Welcome to our specialist small business advice newsletter. |
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This is the second edition of our newsletter for small businesses which goes out each month.
This edition focuses on the new pricing structure for GFi security products, discusses Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity and takes a closer look at APC's range of UPS products.
We also have our usual regulatory updates and other useful information.
Please contact us if you have any suggestions for topics in future issues. |
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 New Security Product Pricing
More news on GFi Security product pricing.
We are an Authorised Reseller for the GFi range of
security products. These products are suitable for businesses running networks with from 2 to 1,000 users or more. The email security and spam filtering products are especially appropriate for small businesses. To use these products you need to be running a mail server on your network, such as Microsoft's Small Business Server.
The special offer prices for GFi security products are no longer available, but GFi has announced a new pricing structure effective from 14 February.
The new prices represents a significant reduction from the previous list price - in some case up to 45% lower!
- All products now include service maintenance contract for the first year.
- MailEssentials also includes anti-spam and phishing updates for the first year.
- For applicable products, free ReportPacks are included as well.
more details....
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Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
As Information and Communications Technology takes on increasing importance in running a successful business, many small business owners neglect to consider the consequences if things go disastrously wrong. Research has shown that a frighteningly high percentage of businesses that suffer a catastrophic data loss go out of business within a 6 to 24 months of the incident:
- 60% of companies that lose their data close down within 6 months of the disaster
- 72% of businesses that suffer major data loss disappear within 24 months
The wide scale flooding last year was just one example of how disaster can strike.
Business owners need to produce a Business Continuity Plan that sets out the different risks that might prevent the business from being able to continue to operate normally, the plan should address each risk and how they would deal with each of these. We will be looking at Business Continuity Planning in a future issue of this newsletter.
However, you shouldn't wait for a disaster to strike before considering how you would recover from it. You need to build Disaster Recovery practices and procedures into your everyday IT systems to ensure that your business doesn't become one of the sad statistics above.
There are some simple things that you can do such as:
- Data Backups
- Set up regular backups of all of you data - we recommend full backups weekly and daily backups of just those files that have changed since the last backup.
- Don't rely on using memory sticks - their longevity and reliability is unproven and they are easily lost. CDs are better, but cheaper ones are prone to decay over two years. Use special backup software and backup to reliable tape or cartridge disks designed for that purpose.
- Store a copy of the data backups off-site - you never know when you might not be able to access your premises.
- Make sure that your backups are secure - they contain sensitive and confidential data about your business and your customers.
- We'll look at suitable backup solutions for small businesses in future newsletters.
- Uninterruptible Power Supplies - UPS
- Power spikes and mains irregularities can shorten the life of your electronic equipment, while power failures can lead to data loss.
- UPS systems protect against mains irregularities and provide battery standby power to enable data to be saved, applications to be closed, and systems to be shut down in an orderly fashion without data loss.
- We have featured these devices below.
We will be covering ways of mitigating other risks in future newsletters.
If you would like help with any of this, then please contact us
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Product Recommendations
We like to recommend products that we have personal experience with.
This month we would like to recommend the following Uninterruptible Power Supplies designed for small businesses. We use APC products ourselves...
 APC UPS Systems
 APC Back UPS Family of Products
Best Value Battery Backup & Protection for Home Computers. The Back-UPS ES offers affordable battery backup and surge protection for home computers. With enough power outlets to protect your entire system, built-in phone/fax/modem line (DSL compatible) protection and easy-to-install safe system shutdown software all make this power protection solution the best value for home and home office computers.
more details or buy
 APC Smart UPS Family of Products
Smart-UPS protects your data by supplying network-grade battery backup when power fails. With PowerChute Plus software the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) will safely store data and shut down your network operating system before the battery is fully discharged, whether you're there or not. SmartSlot internal accessory slot allows you to install optional accessories to enhance the performance of your UPS. APC Smart-UPS is the perfect UPS for fileservers, minicomputers, UNIX CPUs, Internet hubs, telecommunications systems and other mission-critical applications.
more details or buy
We feature some of these products in our online catalogue, but you will be referred to our partner Misco to make an actual purchase.
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more details...
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Regulatory & Other Updates
Each month we will feature some of the recent regulatory updates or other important news affecting small businesses:
New Companies Act 2006 - Data Storage Implications
The new Companies Act builds on the existing Act, but one of the new features is that it will be an offence for an officer of the company to destroy, mutilate or falsify company documents. This will include electronic documents and emails, making it imperative that companies have sound storage, retrieval, archiving and data recovery facilities.
Fortunately this doesn't come into effect until October 2009, but it might be a good idea to start planning your IT systems ahead of the deadline so that you can make sure that everything is working compliantly.
If you need help with this, then please contact us
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Google Google launches online security tools
Google has launched a range of web-based security applications for email filtering, encryption and archiving.
For more details see Silicon.com
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PCI DSS - don't miss out
PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and was developed by the major card companies to try to prevent credit card details falling into the wrong hands.
In a nutshell it sets out the security standards that merchants must apply in order to comply. This covers physical and electronic security and companies that do not comply risk losing the right to process credit cards.
We have covered this in detail in our most recent eCommerce & Web Solutions Newsletter
To subscribe go to http://subscribe.wise.co.uk
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Contact us if you would like any further information about the items in this newsletter.
Please let us have any feedback you might have, and also let us know if there are any articles you would like
to see covered in future issues by sending an
email to sales@wise.co.uk.
Best regards,
Tim Weaver |
