disaster recovery – Wowrack Blog https://www.wowrack.com/blog Fri, 26 May 2023 20:26:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.1 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/fav.png disaster recovery – Wowrack Blog https://www.wowrack.com/blog 32 32 The Correct Way to Swap Out your Failed Hard drive https://www.wowrack.com/blog/failed-hard-drive-swap/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/failed-hard-drive-swap/#respond Fri, 26 May 2023 20:26:10 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=2202 A failed hard drive can be a frustrating experience, especially if you have important data stored on it. However, with a bit of technical know-how and the right tools, you can replace the failed hard drive and restore your system’s functionality. Here is our step-by-step guide on how to replace a failed hard drive. Disclaimer: […]

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A failed hard drive can be a frustrating experience, especially if you have important data stored on it. However, with a bit of technical know-how and the right tools, you can replace the failed hard drive and restore your system’s functionality. Here is our step-by-step guide on how to replace a failed hard drive.

Disclaimer: Replacing a hard drive requires some technical skills and knowledge. If you do not feel confident completing any of these steps, it’s best to seek professional assistance.

Step 1: Gather the necessary tools prior to swapping out your failed hard drive:

  • Replacement hard drive: Buy your new hard drive with specifications that match your old one. Keep in mind factors such as storage capacity and interface (SATA or NVMe) as well as physical size (2.5-inch or 3.5-inch).
  • Screwdriver set: Most hard drives require a Phillips-head screwdriver for removal and installation. Check the size needed for your specific case.
  • Anti-static wrist strap: Protect your hardware from static electricity by wearing an anti-static wrist strap or by touching a grounded metal object before handling any components.
  • External storage device: If you want to recover data from the failed hard drive, you may need an external storage device to temporarily store the data.

Step 2: Backup your data (if possible) 

If your failed hard drive is still accessible, it’s crucial to back up your important data before proceeding with the replacement. Connect an external storage device to your computer and copy the necessary files and folders.

Step 3: Power down your computer 

Shut down your computer and unplug it from the power source. You need to have your system completely powered off to avoid electrical damage or acidents.

Step 4: Open your computer case 

Locate the screws or latches securing the computer case and remove them. Carefully slide off or open the case to expose the internal components. Note that the exact process may vary depending on your computer’s make and model.

Step 5: Locate the failed hard drive

Identify the failed hard drive within your computer. It is usually located near the front of the case, secured in a drive bay. The hard drive is typically connected to the motherboard via cables and fixed with screws or brackets.

Step 6: Disconnect cables and remove the failed hard drive 

Gently unplug the cables connected to the hard drive, including the power and data cables. Keep in mind the orientation of the connectors for proper reinstallation later. Then, unscrew or remove any brackets or fasteners securing the hard drive to the drive bay.

Step 7: Replace the failed hard drive with the new one

Take your new hard drive and carefully connect the power and data cables to the corresponding ports. Ensure a secure connection, but avoid using excessive force. Place the hard drive into the drive bay and fasten it using screws or brackets.

Step 8: Close your computer case 

With the new hard drive installed, slide the cover back on/ reattach it with screws or latches. Be sure that it is firmly in place to prevent any loose connections or accidental damage.

Step 9: Power on your computer and configure the new hard drive 

Connect your computer to the power source and turn it on. Enter the BIOS or UEFI settings (usually by pressing a specific key during startup) and verify that the new hard drive is detected. If necessary, adjust the boot order to prioritize the new hard drive.

Step 10: Restore data (if applicable)

If you backed up your data in Step 2, you can now restore it to your new hard drive. Connect the external storage device containing the backed-up data. Then copy that data back to the appropriate directories on the new hard drive.

Conclusion

Replacing a failed hard drive can be a daunting task, but with the right guidance, you can successfully restore your system’s functionality. With the help of our step-by-step guide, you should be able to replace the failed hard drive to get your computer up and running again. 

Remember to handle the hardware delicately and seek professional help if needed.

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What Wowrack Does—And How We Can Help You https://www.wowrack.com/blog/what-wowrack-does-and-how-we-can-help-you/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/what-wowrack-does-and-how-we-can-help-you/#respond Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:27:05 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1587 Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, daily IT usage has increased significantly across the globe, including in the US. With greater IT usage comes greater IT needs, specifically for businesses. Nowadays, IT is no longer exclusive for specific types and sizes of businesses as every single business needs IT to maintain their continuity. According […]

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Wowrack IT for business

Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, daily IT usage has increased significantly across the globe, including in the US. With greater IT usage comes greater IT needs, specifically for businesses.

Nowadays, IT is no longer exclusive for specific types and sizes of businesses as every single business needs IT to maintain their continuity. According to a survey published on Small Business Trends, 92% of US small businesses has migrated to IT-driven business models to maintain continuity and productivity.

Additionally, businesses need IT tools to support remote working or enable their customers access their services digitally. In other words, this means that almost all businesses—perhaps yours too—are adapting to a new way of doing stuffs. Adaptation might seem complicated and difficult but, still, business must go on.

That’s where Wowrack can help you.

What Wowrack Does

We at Wowrack understand that any business wants to remain productive during this kind of circumstance as we have also witnessed this occurrence by ourselves. Many of our existing and new clients have told us that they also need more IT services to boost their productivity.

Some of the services that our existing and new clients need to help their businesses running these days are:

  • Managed Private Cloud Service
    Private cloud is a single tenant, client-specific cloud computing customized specially to your actual needs. This service is getting more critical as every business needs a more secure and flexible IT infrastructure to meet their diverse needs.

  • Disaster Recovery and Backup Services
    Disaster recovery and backup services is not only critical but also integral to business continuity plan and management. What Wowrack does to accommodate this is that we can flexibly adjust the service delivery to your budgetary and system needs without risking the quality and security.

  • Hybrid Cloud Management
    Since IT needs are getting diverse, we understand that one type of clouds does not fit all needs. That is why we can manage your different cloud infrastructure or on-premises, you name it.

  • And many more to mention.

How Wowrack Can Help You

During these surreal times, we completely understand that everyone is desperately trying to survive. That’s why we won’t exploit you. What we want is a relationship that mutually benefits you and us. Accordingly, here’s how we can help you.

  • Accommodating Your Actual Needs
    We will deliver what you actually need instead of what you think you need. This has been part of our client-centric commitment since we started our journey two decades ago.

  • Working Professionally alongside You
    We commit ourselves to become a true cloud partner, so we will do our best to do so. We are 24/7 ready to assist you with what you need. Of course, by 24/7, we really mean it.

  • Delivering the Best Services and Products Possible
    It’s true that we can adjust our services to your budget, but we won’t give you a second-rate service. Once we’re in agreement, we will deliver our best team, services, and products for you.

  • Managing Your IT Needs
    In this difficult time, we understand that it’s taxing for you to think of your core business and manage your IT at the same time. Rest assured as we can manage your IT needs so you can focus on maintaining your business.

How You Can Help Us

Actually, we also need your help to understand you better. To do so, you can consult with our team. We will listen to your needs so that we can execute and deliver what you need better.

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Site Visit to Wowrack – Facial Covering Requirement https://www.wowrack.com/blog/site-visit-to-wowrack-facial-covering-requirement/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/site-visit-to-wowrack-facial-covering-requirement/#respond Thu, 11 Jun 2020 07:26:08 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1575 Dear valued Wowrack customers, As governments and health agencies around the world begin considering to and/or easing quarantines, starting Wednesday, June 10th, Wowrack will start requiring everyone that visits Wowrack’s office or data center to wear facial coverings within all common areas of Wowrack facilities.   Regarding the protocols, you must: Wear any face coverings […]

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Dear valued Wowrack customers,

As governments and health agencies around the world begin considering to and/or easing quarantines, starting Wednesday, June 10th, Wowrack will start requiring everyone that visits Wowrack’s office or data center to wear facial coverings within all common areas of Wowrack facilities.  

Regarding the protocols, you must:

  • Wear any face coverings that fit snugly and cover one’s nose and mouth. Cloth-based face coverings are permitted (it does not have to be surgical grade or N95-rated masks).
  • Wear the face coverings at all times within the common and near entry/exit areas.
  • Bring your own facial coverings for Wowrack will be unable to provide those to visitors due to limited supplies globally.


During your visitation, we also suggest you to:

  • Maintain proper social distancing guidelines.
  • Limit your time in the common areas as well as site visits and onsite personnel to a minimum or critical activities only. Work activities requiring 3rd party vendors, onsite auditors or non-essential staff should be deferred.
  • Help keep the number of occupants per elevator to a maximum of 2.
  • Immediately report onsite positive cases of COVID-19 to Wowrack Management at management@wowrack.com should you find any.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding pertaining to these guidelines and protocols. Should there be any future changes or adjustments, we will keep you updated promptly.


Regards,


Wowrack Management

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Covid-19 Situational Update from Wowrack https://www.wowrack.com/blog/covid-19-situational-update-from-wowrack/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/covid-19-situational-update-from-wowrack/#respond Mon, 04 May 2020 08:10:32 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1566 A Message from Wowrack’s CEO, Ed Osckar Dear Valued Customer,As the global effect of Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, we at Wow Technologies, Inc are committed to the health and safety of our customers and employees. We continue to monitor the developments and the guidance of public health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control […]

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A Message from Wowrack’s CEO, Ed Osckar

Dear Valued Customer,
As the global effect of Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, we at Wow Technologies, Inc are committed to the health and safety of our customers and employees. We continue to monitor the developments and the guidance of public health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In light of recent developments, including the recent Washington State “Stay at Home” order by Governor Inslee as of 3/23/2020, I wanted to provide you with an update on our efforts to continue to provide your Hosting needs.

What you can expect from us :

  • Our business operation has been deemed as “essential” business as Datacenter operators and Network Operators in the “Stay at Home” order. This means that Wowrack will continue to operate our Data Center and Cloud infrastructure and be able to support it.
  • Our Data Center continues to be operational and staffed 24/7. Employees who are not feeling well are required to stay home.  Employees onsite are required to follow the public health authorities’ guidance on personal hygiene, infection prevention, and control practices.
  • All employees who are not essential to facility maintenance have been asked to work remote; we’ve limited travel and opted for virtual meetings whenever possible.
  • We are increasing cleaning frequency in high traffic touch points such as door handle and finger print reader for our Datacenter and office doors.
  • Only authorized customers are welcome to visit our datacenter when necessary, but at this time, we have asked our employees to refrain from shaking hands and to maintain the recommended six-foot distance from others.
  • We are rescheduling and/or cancelling all non-essentials in-person meetings. We can still be reached virtually thru email, phone conferences, zoom meetings, and video calls.
  • All on-site customer projects that requires our engineer to be on-site will have to be rescheduled unless it is an outage or emergency situation. 

  Our request to you:

  • We recognize that your business still have to operate and projects still have to be performed in a timely manner. However, due to the “Stay at Home” Order and the safety of our employees, we request that all non-critical projects that requires in-person or on-site visit to be rescheduled to later dates. Our Network operation team is still available 24/7/365 to attend to your request remotely if needed.
  • Unless necessary, please avoid interfacing with our employees face to face.  If you need carts, tools, etc during your visit to our Datacenter, please request those items by sending your request to support@wowrack.com so that our staff can put your requested items beside your cabinet.  Once you are done, you can leave those items beside your cabinet and update the ticket so our staff can retrieve them.
  • We urge you to monitor the guidance of public health authorities and other sources of credible information. For your convenience, below are some references and resources for your consideration:
    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO)

We appreciate the trust that you place in Wow Technologies Inc. and assure you we will continue to closely monitor the situation and take actions necessary to help keep our employees and customers safe while maintaining a high standard of service! 

Best Regards,

Erward Osckar
Chief Executive Office

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Disaster Recovery for Your Business https://www.wowrack.com/blog/disaster-recovery-for-your-business/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/disaster-recovery-for-your-business/#respond Tue, 17 Dec 2019 01:24:50 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1546 If you think about how much you depend on technology in your business you will already have added perspective as to the necessity of disaster recovery plans? The majority of businesses in this day and age are massively reliant on tech. Whether if it is technology for storing information and data or tech for sending […]

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If you think about how much you depend on technology in your business you will already have added perspective as to the necessity of disaster recovery plans? The majority of businesses in this day and age are massively reliant on tech.

Whether if it is technology for storing information and data or tech for sending information and communicating with clients and customers, we all depend on our information technology systems. And although our technology is great and functions as it should most of the time, there can be issues where our tech fails to work or is impacted on.

This may occur through human error or natural disaster, however the consequence remains the same: you have a technology failure or disruption that can be a enormous detriment to the operation of your business. 

Depending on the nature of your business, this tech outage might be minor or catastrophic. The process of recovering from a technology disruption is called IT disaster recovery, and if you do not have this in place, you may find it hard to recover fast enough to see minimal impact on your business. There’s certainly value in understanding some of the key ways in which disaster recovery can save your business and some of the key scenarios in which disaster recovery may be required.

Why Disaster Recovery?

Every day you rely on technology to function and communicate with your employees and customers. If you suddenly lost access to this information what would happen? Would you lose profits? Would you lose the capacity to operate your business? Put simply, a disaster recovery plan allows you to endure minimum downtime and to get your business up and running again following a ‘disaster’ – delivering peace of mind and ongoing profitability.

Bottom line is that the world is unpredictable and anything can happen. You can have all the insurance in the world but if you have mission-critical functions and applications, your insurance isn’t going to get your systems online again. The only thing that can protect you against an outage is disaster recovery.

How Disaster Recovery Can Save Your Business

1. There’s a catastrophic hardware failure

One of the biggest concerns a business owner has is keeping their server room operating at an optimum temperature and ensuring that data management is performed safely and with plenty of backups. It is essential to both back up your business data in a secure location, and to also implement mission-critical functionality that can be rolled out in the event of a catastrophic hardware failure. This might be something as simple as identifying a core/skeleton staff that can operate the business at a minimum and ensuring that a remote location is available to perform these functions.

2. There’s a natural disaster

Technology has come a long way when you think back to even the turn of the century, nowadays we’re far more likely to have data and significant information stored in the cloud which makes getting online a lot easier. Again though, you need to consider what would happen if your office had a fire or flood and how you would continue to serve your customers – even at a minimum – and ensure that this is available to you.

3. You experience human error

No one is perfect. Not even us – though we’re pretty close. From time to time there will be a human error which takes place, whether it’s a file that’s deleted or a system that’s corrupted through someone’s mistake. If this happens it can be just as catastrophic which is where a data recovery system can be invaluable.

4. You get hacked/corrupted

In today’s day and age, no one is immune from the long fingers of cyber-crime. It is imperative for both the successful operation of your business and your business’ reputation to ensure you have comprehensive disaster recovery systems in place in the event of a hack.

Get in Touch with Us Today

No business is immune from disaster and from the threat of losing access to data and information. When you have a disaster recovery plan in place, you can ensure that any loss of data and access is minor and temporary. A good disaster recovery plan works to repair confidence in your business and to ensure profitability.

At Wowrack, we work with you to ensure that your disaster recovery plan is comprehensive and suitable for your business. We make sure you have everything you need, and nothing you don’t. Contact us today and get peace of mind with us.

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The Benefits of Cloud Disaster Recovery Plans https://www.wowrack.com/blog/the-benefits-of-disaster-recovery-plans/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/the-benefits-of-disaster-recovery-plans/#respond Fri, 19 Jul 2019 10:25:06 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1458 You can never anticipate exactly when a disaster may occur to your cloud infrastructure. You can, however, have the foresight to prepare a cloud disaster recovery plan that enables you to quickly restore operations whenever disaster does strike your cloud.  What Is Disaster Recovery? A disaster can be any sort of unexpected event that interferes […]

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You can never anticipate exactly when a disaster may occur to your cloud infrastructure. You can, however, have the foresight to prepare a cloud disaster recovery plan that enables you to quickly restore operations whenever disaster does strike your cloud. 

What Is Disaster Recovery?

A disaster can be any sort of unexpected event that interferes or disrupts your business’s IT workloads.

You are not able to know the exact nature of a cloud disaster only after it has occurred. What you are able to do is prepare a disaster recovery plan, which will assist you in quickly restoring operations back to normal following a disaster.

Cloud Disaster Recovery

There are various ways to implement a disaster recovery plan. One approach would be relying on on-premise infrastructure for backing up your workloads.

The method that provides you with the greatest flexibility and recovery speed, however, is a cloud backup and disaster recovery. Then, when disaster occurs, those resources can be restored from the cloud back to their original locations — whether those locations are on-premise infrastructure or the cloud.

Another way to describe cloud backup and disaster recovery is to call it offsite disaster recovery because your workloads are backed up to a remote site and can be recovered from there.

It’s important to note that a cloud disaster recovery plan can be used to back up and restore workloads that run on-premise as well as those hosted in the cloud. You don’t have to run your production systems in the cloud in order to take advantage of the cloud-based disaster recovery.

Why Use Cloud Disaster Recovery?

A cloud disaster recovery plan provides several key benefits, as compared to other types of disaster recovery strategies:

Scalability

It is more scalable, since you can easily increase the amount of resources that you back up in the cloud by purchasing more cloud infrastructure capacity

Cost Options

You can pay as you go. In other words, you pay for cloud disaster recovery infrastructure as you use it; there is no need to invest upfront in hardware or to pay for more infrastructure than you actually use at a given time.

Spread Your Backup

Cloud-based disaster recovery makes it possible to leverage geographic redundancy features. This means that you can spread your backed-up resources across multiple geographic regions in order to maximize their availability, even if part of the cloud that you use fails.

Speed & Efficiency

Recovery from the cloud is fast because most cloud infrastructure offers high bandwidth and fast disk I/O.

In a Digital Nutshell

Utilizing disaster recovery solutions affords you a surplus of benefits that prove to be invaluable to you and your business. You’ll gain scalability and availability, while also likely reducing your overall costs as compared to a disaster recovery strategy that relies only on on-premise infrastructure.

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12 Benefits Of Utilizing A Colocation Data Center https://www.wowrack.com/blog/12-benefits-of-utilizing-a-colocation-data-center/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/12-benefits-of-utilizing-a-colocation-data-center/#respond Wed, 19 Jun 2019 21:16:08 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1452 Organizations of any size can benefit from purchasing a colocation data center plan. When you start to factor in the costs of building an on-premises data center versus leasing server colocation space, the choice between the two options becomes crystal clear. Data center colocation provides your business with peace of mind that can’t be attained […]

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Organizations of any size can benefit from purchasing a colocation data center plan. When you start to factor in the costs of building an on-premises data center versus leasing server colocation space, the choice between the two options becomes crystal clear.

Data center colocation provides your business with peace of mind that can’t be attained without a significant investment in data center infrastructure. With this in mind, let’s examine these 12 benefits of using a colocation data center.

1) Location

In real estate, you’ll often hear agents say that the most important thing is “Location, location, location.” When you choose a colo provider, location will be of the utmost importance.

If you are running your main production servers from a colo site, you’ll want to ensure that you have the lowest ping time possible. This is achieved by selecting a data center that is physically close to your main headquarters. Luckily, colo data centers are strategically placed in geographic areas that will provide your business with low ping times and robust bandwidth.

2) Buy Exactly What You Need for your Colocation

One of the big advantages of a colo hosting plan is that you can buy exactly what you need. If you only require a 10Mbps circuit for your servers, you can select this option when buying your plan.

If your business requires a faster uplink, your colo provider can certainly provide a bigger pipe for more bandwidth. Colo hosting plans let you buy exactly what you need and if you need more space, bandwidth or power, getting more resources is just a phone call or email away.

3) Remote Hands for Colocation

One of the biggest concerns about data center colocation is what to do when you need to perform a physical upgrade or a physical hardware swap. With Remote Hands, Certified NOC engineers are available to perform any task that your business might require in terms of a hard reset of a server, a memory upgrade, a hard drive upgrade, etc.

4) Rack and Stack Services

If you are starting your first data center colocation project, many businesses may not be aware that they can get “Rack and Stack” services as part of their agreement.

This simply means that you can preconfigure your network security devices with your pre-assigned ranges of public IPs. Next, you’ll provide the power and network cabling along with explicit instructions on how to plug in the devices.

This allows your servers to be up and running in no time. Your IT employees aren’t even required to visit the data center for the initial install.

5) 99.99% Network Availability

Most data centers have redundant dark fibers running into the facilities that are owned and operated by a wide array of telecommunications carriers.

This strategy should help businesses feel confident about selecting a data center colo partner because if one network backbone fails, the colocation data center provider can instantly failover onto another provider without any noticeable downtime.

6) Industry Recognized Certifications

When you select a data center colocation plan, your business can rest assured knowing that the facility you select has industry recognized certifications such as SOC, SSAE, and ISO. These certifications are earned through strict adherence to internationally recognized standards that ensure the integrity and physical security of your data.

7) Colocation Corporate Compliance

Many organizations must meet PCI, HIPAA and other complex corporate compliance standards. When you start researching data center colocation, you’ll find that many data centers have these corporate compliance measures baked into their everyday practices.

This gives your business peace of mind about the internal processes used by the colo facility that you choose.

8) Colocation Physical Security

How would you feel if someone walked right into your datacenter, unracked your servers and walked right out with your data in hand?

You might feel a little sick to your stomach just playing this scenario out in your mind. With a data center colocation plan, you can rest assured that uniformed security is always monitoring all physical ingress and egress points of entry.

Every data center visitor must present a non-expired state-issued ID before gaining access to the facility. Once a person has gained access, their every move is monitored using CCTV cameras.

9) Environmentally Friendly Colocation

Did you know that data centers are more environmentally friendly than ever? Many data centers are strategically placed near utility companies that have implemented wind, solar, hydroelectricity, and other renewable energy sources.

Other data centers have the advantage of being able to use free cooling methods. This reduces the carbon footprint of your colo data center while simultaneously passing on the cost savings to your company.

10) Budget Compatible

Getting data center space for your business is probably less expensive than you think. Go ahead and do the math. How much would it cost your organization to build out raised floor space, bring in premium bandwidth, install racks and cages alongside an enterprise HVAC unit?

11) Expandable, On-Demand

Data center space is offered on an economy of scale model. When you buy more space, the data center is able to offer you a better deal. Best of all, you can build as you go and continue to add more rack space as your workloads continue to grow.

Your workloads do not need to be in the same racks in order to operate properly. Your business just needs to have the networking know-how in order to make your workloads work in synchronicity.

12) Perfect for Disaster Recovery

If you aren’t comfortable using a server colocation plan for your organization’s production workloads, you might want to start your colocation journey by using a colo data center as a disaster recovery solution.

This allows you to “Flip the switch” when your business is faced with a service impacting outage.

Once you become comfortable using a colocation data center for your disaster recovery plan, you can begin to think about implementing colo for your production workloads.

This is a great alternative to cloud solutions and best of all, you control everything from the server hardware to the replication software that you use to create your colo hosted disaster recovery plan. Contact us today to learn more about what Wowrack can do for you!

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The State of DDoS Attacks in 2018 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/the-state-of-ddos-attacks-in-2018/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/the-state-of-ddos-attacks-in-2018/#respond Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:37:15 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1352 With the increased and more widespread use of technology across all fronts, it should come as no surprise that cyber-related attacks are on the rise. Compounded with the higher volume of both personal and business-related information stored online, the number of unsecured devices makes achieving these attacks more feasible. There are three overarching reasons why […]

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With the increased and more widespread use of technology across all fronts, it should come as no surprise that cyber-related attacks are on the rise. Compounded with the higher volume of both personal and business-related information stored online, the number of unsecured devices makes achieving these attacks more feasible. There are three overarching reasons why DDoS attacks are anticipated to see continual increases over the years:

  • As mentioned, the growing amount of insecure devices, especially IoT devices like digital video cameras and connected cameras
  • A global increase in bandwidth speed, allowing more junk data to be sent via DDoS attacks more quickly
  • The growing marketplace of malware software and methods which can be attained and used by skilled and unskilled hackers alike

DDoS Attacks Will Only Get More Frequent – And More Severe

Deloitte predicted that DDoS attacks, a damaging form of cyber attacks where unreliable traffic overloads the bandwidth of a target system, would become larger in scale, more difficult to mitigate (thereby increasing the severity), and more frequent in nature by 2017. Undoubtedly, their prediction came true, as a number of factors have allowed these issues not only to continue, but to flourish.

For unprepared companies, an unmitigated attack could very easily take many organizations offline, and render their data insecure and vulnerable. Some ways in which a company may realize a DDoS attack is happening is by noticing abnormal website behavior such as:

  • Rapidly increasing traffic (with no explanation)
  • Slow network (or slow loading of graphics on GPU servers) 
  • Inability of users to access certain pages or the entire website altogether

From a global standpoint, while China easily takes first place in being targeted by DDoS attacks, the US is easily in second place, with Q1 2018 registering an increase in attacks over Q4 2017.

How Can DDoS Attacks Be Mitigated?

Undoubtedly, the best method of mitigating DDoS attacks is by utilizing a third party company to help divert dangerous junk traffic. And more and more companies are getting on board with this sentiment, as their spending habits reflect movement towards exterior IT spending:

  • Between 2016-2026, enterprise cloud spending is increasing at a rate of 16% CAGR, says Wikibon:


  • Similarly, and most compelling for those who want to keep up with cloud trends, IDC’s study also claims that “cloud computing spending is growing at 4.5x the rate of IT spending since 2009 and is expected to grow at better than 6x the rate of IT spending through 2020.”

With trends obviously shifting in the direction of more cloud investment, it’s imperative that companies invest not only in this rapid growth, but do so in a responsible and informed manner in order to protect their (and their clients’) assets.

One of the most cost-effective and foolproof methods of mitigating DDoS attacks is by working with a third party to ensure consistent, complete monitoring of your infrastructure.

 

“Wowrack’s Remote DDoS Protection can be set up with ease no matter where your network infrastructure is located. With features such as perimeter defense, 24/7/365 security over critical servers, and extranet entry points, having peace of mind to global remote access for DDoS protection has never been easier.” – Wowrack.com

 

For a full list of what Wowrack protects against, check out their comprehensive list of DDoS mitigation solutions. To inquire about how to fully protect your infrastructure from the rising threat of DDoS attacks, contact Wowrack today.

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How to be Effective in Disaster Recovery Preparedness https://www.wowrack.com/blog/effective-disaster-recovery-preparedness/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/effective-disaster-recovery-preparedness/#respond Fri, 27 Jul 2018 18:22:51 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1235 Effective Disaster Recovery preparedness is a must for an organization to resume operations following/during a disaster. Many businesses tend to ignore Disaster Recovery with the assumption that a disaster is an unlikely event.  However with Dato projecting that ransomeware will only increase in the coming years, it is important that you have a sound strategy […]

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Effective Disaster Recovery preparedness is a must for an organization to resume operations following/during a disaster. Many businesses tend to ignore Disaster Recovery with the assumption that a disaster is an unlikely event.  However with Dato projecting that ransomeware will only increase in the coming years, it is important that you have a sound strategy and plans in place to reduce the risk of data loss or interruption.

Assess Risk and Strategize Accordingly

The most important aspect of developing a robust Disaster Recovery Plan is to assess the risks involved for your organization. You need to brainstorm and identify all the risk areas in the event of a disaster. Depending on the risks identified, you need to strategize and build a strong plan to deal with a future disaster. In addition to having a plan, you also need to plan periodic Disaster Recovery exercises so that you are actually prepared for an event.

Define Goals

An important step in an effective Disaster Recovery plan is setting clear goals. Are you looking for a cold site to just dump data?  Warm site? A hot site, so that you can immediately move your production to your secondary location in the event that your primary goes dark?  Your plan should also include exercises to ensure that your organization is well prepared to deal with a disaster. If the exercise has clear goals defined then it will be effective. Setting easy and clear goals such as “Time taken to recover data” would go a long way into being prepared for a disaster. With goal setting and periodic exercise, you can make changes in your Disaster Recovery Plan as and when needed.

Effective Communication

It is important to keep all stakeholders involved in your Disaster Recovery planning and related exercises. You need to share the results of a Disaster Recovery exercise with relevant decision makers and seek feedback on the planning and results. Your stakeholders need to be satisfied with the recovery of all services and time taken to recover the data. This kind of communication keeps everyone on the same page and sets the expectation in case of a real disaster.

Assign Responsibilities

In addition to having a robust Disaster Recovery plan, it is also important to assign roles and responsibilities to deal with a disaster. You cannot count on a certain individual to be present when a disaster occurs. Sharing and rotating responsibilities is a good idea so that not everything depends on one individual.

Wowrack works with you to build a custom recovery plan for your organization. Every business is different and we are committed to finding the right, custom environment for your line of business.

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You Need a Disaster Recovery Plan https://www.wowrack.com/blog/disaster-recovery-plan/ https://www.wowrack.com/blog/disaster-recovery-plan/#respond Wed, 16 May 2018 14:53:52 +0000 https://www.wowrack.com/blog/?p=1113 What would happen to your company in the case of a data outage? Would your business be able to survive the fallout? When you get caught up in the day to day tasks of running your company, things like disaster recovery get pushed to the back of your mind. You hope that you’ll never have […]

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What would happen to your company in the case of a data outage? Would your business be able to survive the fallout? When you get caught up in the day to day tasks of running your company, things like disaster recovery get pushed to the back of your mind. You hope that you’ll never have to use a disaster recovery plan. We hope so, too. Unfortunately, a disaster can happen to anyone. Your data is only as strong as its greatest pain point. Do you know what that pain point is? We can help you figure it out. Read on to learn more about the importance of a disaster recovery plan.

 

Protect Your Business

A data outage can seriously hurt your company. You could lose business and lose revenue. How much revenue? Up to $5600 per minute. An outage can also harm your company’s reputation. In the business world, damaged trust is not easily regained. You’ll want to do everything you can to prevent losing that trust in the first place. To make matters even worse, the cost to your company will keep mounting when you have to spend precious minutes fixing the PR disaster. Every moment that you spend rebuilding your company’s reputation is a moment when you could have been building revenue instead.

 

Protect Your Clients

You and your employees aren’t the only ones who could get hurt in case of a data outage, especially if your company works with sensitive information. For instance, if your company works with medical information, you have to make sure that your apps and other technologies are HIPAA compliant. Patients have to trust that their medical information will stay safe. Companies in the financial sector have to store data that could ruin livelihoods should that information leak or become lost. If your company loses this sort of client information, you could deal with legal issues in addition to PR issues.

 

Your Disaster Recovery Plan

At Wowrack, we work with a four-step process to develop your disaster recovery plan. We always start with a free audit because we know that one size does not fit all when it comes to disaster recovery. Different companies have different pain points, different needs, and different budgets. We’ve worked with all of them. Next, our experienced architects will engineer a recovery plan that fits your company’s unique needs. Third, we’ll deploy the plan so that you can retain your peace of mind. Finally, we manage your disaster recovery plan for you. You already have enough to do during the day. Let our experts manage your plan so that you can keep focusing on growing your business.

Are you ready to get started on your disaster recovery plan? Click here to request your completely free consultation. Don’t wait to protect your business.

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