It has been a heck-of-a summer thus far and does not seem to be letting up. The flood of cyber-attacks from both the virus/spyware side and infiltration of servers… and the real flood have been sober reminders that we better have a good backup in place and we better not let our guard down with respect to security. I want to bring up three things that I would like you to think about and address:

• Backup – Are you getting a good backup? Are you sure? When was the last time you tried restoring something from the backups you are making? How far can you go back if you do not realize you have lost something?
• Power – Do you have a UPS on your system? Is the battery good on that UPS? Will your system shutdown automatically for you if it is determined that the UPS is running out of battery?
• Internet Security – A vulnerability test is a fairly easy thing for us to run. It does 150,000 different tests against your Internet connection and identifies any potential problems. This test takes an hour of billable time to run, analyze and write up a short report.

It is easy to get complacent and not address these issues until necessary (lying in bed watching the lightening, wondering if my UPS will hold back the power issues!). Be proactive and help us help you avoid a bigger problem of reacting to a crisis.

Partnership and the Cloud Project

Catalyst Solutions has lived by the ‘partnership’ principle since starting in 1994. I have never been very heavy into sales and marketing and would rather invest the overhead needed for that back into affordable client rates and the most valuable resource Catalyst has to offer, its people. Partnerships are two way streets and we continually discuss making sure we are holding up our end of the deal by giving our all for our customers. In the past couple months we have had curveballs thrown at us by vendors in a couple projects, but as opposed to pointing fingers we chose to dive in and take the responsibility of making sure our customer is served. In return, we ask you as our partners to give us feedback in how we can improve and to let others know what we have done for you! Pass the word, Catalyst Solutions is good for your business.

“To the cloud”… the cloud buzzword is everywhere these days. In our tradition, Catalyst Solutions wants to make sure you know the reality of new technology and what it means to how your business operates. In the next few months we will be doing our best to define what the cloud really is and how it can be used to your advantage, some myths of the cloud and what to avoid. Catalyst will be announcing very soon a significant project which will allow us to stay at the leading (yet real!) edge of this new technology so we better understand it and can provide you our customers with technology advice that will benefit you.