Garage door industry magazine for garage door dealers, garage door manufacturers, garage door distributors, garage door installers, loading docks, garage door operators and openers, gates, and tools for the door industry.
Issue link: https://idoi.epubxp.com/i/95501
LEGAL&LEGISLATION; (continued from page 13) Audit Your Plan r Keeping up with your data needs is very important. At least every six to twelve months, if not sooner, you should reevaluate your data storage needs. Make sure that your servers have adequate capacity, and have proper redundancy, whether through a RAID drive (redundant array of independent drives) or some other duplication system. We would recommend retiring and replacing hard drives – including the portable drives – every two to three years. Drives should last much longer than that, but these days drives are so inexpensive, and the storage-per-dollar costs keep dropping, doing regular replacement of the drives is an easy way to ensure your equipment is operating properly. If you do sign up for CrashPlan, Carbonite, or one of the other cloud backup systems, check your plan every few months to make sure you are paying the going rate per unit of data. Just like cell phones, new plans are offered all the time and rates will fl uctuate. Make Your Lawyers and Accountants Happy, Too Finally, there is the reason why a law fi rm is writing this article. Obviously the loss of data will have substantial impacts to members, whether it is personal or business- related. One of the worst impacts, though, could be the loss of data that you ultimately need for your legal obligations. How hard would it be to prepare your taxes if you lost your business server? What would you do if a customer sued you over a project for which all your records had been kept on a now-stolen laptop? How do you respond to an EPA audit request if all of your lead-based paint records were digitized, and the thumb drive fails? These are just a few of the scenarios where data loss could be devastating to your business. So make your lawyer and your accountant happy too, by making sure your essential records are backed up and protected. 3, 2, 1… Go! In conclusion, the 3-2-1 standard is a guideline for best practices in your electronic data management. There is no one right way to maintain your data back-ups, and there is no one single service that members must use. Rather, we recommend each dealer develops a system that will work for your business, and which will be the easiest and most effi cient one to implement and maintain. The best back-up system in the market won't do any good if it isn't used regularly. So consider your own capabilities, and the equipment and people of your offi ce, and develop the system that works for you. Then back it up. Brian J. Schoolman is an attorney with Safran Law Offi ces in Raleigh. The practice includes construction litigation, commercial litigation, and appellate practice. For more information on how Safran Law Offi ces went less-paper, and for advice on implementing your own less-paper systems, please contact Joe Zoller at (919) 828-1396 x242, or by e-mail at jzoller@ safranlaw.com. 14 International Door & Operator Industry™ F r e p h r o B s . Quality without Compromise o d u c t r s a n r e t m t a e n u f i a h c t u h r t e d t o e g h s s a d a d s