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Disaster Proof Your Business
...... so could save you days of work, chaos and lost income in the future.
If something critical happens to your main machine, and you can't fix it yourself in minutes or hours, what then' Having a separate "spare" machine might be worth looking into. It doesn't have to be a top of the range powerhorse; an old 486 will be enough to at least deal with emails and process orders, while your main machine gets fixed. If you already have one or more in use, then you might want to look into how usable they are as a spare machine. Do you have some way of transferring your backup data into them for instance' A parallel-port ZIP drive is an odd shaped lifesaver, but it does the trick. A little forethought can make the difference between an inconvenience and a full-blown disaster.
There's also no shortage of software to make your life easier. Personally I swear by PowerQuest's Drive Image, which allows me to make a complete image of the whole of my hard drive. If my system dies unexpectedly and can't be fixed, I can use it to restore either a just-installed fresh Windows 2000, or my system as it was one or two months ago. This should take no more than half an hour - think how long it takes to format your hard drive, install the operating system, then all your software. Time and money well spent.
Is Your Web Connection Reliable'
The next link in the chain is your web connection. Almost all my work involves some use of the web. Take away my internet connection and I'm blind, deaf and soon to be broke! Because of this I have a permanent high-speed connection with one of the main phone companies in Finland. I also have a separate account with a different server, that can use my old 56 modem on a regular phone line. It costs me all of $9 a month, but if/when my permanent connection goes down, I can still work - a little slower, but it's certainly usable. I look at it as a very cheap form of insurance.
A few months ago I experienced a real-life nightmare. My website went down one morning; the site was unavailable, and email was getting swallowed-up. That's right - not bouncing, but somehow vanishing. So anyone writing to me assumed I'd received the email but never replied. My server assured me that the problem would be fixed within a few hours. It wasn't, in fact it still wasn't fixed a week later. This problem cost me dearly in time and income. It won't happen again.
I now have a backup site, on a different server. My main site is at www.sharewarepromotions.com, but if this ever goes down for any length of time, a letter will go out to all my clients, and everyone who has ever contacted me, telling them to use the www.shareware-promotions.com site and email addresses. The site itself isn't yet finished but a basic version is already in place, and the email is fully functional. If I ever need it in an emergency it's there, and I even have the letter ready to go out. I pay around $4 a month for the web space, taking advantage of the low price and reliability available from SWREG.ORG. If I never have to use it, I'll be happy. If my main site goes down, it'll be business as usual, and this time I won't lose any income. Again, a very cheap form of insurance. Be prepared.
A few final common-sense tips. If you have a large number of downloads each day, don't rely on one single location for your files. If they go down, you go down. Also make sure you have the contact details for your server. If your server's site also become unavailable, you won't be able to find their emergency phone number on their site either. Keep these details somewhere safe.
Think through every single problem that could happen, and work out exactly what you'd do if each should actually occur. While the chances of your office being hijacked are fairly remote, the chance of you experiencing some sort of server or hardware problem are high. If the website is a critical component of your business, and your business a main source of your income, then you don't want to wait until the server goes down before looking for a new host and registering a domain name. Be seen, be sold.
About the Author Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UK-based company working with software and shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and http://www.davetalks.com
Additional articles available for publication available at http://www.davetalks.com
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