In real estate, the three magic words experts talk about are “location, location, location”. In other words, the location of the home you purchase is, by far, the most important aspect to consider.
In IT, we have a similar phrase. When it comes to back-up solutions that work, we like to tell our customers it’s all about “automation, automation, automation”. Solutions that include automated back-up, auto-healing, and auto-reporting are considerations for every company, large and small, that are concerned about backing-up or retaining their data. Any back-up is only as good as its points of failure, but we believe these three are key.
Automated back-up
Automated back-up is an automatic system that allows for the recovery of information stored on a computer. An automatic back-up system holds an advantage over a regular back-up system because it does not have to be manually triggered by the user. If the user forgets to manually back-up, it simply doesn’t happen. Conversely, automatic back-up systems, when installed, work without any further user input, backing up stored data and allowing it to be recovered should the system crash for one reason or another.
Automatic back-up systems are put in place because hard drives can fail. Whereas data archives help prevent data loss, back-up systems essentially make a second copy of the data for the purpose of restoring it. Automatic back-up systems should be offsite so as to avoid issues caused by things like fires or other natural disasters. With a remote back-up system, those issues won’t be a problem.
Auto-healing
Auto-healing may be a term with which fewer people are familiar. While automatic back-up is pretty common these days, auto-healing may be a bit harder to understand, especially for an IT novice. But it can be a super important tool for many users.
Also known as self-healing test automation, auto-healing automation adapts testing to changes in the user interface or environment so as to continue this testing without the need for human intervention. So that failures can be repaired in real time, auto healing test functionality, within a test automation platform, identifies object or element changes that likely have caused a test script to break. Then it studies testing data to identify the best correction match and, as a result, will apply changes to fix the issue and continue running the test. Self-healing testing can be used for a variety of tests like integration testing, unit testing, and functional testing.
Why use auto-healing? Besides improving the ease of testing dynamic apps or interfaces, it will also save time, reduce maintenance (and the costs that go with it), and improve reliability.
Auto-reporting
Automated reporting – or auto-reporting – is designed to make it easy for managers to report to their teams or for agencies/organizations to report to their clients. It’s a huge time saver as it eliminates the need for users to search through data for the information they need.
In short, with auto-reporting previously-determined reports are generated and updated with the help of specific software. They are then delivered to those who require the information, either through email or some other method.
There are usually different ways to schedule or trigger a report. For example, when auto-reporting is set up, the user can determine certain parameters such as the frequency and time frame of the reporting and when to deliver it to those who need it. Some might want to send reports daily, if needed, or only one report per month. That’s totally up to the user. The person generating the reports can even schedule those that are “triggered” by certain events, such as after a sales campaign closes.
Auto-reporting can be used for a variety of reasons and is generally simple and effective. It might be an impetus to improve productivity, for example, or may be used as a task reminder, Reports may simply function as an easy way to deliver useful information to the people that require it and can be as simple or as complex as necessary. The user determines what information is included.
It’s easy to understand how these solutions can benefit your company, regardless of its size. Ready to learn more about back-up solutions that work and how automation can streamline your IT needs? Contact the experts at Stillwater IT Services for more information or to schedule an appointment to talk about your IT goals. Simply complete the form on this website or call us at 604-899-1105.