Most businesses do not know the importance of data backup before it’s too late. Years of company information can be lost in an instant if a proper backup solution is not in place. There are a variety of ways data loss can occur from fires, to ransomware, to accidental deletions, or even hacks. However, sometimes data loss can occur because mistakes the manufacture of your storage devices have made.
At VirTek our IT experts are constantly on the lookout for industry news that can help us better serve our customers. Recently qNAP, a company which produces storage arrays, announced that a bug in a firmware update has the possibility to cause RAID corruption and data loss. Our proactive approach at VirTek allowed us to patch all customer systems before any data loss occurred.
The bug in this case was specific to RAID 5 and 6 configurations and only on specific models running specific firmware versions. The solution was easy: upgrade the firmware to the latest version and run the RAID scrubbing utility. Because we sell hardware as well as IT services, we were able to quickly identify all customers using qNAP appliances, compare them to the list of affected models, and quickly run the recommended solution by qNAP. This proactive approach allows us to solve issues before they become problems unlike many companies which take a “break + fix” approach.
Maintenance days are another way VirTek excels at proactive solutions that remedy things before they become problems which hamper productivity. On maintenance days, our trained staff will go over your IT infrastructure with a fine-tooth comb. We will assess and log resource usage so we can compare current resources to historical trends. This allows us to identify bottlenecks, slow speeds, or filled up hard drives. We run firmware updates on physical appliance, run Windows updates on servers, and make sure all equipment is fully up to date. Additionally, we confirm backups are running and run through test restorations to confirm backup integrity. This preventative maintenance ensures your environment is running smoothly and is running with the latest software recommended by manufacturers.