An Ounce of Prevention in Three Easy Steps

Chris Philpott, general manager of CenterGrid, shares three things:

Step 1: Keep a backup offsite

"It’s important to have a backup of any system or data that you want to be able to restore," says Philpott. "One company recently was experiencing a slow server. They had altered their firewall and been hacked by a spam farm. Their server was sending out 30,000 emails per day. We mobilized to fix their server. It cost the company two days and several thousand dollars. It’s not magic, but a backup would have saved that time."

CenterGrid’s RecoveryCenter offers backup and disaster recovery as a service and includes a uniquely redundant power infrastructure in their data center located in Hamilton.

Step 2: Have a multi-layer defense

"With cyber threats, there is no offense," he says. "No one can know what cyber criminals will do next. But there is an ounce of prevention. Companies should have a multi-layer defense, with a protective firewall, anti-virus, anti-malware and encryption software."

It is also important to have a mindset that you are never done. "There was a client that was a good-sized not-for-profit. We asked if they had a clean backup and a firewall. They said yes and only hired us for disaster recovery. Then they got hacked. An admin in the IT department forgot to delete a testing ID and ransomware found it. By the time we had it back together, it was $10,000 later and the organization executives had fired the IT guy. Forgetting to be on the defensive can cost people their jobs, even at a not-for-profit."

Step 3: Add resiliency to your infrastructure

"Growth is great for a company," says Philpott. "But we’ve all seen where a company has their computers in a broom closet and continue to add equipment as their needs change. These set-ups put their business at risk to the power company, the internet provider, the landlord, mother nature and even the other tenants in the building."

Philpott recommends introducing an external data center with backup power sources and multiple internet providers.

CenterGrid empowers you to focus on running your business, while they focus on running your IT infrastructure.

CenterGrid is located at 101 Knightsbridge Drive, Hamilton, OH 45011. For more information, call 513.712.1212 or visit www.centergrid.com.