How does your network measure up?

 Are your current service providers doing a good job?

     Unless you are a computer hobbyist or technician yourself, it can be very hard to determine how well your current service providers are treating your network. Many small businesses don't even have any other experiences to compare their current service with! There is a list of questions to ask yourself about your provider or technician, but the ultimate measuring stick is the workmanship itself:, so you need to ask:

How stable is your network?

     The following items are key elements that every business network, from small shops to large corporate enterprises, should address if they use applications and store data that are critical to their operations. Examine your network or ask your current providers how you are equipped on the following items. Use this guide to evaluate where your business is and to help you build a solid infrastructure for your technology solutions.

Small Business Resource Guide for Building a Stable Network Infrastructure

    While not an exhaustive list of every important network element, this guide outlines and explains the most critical parts of building a stable and reliable network infrastructure. This guide also focuses on the network and assumes that the software you are using is reasonably stable and compatible on the hardware you are running it on. If your hardware and software is flaky, then the following points for building a stable network will probably not be of much value to you! Following each item are scenarios for ideal, acceptable, and minimum practices.

1. The ideal scenario is usually typical of a larger company that highly depends on and values their computer data and applications.

2. The acceptable practices might be more typical of a smaller organization that relies on computer data but has limited resources available for their computer systems.

3. The minimum practices are stop-gap measures and usually inexpensive workarounds to address these risks and problems.

     At the very least, the minimum practices should be followed. All of the items listed below are critical areas which no true professional would overlook or neglect! If your service provider has done NOTHING about any of the following items, then be sure to do SOMETHING about it! 

 Data Storage – We all know what happens when hard drives die: your data is lost! Not only can data be lost, but the loss of critical applications usually means additional loss of business/productivity until the systems are restored. Critical data and applications should always be stored on or backed up to a network server that is resilient to hardware failures. The most common way to address this is to use a RAID array. This spreads critical data across several hard drives so that if one hard drive dies in the server, the server can continue to operate allowing the drive to be replaced with minimal or no downtime. A cheaper but less efficient (performance-wise) alternative to a RAID array is Disk Mirroring, where the data is written simultaneously to 2 drives and if a hard drive dies, the other drive takes over. 

1. Ideal Setup: SCSI hard drives (3 or more) with data spread into a RAID array (on all servers with critical data).

2. Acceptable Setup: 2 SCSI hard drives with data being mirrored onto each drive (on all servers with critical data).

3. Minimum Setup: At the very least, Disk Mirroring with less-expensive IDE hard drives should be used (on all servers with critical data).

  Data Backup – Even having a solid Data Storage model should not replace backing up your data daily. Consider what happens when a file is lost, an operating system file becomes corrupted, or a virus sweeps through your server! Data backups will enable you to restore your data to a point before your system became unusable or damaged. In addition, it may be several weeks until you discover that your data is missing! Consider the case where one company didn’t discover that some of their accounting information was damaged until it was time to file their quarterly taxes! Luckily they had a simple but effective Data Backup procedure in effect.

     Data can be backed up to magnetic tapes, zip disk, cd-r media, or even floppy disks, depending on the size of the data that you need to backup. Special consideration (and software) is often needed to backup data in locations such as databases, email information stores, and applications that are constantly running or open. 

1. Ideal Setup: It is best to purchase specialized backup software that can be scheduled to backup selected data at specific times. Tape backup devices are best because they can backup large amounts of data in a relatively short period of time. Ideally, not only the data, but also the server’s system and configuration files should be backed up. Backups should occur daily, and restore sets should be saved everyday from the past 2 weeks, then monthly, and yearly. In addition, save backup sets whenever major configuration changes or upgrades take place.

2. Acceptable Setup: An acceptable compromise for the ideal backup situation would be to back up data manually although this often adds up to more overhead than just purchasing a simple backup software and storage device. If storage space is an issue, then only critical data (rather than system and configuration files) are backed up. An alternative to tape, zip, or cd-rom backups may be to store the backups on another computer on the network.

3. Minimum Setup: At the very least, daily backups of critical data should take place even if the backups are stored on the same hard drive that you are backing up! This is much better than not having daily backups at all! Even Windows 98 has a built-in Backup program that could be utilized to schedule daily backups. If your data is important to your operation, there is no excuse for not having daily backups!

Power Management - Power management refers to the controlling of power surges or blackouts to computer devices. Though all computers are affected, Power Management can potentially be very cost-prohibitive and is usually only implemented on the Server and other key systems (such as the phone system). Voltage spikes and drops can harm computer equipment and need to be regulated. In addition, if a server suddenly loses power, critical data could be damaged, corrupted, or lost (especially in databases!). Power Management is accomplished with battery-backup devices called Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS). They act as surge suppressors and also have a battery that can power a computer for anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours. This way, if a power outage occurs, the system can be shut down gracefully by hand or even automatically.

1. Ideal Setup: The ideal setup would be to have UPS devices powering all key computer systems and network devices. The UPS devices would be programmed to automatically shutdown the systems gracefully if power is not restored in a timely manner. (Note: usually several devices can be plugged into one UPS device; the battery power is just used up more quickly.)

2. Acceptable Setup: An acceptable compromise is usually to only have a UPS device on key systems (such as the server, the accounting computer, phone system, etc) and have someone assigned to shut them down manually if power goes out and stays out for an extended period of time.

3. Minimum Setup: The very minimum precaution would be to have a very small UPS device (10-minute battery, for example) on the server, and normal surge-suppressing power strips on all other computer equipment.

  Anti-Virus Measures - Antivirus software, along with user training on how to avoid suspicious email attachments and files, will help prevent damage and security breaches caused by viruses, worms, and Trojan horses being spread on the internet. (Note: Anti-Virus measures should be used in conjunction with Internet Security Measures listed later in this document). 

1. Ideal Setup: While “ideal” antivirus setups are still being dreamed of, best measures to take include installing anti-virus software on both your servers and your desktop computers. If your organization has email, anti-virus scanning should also be present on your email gateway, and your email clients. In combination with these precautions, users should be educated in identifying suspicious emails and files and avoiding questionable sites on the internet.

2. Acceptable Setup: There’s not much middle ground when it comes to anti-virus; either you run it or you don’t! One (less-common) practice might be to isolate some or all computers from the internet and email altogether! This is not usually very practical for most companies, though.

3. Minimum Setup: The bottom line is that if a computer has email and internet connectivity, anti-virus software should be installed and users should be trained on avoiding suspect messages and files. There are even free anti-virus programs that can be downloaded! If your systems and data are important to your business, then don’t take a chance!

  Internet Security - This refers to protecting your network from attackers, viruses, and other harmful traffic on the internet and is usually adequately addressed by installing a firewall. These network security devices prevent unauthorized access to network assets such as databases, accounting information, client information, or other information that you would not want a hacker or snoop to have access to. Some may wonder “Why would anyone want to hack us?” but would be surprised at the answer. Even if a hacker were not particularly interested in your data, they are constantly looking to compromise systems and networks for their own purposes. Some of their purposes include: using your network to hack from in order to cover their tracks, using your network to host pirated software and illegal files, or using your internet bandwidth to attack another host or network. Also, more and more viruses are now spreading from the internet right onto unprotected networks (rather than spreading in emails or hiding in files). 

1. Ideal Setup: Ideally, a firewall device should be purchased and configured on your internet connection to block any unwanted traffic from entering your network. Hardware firewall devices are most dependable and also will have many useful added features (such as VPN) that can be useful to your business. Arguably, software firewalls can additionally be installed on each desktop computer although this can be hard to manage!

2. Acceptable Setup: The popular alternative to buying a hardware firewall is to load firewall software on a computer and route all of your internet traffic through it. A common example would be taking an old computer and installing Linux on it and installing and configuring firewall software on it. It would then be placed between your network and the internet.

3. Minimum Setup: An alternative to buying a full-featured firewall is to use a device that can do Network Address Translation (NAT) to hide your computer devices in a private network. While not being the most secure solution, this is usually adequate to stop viruses and automated search and probe attacks.

     While there are many other aspects of a computer network that will affect your business such as purchasing the right computers and the right software, we find that these 5 items are the ones that most often prove to be disastrous to your business when not addressed properly. Ultimately, the level to which you adhere to these standards will depend largely on how highly you value your computer data and rely on your computer applications in your business. A risk analysis and cost-benefit analysis should be done to determine the amount of resources you should invest to keep your network running as stable, secure, and available as possible.

     For more information or questions visit us at www.lockesystems.com or find out how you can get a FREE network consultation by visiting http://www.lockesystems.com/consultation.htm.