The following is a post sponsored by Cloud Powered Work. What that means is that they paid me to talk about something they want me to talk about. What that doesn’t mean is that they influence my words AT ALL. These are my thoughts on something I think is useful to you.
When I was working for a wireless telecom company back in the day, one of my projects was disaster recovery compliance. In a very short amount of time, I learned a lot about what we would never ever think about: what happens when something breaks. It got really interesting really quickly.
What happens if Tom’s laptop is stolen? (Happened twice.) What happens if we lose connection to these servers in this one building? Which administrative functions are still dropping files onto one single hard drive? (Most everyone was “guilty” of this.)
Think Like an Enterprise
I run a very small business. There are three full time employees, and a handful of contractors. Every single file I own is important. Keeping my calendar alive and smart on every device I own (and even some I borrow) is important. Knowing that I can create and then keep creating while moving around all over the globe is important. NOT LOSING DOCUMENTS is important.
What I love about Microsoft Office 365 is that it really captured the smartest and most used parts of the old MS Office suite while really updating them to be not only cloud-compliant but cloud-native. This one change lets me know a few things:
1.) If someone steals my laptop, they get a shell. The data is in the cloud and safe and protected.
2.) If I start work on my desktop, I can pick it up on my laptop or tablet or mobile. I don’t have to wait.
3.) If I want to collaborate, I will never have a “version control” problem again, because we’re working on the same document.
4.) When I’m working offline, the moment I get back online, my software is smart enough to get me back to a disaster-recovery-friendly site.
Ask yourself this about your business:
Are there documents and files I need that are ONLY on my computer? What happens if my computer is broken/stolen?
Have I ever left the thumb drive with my important files at home?
Do I need to access my calendar and documents and presentations on computers other than mine ever?
At least in the US, there’s not a single enterprise-class company that doesn’t have disaster recovery and business continuity compliance planning built right in (part of the SARBOX laws – shudder). Just because you’re the “little guy,” you think it’s okay to not plan for this happening?
I bet YOU have a story of having something not duplicated, not backed up, etc. Feel like sharing your tale of woe? Comment away, friend.
The previous was a sponsored conversation, thanks to Cloud Powered Work. The opinions were mine. The comments are yours. The shared learning? Well, that’s ours.