REDUCING IT COSTS FOR SMES

JON HONEYBALL CASTS HIS EYE OVER THE NIGGLING COSTS THAT CAN ADD UP IN A BUSINESS, THEN EXPLAINS HOW TO REDUCE THEM

ORGANISE YOUR DATA

Where is your company’s data stored? It’s all the rage to push data up into the cloud and to make it someone else’s problem. However, this is rarely the real outcome. While I would accept that a well-run data centre is likely to be more robust than a tired Dell desktop computer hiding under the junior IT employee’s desk, it’s simply your data in someone else’s computer. 

Don’t get me wrong. Cloud services have their places, especially for bulk offline storage of data. But I prefer to run a pair of Synology NAS boxes: one as primary storage, the other as secondary storage, placed as far apart as possible and preferably in a separate building. Then use the built-in replication tools to create snapshots of your data and to send it over the network to the second unit. Then pay for cheap cloud storage and push your updated data to that encrypted cloud storage on a daily basis.

These boxes aren’t going to be too expensive, unless you buy high-end versions, but don’t fall into the hidden costs trap: ensure you have enough drive slots and set up the disk arrays appropriately in a fault-tolerant arrangement. With thought and care, there’s no reason why you can’t look for eight years’ working life out of each of these boxes.

CUT EXPENSIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS