I believe when it comes to data, MORE IS BETTER! Yeah, so call me a hoarder, it’s okay. I have plenty of room and hard drives are cheap!
Case in point… Yesterday I received a call from the IT administrator for a corporation based out of MA about a router that was down. When I arrived, I found an old Cisco 2500 router that would not boot up. Sure, you can replace a nonoperational router, but what about that configuration? You see, when an IT service dude or dudette walks into a business in this kind of mess and no records are available, you are left with a bunch of question marks…
What is the WAN IP? What is the WAN gateway? What’s the netmask? What’s the LAN information? Are there VPNs? Where do they point to? What about access in from the outside world to internal resources, what goes where?
You can get some of this information by calling the internet service provider, you can get some by checking a desktop for where it might already be pointing for it’s gateway, but some of it is a certain blank without having notes.
One thing better in this situation is having a backup of the running configuration from the router. Guess what? The IT administrator at the main office has the foresight to save a copy 4 or 5 years ago, and he was able to provide that information to me, allowing for a very rapid replacement of the equipment and a reconfig!
The moral of this story is – hang on to those old emails, keep those old configs, even if they are 4 years old.
Hard drives to store data on are inexpensive, the cost to recreate the data is NOT when you consider the downtime, the service charges for a technician to sit on hold to find out simple information, etc.
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Homeland Secure IT provides computer, server & network sales, service & support to Greenville / Upstate SC businesses and individuals. Call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for more information.