Thursday, November 7, 2013
Sometimes the power fails—therefore electric lights cannot be trusted and we should all stick to kerosene lanterns.
Of course that is foolish, but it is the approach some people take to using computer technology. They are so afraid of a computer crash they use it as an excuse not to use technology at all.
Sometimes the power does go out and sometimes computers do fail. What do you do? You deal with it. In the modern world we rely on technology such as the power grid which on occasion can and does fail. When it fails we cannot do everything we can do with the power on. We cannot treat patients, so we will need to reschedule. It is an annoyance it is not a catastrophe.
In dentistry we rely on a number of mission critical systems. If these critical systems fail we cannot do dentistry. This includes the air compressor, the central vac and maybe even the curing light. Most dentists have an emergency plan to backup a failure in a mission critical system. You may have a small emergency compressor or have an arrangement with Henry Schein to bring you a loaner.
You need to have exactly the same type of arrangement with your IT provider. An emergency plan should be in place to get the office up and running within a few hours or a day at most in the unlikely event of a major computer system failure. In fact, you don’t have a choice over whether or not to have such a plan. A disaster recovery plan is not only good policy, it is part of the updated HIPAA omnibus rule.
The good news is computers are far more reliable now than they were a few years ago. If a computer does fail it is unlikely to cause a mission critical shutdown. If one of the treatment room machines stops working or a monitor goes out, that is annoying but you can still run the office. The only truly mission critical failure would be a failure of the server hard drive.
The server hard drive is where all the practice data is stored. If it stops working or the other machines on the network cannot access it, then you have a problem. A simple and inexpensive solution is to have two or more server hard drives. The server can be equipped with two hard drives in what is called a RAID array. All the practice data is instantly copied to both hard drives. If the primary drive fails the system can automatically switch the network to the second drive.
An alternative is to have a second machine called a BDR (Backup Data Recovery). All the server data is copied to the BDR on a regular ongoing basis. The BDR not only stores the data it can be configured remotely to act as a virtual server in case the primary machine fails. In just a matter of minutes an office with a seemingly catastrophic server failure could be up and running by switching to the BDR.
The BDR not only copies data onsite, it sends the data offsite to a remote cloud backup system on a regular ongoing basis. And this brings us to the second component of a failsafe system—off site data backup.
Off site data backup protects the office from a catastrophic event. If the office is destroyed by a hurricane, if thieves steal the machines or malware corrupts your data, you have a second copy in a remote location. Offsite is the key element. If you have a copy saved at the office and the office burns down then the copy burns as well.
Offsite backup has evolved over the years from tape drives to removable hard drives to the cloud. Many offices still backup at night using multiple drives that are then taken home by a staff member. That system was acceptable in the past but modern cloud back up options are far more reliable and offer greater security.
The key is two backups: One onsite with RAID or BDR and a second offsite in the cloud.
Computers can crash, compressors can fail and the power can go out. Planning for these events can turn an expensive time consuming catastrophe into a minor event. The exact mechanism is not as important as having a sound plan. The future is coming and it will be amazing!