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Author: Howste Technical Services

Do you know your online competitors? Do they know you?

Who are your competitors?

In an online environment, that may be harder to tell than you think. Just about any product can be found on EBay or Amazon these days. And if you have something unique, how do you know that someone else doesn’t have something just as unique? How do you find all the resellers that sell your product? Once you find them, how do you compare them to what you are doing?

Well for starters, a google search will bring up the most common competitors, but the proper google search with the correct key words will bring up the competitors that are the most similar to you.

Once you have completed that, you can gather more data by looking into domain names that are out there. It’s important to understand why certain websites don’t come up first in google. (Lest ye make the same mistakes they did.)

Now, how do we find out what the difference is in what they did right and what they did wrong so that you online presence can be easily found, and accurately represented?

Call us and we can help you with that part. But do your research first. Make sure you actually know who your competitors are. These key players will know who you are, once you put yourself out there. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Howste Technical Services

470.236.1999

What are your IT needs?

What are your IT needs?

At home we often wish we had the full office set up. But there is no space or budget for it.

At the office, we have all the things but there never seems to be the right thing.

What is missing? What is it that you fumble with that could be and should be easier to do?

Why haven’t you called someone to fix that problem yet?

What are the reasons that you haven’t found the solutions to these situations?

Are you aware of some of the compact office equipment available today? Often there are machines that do multiple things and take up less space.

There are also items available that can make it less expensive to find solutions for your office so that you don’t have to have 5 steps to complete a project, you can do multiple things in 1 or 2 steps.

Making your work flow quicker relieves stress in a project and increases your productivity.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get things done quicker and with less stress?

Why haven’t you looked for the solutions? What are your barriers? What are you doing about it? What are the problems that you need answers for?

Howste Technical Services

470.236.1999

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Howste Technical Services Blog

Backup and Recovery, not so basic…

Entrepreneurs typically have to be all things in businesses. They act as owner, financier, bookkeeper, janitor, delivery person, product expert, and of course computer support. So, with that in mind I wanted to cover the Why, What, and How of backup and recovery split into basic and advanced topics.
 
Why?
Basic
This may seem a bit odd to ask, but it’s a fair question. Why do we need to back up our data? Simply put, your data is the life blood of your business (see the What section for examples).
• So much of our world is connected systems and most have become reliant on that connection to conduct business. So, when your systems or computers are not available most businesses cannot “do” business which can impact revenue and customer satisfaction (key for return clients and referral business).
• In our modern business climate even small businesses are expected to be available when the client needs you. If you are experiencing computer issues you cannot be responsive to your clients.
 
Advanced
Without backups it will take a considerable amount of time to get your systems into a state as close to the original point of failure as possible. Taking this type of time out of a schedule that probably doesn’t have much leeway can severely impact your ability to conduct business. There is an important concept within any backup and recovery strategy called lost opportunity cost (borrowed from the economic realm). If there is a computer outage/data loss what is the cost in revenue or reputation of not doing something or not having access to your business information? And, more importantly, what would that physically cost you? This potential loss is a key component in determining what the potential ROI (Return on Investment) would be in spending money on any backup and recovery technologies.
 
Manual Backup Process
Most businesses need to consider a manual backup process – A backup to the backup, so to speak. I recently had a new client that had a storm take out her computer, the only one, and it didn’t have a backup. So, while I attempted to recover her data, which was eventually successful, she continued to do business with a manual paper system. Without realizing it she was modeling an important concept: when you go down we recommend you have a way to conduct business while the recovery is in process. The more you can conduct while down the less impact to your revenue and customer satisfaction.
 
What?
Basic
Deciding what to backup and keep versus what to ignore is a key decision point for any backup and recovery strategy. There are many schools of thought on this. Some feel that a broad “back up everything” approach is safest and some feel a more surgical approach is appropriate. Let’s cover some of the basics. For your average single person owner backing everything up is a good strategy as it removes any doubt about what is backed up, but it will typically take much more space. It can grow out of control if not done properly and most users will need to keep tabs on it to ensure it stays cleaned up. We recommend keeping a weekly and/or monthly mirror of your operating system and supporting data (important data) and nightly backups of your critical and mission critical data. The key here is ensuring there is more than one copy of your data, and for this cataloguing is key (see below). Storage has become very inexpensive and your average small business can simply purchase a large drive and store a regular complete “everything” backup nightly and be comfortable that everything is covered.
 
*NOTE: Sometimes wholesale “everything” backups can actually back up the actual issue/corruption/virus/etc… and, if enough time passes, there is no ability to recover.
 
Advanced
Identification of data types can be useful in deciding what to backup if space is an issue or the type of data needs different handling (sensitive personal data, financial data, etc…). So here are typical data types:
• Mission Critical Data: this includes financial data, client’s information, active project/product data, etc… and any data that changes on an hourly or daily basis.
• Critical Data: Marketing data, client contracts, product data, inactive client data and any data that is more static and may only change monthly or quarterly
• Important Data: Supporting documents, PDFs, images, fixes and patches, downloads, Operating Systems, Applications, Keys, etc… and any data that may only change annually or maybe never change.
• PII (personally identifying Information): SSN, Credit Cards, medical data, etc…
So, for a more surgical approach to backups where you need to treat data differently we have a number of options. You can store these different types of data on different media and then backing up separately. This is very useful when encryption is necessary for specific types of data backups. Also, data can be on a single location and utilizing a backup tool (see How below) to separate based on location or data type.
 
*NOTE: Encryption sounds great and secure, so, lets encrypt everything! Right? But, there are some potential pitfalls. If you lose the key or credentials then you no longer have access to your data. And, encryption often takes more time to backup and recover due to the extra layers of security.
 
How?
Basic
There are a number of tools available within the operating system you are using and numerous tools on the market that all work for various requirements. There are three types I want to highlight (there are more):
• The easiest and quickest are operating system based recovery tools that will create images of your current system (all of it) and allow you to recover to a point in time. These backups are simple and easy and typically have a catalogue of backups over time that you can choose from. They do take up more space and can be finicky for a stable recovery and corrupt images can be an issue.
• Third party image tools will take images of your computer or server (similar to the embedded version mentioned above) and allow you to completely recover from a disaster. These are typically more stable and there are a number that allow you access to the individual files should you just need a file off an old backup image.
• File backup tools/synchronizer tools will simply backup files or directories that you can go back to and recover specific files or directories.
There are a number of free versions of all of these types of tools and most of the time simplest is best. For most small businesses the built in tools are sufficient to allow you to recover in case of issue, but should you need more advanced tools we can recommend a number of cloud or local backup tools.
 
Advanced
As a business you need to decide at what level of recovery you will need to be if there is a disaster that impacts your computers/servers. Do you want to just restore data, recover the systems, or maintain availability? Each option requires a different, and sometimes layering, set of technologies that perform the backup and recovery.
• If you just want to restore the data and/or files only a basic synchronizing tool is all that’s needed. These tools simply copy the files into a backup location (drive or directory) and usually will copy everything once and only copy the changed files as time advances.
• If you want to recover the entire filesystem or complete system recovery a different toolset is required. These tools typically take images of the filesystem or a complete system (multiple filesystems) and allow for a complete system recovery. These tools are typically called imaging tools, but there are file level versions as well. Very useful when you’ve lost your entire system and have a backup computer.
• Maintaining availability is a very advanced topic. This option requires an active duplicate system that constantly has the active data copied or replicated to it, and should your primary system crash or have some issues the duplicate system can them become the primary system with no data or time loss.
 
Other Important Stuff
Testing
Recovery testing is probably one of the least focused activities and IS one of the most important activities for any backup and recovery plan. Why? Because it takes up time and effort to mock up what your recovery looks like and then test, knowing that if it works you will have spent the time on no actual recovery, just the test. But, it’s most critical as your backup is useless if you don’t know if it actually works. It is recommended that any backup system (any mentioned above) is recovery tested at least twice a year. Just make sure it works! You really don’t want to be at recovery time, when everything was lost, and find out it wasn’t backing up correctly.
 
Offsite Backups
Always have at least one backup at an offsite location, even if it’s your home office. It makes no sense to have all of you data, primary and backup, at the same location and have that location have some form of disaster, natural or otherwise. This can be a combination of onsite and offsite backups and can include cloud backup locations as well. Be careful you don’t have so many backups that the recovery order gets confused, there is a balance to the number of backups and locations of each.
 
Extra
In any backup and recovery strategy two important points always need to be decided. How much data can you lose and how long can you be down with least amount of impact. We call these two the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO):
• RPO – How much data loss you can stomach losing (i.e. 4 hours, 24 hours, 3 days)
• RTO – How long it takes to get back up and running
These two decision points determine much of the What and How you will need to implement from above. If you can deal with being down for a week you might not need as costly a backup and recovery tool or automated process but, if you cannot have less than 4 hours of downtime suddenly the costs skyrocket and the process needs to be automatic.
 
Any Questions or Need assistance please do not hesitate to contact us @ 470-236-1999 or info@howste.net

What to do with your computer and peripheral equipment during severe weather…

First and foremost, before the storm, ensure you back up your data to external storage (DVD/Hard Drive/Cloud Drive), and keep your local backup in a safe place. If you have any personally sensitive data or company confidential data ensure you follow your organization’s guidelines on storing critical or confidential data. Most companies provide backup services or systems and you won’t have to do it yourself, but check with your local IT support just in case.

Secondly, when the storm is imminent ensure you unplug your computer and/or peripherals, including monitors and printers to protect your devices from power surges during and after a storm. Unplug your network and modem cables as well. The use of a good surge protector (typically rated for lightning strikes) can offer a bit of protection during storms. However, unplugging is the safer choice. Note: not all surge protectors are rated for a heavy lighting strike and many are not guaranteed. Please ensure you read the warranty and support documentation before purchasing or using surge protection devices to ensure you are covered in case the device is overwhelmed (read “unplugging” above).

Tertiary, power fluctuations can sometimes cause more damage than a hard loss of power. The use of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is recommended if you must use computer and/or peripherals during the storm. The UPS provides steady power for a period of time (read the UPS specifics for time and power requirements) and protects equipment from power fluctuations.

It is recommended that you charge your mobile devices (anything with a battery) before, not during, the storm.

And, as always, safety is key so don’t touch power cords, cables, or equipment during a storm.

If you are in a flooding area ensure you keep power cords and/or equipment (what will fit) in water tight sealable containers (storage bags, trash bags, water tight storage, etc…) to ensure no water damage.

Any questions about how to best protect you and your IT infrastructure contact us at Howste Technical Services at 470-236-1999…

Thanks and Stay Safe!

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Howste Technical Services

What to do before calling Web Professional…

Often time’s people think that a website is fairly simple; you just make some pretty pictures and put them on the web. Yes! Yes, you can.

But a good web site is a little harder…

Most times people don’t really know what is involved with designing a web site, and that’s fine, that’s my job. But when they don’t know what information they need in order for me to do my job… well then we have a problem.

So, here I am, telling you what you need. I have a list of the most common pieces of information that I need. This is not a comprehensive list, rather a beginning one. It would be best if you could at least sit down and gather all of this information before calling your web professional. If you don’t have all these things, don’t create them. Often time’s the hardest battles are trying to redo the work someone else did because they were in a hurry or didn’t know what they were doing. When something is done incorrectly, it takes 2 to 3 times longer to fix it.

  1. Domain Name
    1. If you don’t have one, we can create one.
    2. If you have one, we need a few things:
      1. Username and Password
      2. Where it’s registered
    3. When it expires
  1. Website
    1. If you don’t have one, we can create one.
    2. If you have one, we need a few things:
      1. Where it’s hosted
      2. Username and Password
      3. When it expires
      4. What platform or language it’s created in.
  1. Social Media for Business
    1. If you don’t have them, we can create them.
    2. If you have them, we need a few things:
      1. Which ones you are listed on
      2. Usernames and Passwords
      3. Admin that use the accounts
      4. Business name used for the page
  1. Reputation Management
    1. If you don’t have them, we can create them.
    2. If you have them, we need a few things:
      1. Which ones you are listed on (Angie’s list, Yelp, Etc.)
      2. Usernames and Passwords
      3. Admin that use the accounts
      4. Business name used for the page
  1. Google and Google My Business
    1. If you don’t have them, we can create them.
    2. If you have them, we need a few things:
      1. Which ones you are listed on (Analytics, Business page, Etc.)
      2. Usernames and Passwords
      3. Admin that use the accounts
      4. Business name used for the page

Seem a bit overwhelming? Yes, it can be. But in really, since you have followed all my past advice, and kept all the passwords in a safe, secure place… it’s not that big of a deal. And in most of these cases,  you are going to log in, change the password to something ridiculous, like “HowsteNinjasAreEpic” and then send that password to us. We will use it, and when we are done you change it back to “WhateverBoringPasswordYouHadBeforeWas” and  then we don’t have to keep your passwords on file.

So, what are you waiting for? Gather your passwords, you have phone calls to make!

Howste Technical Services

470.236.1999

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

  1. What is it?

  2. Why do I need it?

  3. What if I don’t use google?

  4. What if I don’t do it?

  5. How does Social Media apply to SEO?

  6. How does Blogging apply?

  7. How do you know?

  8. How do we measure the results?

  9. How long does it take?

  10. Can I actually be lowering my ratings by doing it wrong?

  11. Can I just copy someone else’s article?

  12. Do I need to purchase google ad words to get my site to the top of the search engine?

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