn’t.

It is exactly these kinds of issues that occupy a lot of our time. Because some of world’s most distinguished winegrape growers trust us with their data, we’ve hosted the application and database with Hostway in Chicago, where our data is written simultaneously on redundant drives (if one stops working, the other kicks in seamlessly). We have the latest in virus detection and control; a state-of-the-art firewall, and work meticulously at username and password integrity. We do daily backups in Chicago and weekly/monthly back ups to multiple mediums (hard drives that are off line, DVDs, CD-ROMs) in multiple offsite locations.

Our users don’t have to worry about the latest virus or about a recent breakout of hacker activity; they don’t have to worry about natural or man-made disasters; they don’t have to install and maintain software on their computers to use our application all they need, as is the case with most on-demand software (aka webware), is an Internet browser like Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox. Of course, they are still vulnerable to loosing or misplacing their username/password and responsible for protecting their machines from attack, but even if someone took over their computer, their data would still be safely ensconced in one of our multiple backups. Can you say that of your information?

Our users don’t even have to worry about updating their version of PremiereVision with the latest functionality or bug fixes – we do it for them on a continuous basis – this frees up their IT support staff to help them with real issues. Our philosophy is to liberate our users from technology so they can focus on growing great winegrapes, supported by the right information at the right time.

As an aside (it’s just begging to be said), reflecting the trust that has been deposited in us, we NEVER do anything with the data unless we receive a specific request to do so from the owners of said data. No exceptions.