Avoiding a Disaster – Managing Business Continuity

A special thank you to all who attended our April “Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery” Seminar. Well over 40 people have attended our Lunch and Learns on this topic; we appreciate the great turn outs.

Disaster Recovery planning is a hot topic for the SMB market. We at PlanIT have seen the growth in interest firsthand. The recent demand for our Advantcare BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery) Service has been tremendous. We asked our attendees, why the sudden surge in interest. Yes there is more data to protect and more compliance and regulatory concerns, and yes there is now far better technology available, but what is the real driver? One guest summed it up succinctly, “executives want to sleep well at night, know their data is secure, and keep their businesses moving forward and making money. IT managers want to avoid down time, protect their data and work with people and technology they can trust. The demand has always been there, you guys finally came up with a good solution”. Good answer.

Many who attended the lunch and learns had experienced some type of disaster in the past 30 days. While all agreed that planning for the “Big One” is important, it is the much more common daily disasters that seemed to be on the minds of the group. Both executives and IT staff agreed that when critical servers go down for extended periods of time, IT departments look unprepared and businesses loose productivity and revenue.

So, while the ability to affordably and securely store critical data offsite remains an important part of AdvantageCare BDR and Disaster Recovery Planning in general, it was that ability in combination with the new and unique capacity of the AdvantageCare BDR to get a virtualized version of a server back up and running in less than 30 minutes, thereby restoring business continuity, that was the hit of the series.

Thank you again to all who attended and help us better understand your needs.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the next presentation in our Lunch and Learn Series: Cloud Computing – Real Applications

    Steven Kellam
Executive Vice President

How business executives leverage the cloud for competitive advantages

Cloud Computing is the rage; it appears to be a hot new IT solution driven by desires for smart and efficient technologies created to improve productivity and decrease costs. We read about it on the Internet and in newspapers and magazines, but what is Cloud Computing beyond just another confusing technology.

There are many questions around Cloud Computing. Should we embrace it or should we be wary? How does it really work? What are the business benefits? What are the savings?? What are the risks? What are the costs?

However, there are at least two certainties: first - Cloud Computing has already arrived in many different forms and second - Cloud Computing will continue to grow in relevance as it is adopted by more and more businesses.

Please join us July 8th or July 9th for the next topic in our Lunch and Learn series: Cloud Computing – Driving the bottom line. We will help you answer questions about Cloud Computing and why it may, or may not, be the right solution for your business.

When Matt Beatty joined PlanIT solution a little over a year ago, we knew we were getting a special person. Serving as a Marine Captain in both Iraq and the Philippines, Matt developed the type of leadership skills and work ethic that will make him successful in whatever he chooses to address in life. Matt parlayed those skills into a successful career at Tyco Electronics. However Matt was looking for an environment where he could have a more direct impact.

The most recent winner of the PlanIT Leadership Award, Matt now concentrates his efforts on supporting and guiding our AdvantageCare Managed Business Continuity Clients. As a Systems Consultant, Matt is a critical part of PlanIT’s value proposition. Providing SWOT and Gap analysis, Matt works with clients to develop long term strategic IT roadmaps, aligning their IT needs with their business goals.

Thank you to so many of our clients who have provided feedback on the positive impact Matt has made on your businesses. We look forward to his bright future with PlanIT Solutions.