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Business continuity goes hand-in-hand with the old adage — no one plans to fail; they fail to plan. No matter the industry, business leaders know they need to protect themselves and their data from the various threats that can disrupt operations, but creating a well-constructed business continuity plan (BCP) to achieve that goal can seem overwhelming. The good news is that if you partner with a trusted IT security provider and succeed at putting one in place, it provides a competitive edge and dramatically minimizes stress if a disaster occurs. In our personal lives, most of us have a sound financial plan, trust, or will in place to protect our family in case something happens. You need the same proactive plan to protect another important possession: Your company data. Along with your employees, it’s your most valuable asset. Without it, your business is immobilized. Losing data wreaks havoc and creates undue stress on you and your business. Enter the business continuity plan. This – along with a cyber insurance policy – gives you the resources you need when you need them. If your IT technology fails and operations halt, your BCP is ready and waiting. It delivers the resilience you’ll need to maintain cash flow, customer trust and future growth. Types of threats Data can be compromised due to both natural and human threats, both of which can ultimately lead to data loss and downtime. Data backup, recovery services and regular testing will ensure that your business remains operational in any unforeseen circumstances. Good BCPs focus on data security, backup and recovery to fortify daily operations against threats. They minimize downtime, improve client satisfaction, save you money and ensure operations resume as fast as possible. Cyberattacks: These pose one of the most significant risks, capable of crippling your business for days to weeks and negatively impacting company reputation Data deletion: Accidents happen! Mistakes from inattentive or distracted staff can be as damaging as cyber threats Hardware failures: If your servers or infrastructure go down, so do your employees. Accidents or outages involving employee access to company assets, along with software corruption, are both disabling and expensive Natural disasters, outages and pandemics: Floods, storms and utility outages can destroy servers and cause interruptions. Pandemics fall into this category as well and can impact data protection if you’re not using a reliable provider or have a robust disaster recovery plan in place Protection from the unexpected Data backup, system recovery, and regular testing are pivotal services included in a good plan that will protect your business from unexpected risks. Just as you wouldn’t drive without auto insurance, you shouldn’t run a business without a reliable BCP. The services you choose should use industry-leading solutions, which will create images of all your servers (application, domain controller, file, exchange, and terminal) and store them on protected offsite servers, ensuring quick and efficient data recovery in case of disruptive incidents. Regardless of business size, they should address several issues: 24/7 accessibility: uninterrupted access to deliver continuous productivity Security encryption: data tools that are encrypted and protected from external intruders Data storage and recovery: automated backups (local/remote) Recovery Time Objective: defined to meet your recovery time requirements. What is your time objective to recovery? Do you need to recover data within 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, a day, or 3-5 days? Recovery Point Objective: at what point in time will you need to recover? Your data retention policy and storage requirements should meet your specific needs Regular testing: BCPs must be proven effective through regular testing to verify they meet company goals and desired outcomes for uptime Backup vs. disaster recovery Backup is not the same as disaster recovery, or Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Which do you need? Your company should consider DRaaS if you: Rely on mission-critical applications and data; Want to be up and operational in 15 minutes; Are subject to regulated compliance requirements; Are partners in stringent supply chains; Are located in disaster-prone areas; Lack technical resources or disaster recovery experience; Rely heavily on IT for business functions; Require a high uptime based on client, business, or industry needs; Another area to consider is how key functional areas break out for your business: Don’t plan to fail! Business continuity and IT are intertwined. A good data protection defense is to work with a reputable IT security provider that translates potential disruptions into manageable workflows to preemptively deal with issues. They will share their expert advice to identify threats, build strategies, meet desired uptime outcomes, and implement countermeasures so you can run your business effectively and efficiently in 2025. David Hodgdon is the CEO and founder of PCGiT in Portsmouth.philwij 。

Manchester City find themselves in an unprecedented poor run of form under manager Pep Guardiola . Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League made it just one win in their last 12 matches for City. The result left them languishing in seventh in the table and while they are four points off the top four, they are also 12 behind leaders Liverpool who hold a game in hand over them. It seems the hopes of winning the title are starting to slip away from the Blues . However, it still remains to be seen what is in store for City between now and the end of the campaign. MEN Sport has taken a look what some of the country's leading pundits have had to say on City between the campaign beginning and present day. Guardiola leaves Before Guardiola signed his contract extension, Roy Keane predicted on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet , that this would be the Catalan head coach's last season at City. "This is Pep’s last season. Pep will leave City. I’m putting it out there," the former Manchester United captain explained in August. City still favourites As recently as November, Alan Shearer was still predicting City to win the Premier League . "I would still say the favourites are Man City, but it's close," he told The Rest is Football podcast . "Liverpool have been much better than I thought they would be. I didn't think they'd be challenging but they are, there's no doubt about that. "I don't think they're going to go away. I've been disappointed with Arsenal and I tipped them before the season started. "You'd still say Man City are just favourites because they've been around the block." Gary Lineker agreed with his Match of the Day colleague, adding: "I think I agree. "City have been there, done it four times on the bounce now. You wonder if that will catch up with them at some point because it's so difficult to keep having that absolute drive that gets them over the line. "I would say they're still favourites. I backed them at the start of the season and I wouldn't change my mind now." Match of the Day host Gary Lineker had his say on Man City (Image: Tom Dulat/Getty Images for Premier League) Change of heart At the end of November, Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher had changed his mind on City winning the Premier League but also predicted further misfortune for the Blues. "I actually think Arsenal might finish above Manchester City because of the problems they have got in midfield," he told Sky Sports . "I’m going to go Liverpool to win the league now. I think it will be the bookies’ favorite and they have got a sizable lead. "I still think it’s obviously going to be a tight run-in, whether that’s Manchester City trying to get at them or Arsenal coming back at them as well. I went for Arsenal second, Liverpool third and Tottenham Hotspur fourth. "Liverpool and Arsenal will be in there. I just hope one of them is at the top end of the table." Potential hope for City Over the weekend, Gary Neville assessed the landscape in the Premier League and hinted at a way City could get back into the title race. "Liverpool are clearly the best team in the Premier League at this moment in time," he explained on his namesake podcast . "They’re the clear favourites for the title. Man City’s drop-off has been spectacular, I’m not sure anyone really knows how it’s gone so badly wrong. " Chelsea had a tough game today but they’re doing well and having a good season. I think the one team Liverpool need to watch are Arsenal if they can get their tail up and close that gap going in March and April. "But at this moment in time Liverpool are clear favourites. I think the biggest risk for them is injuries – if they were to lose [Virgil] Van Dijk and [Mohamed] Salah that would hurt them. "Van Dijk is like Rodri for Liverpool, he holds it all together. Keeping him fit is absolutely crucial. "There’s some big challenges coming up so we’re nowhere near the point that you can hand Liverpool the title but they’re in a great position and at this moment in time they’re by far the best team in the league and the table tells us that."

Whether or not Minnesota Wild fans believe in Santa Claus is irrelevant as families all across the State of Hockey gather near their Christmas trees, real or artificial. Whether or not they believe, truly, in the second round of the NHL playoffs is the real factor determining their level of holiday spirit. Save for a recent blip of four straight losses, this has been a hockey season filled with unexpected fun from a team for whom preseason expectations were low. The Wild entered the three-day holiday break in solid contention for the top of not only the Central Division but also the Western Conference with a 21-10-4 record after a 4-3 victory over the Blackhawks on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT As the NHL enjoys a holiday break that comes just a few games shy of the 2024-25 season’s midway mark, we offer a quintet of wishes that would help bring a Merry Christmas and, even more importantly, a Happy New Year to the State of Hockey. The Wild have not seen top-line center Joel Eriksson Ek or veteran defenseman Jake Middleton play a game in weeks. They lost top-line winger Mats Zuccarello for a month. They lost mainstay goalie Filip Gustavsson for a week. They have had live through games without Marat Khusnutdinov, Yakob Trenin, Jakub Lauko, Jonas Brodin, Ryan Hartman and Jared Spurgeon. Even superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov missed a game after a nasty knee-on-knee check during a November win in Edmonton. The injury bug pays a visit to every team at some point, and we hear lots of brave talk about the “next man up” and other cool clichés. But a healthy roster in 2025 could mean the difference between sneaking into the playoffs and contending for a new banner for the Xcel Energy Center rafters. On Dec. 6, the Wild won convincingly in Anaheim by a 5-1 count. Roughly 19 hours after that game concluded, they had to face the powerful Kings in downtown Los Angeles and lost 4-1. Last weekend, a home loss to Utah was followed, less than 24 hours later, by a visit to Central-leading Winnipeg, which won handily. On Jan. 11, they will play in San Jose, then have roughly 19 hours to get to Las Vegas for a night with the Knights. Like injuries, everyone deals with schedule quirks, especially in a season like this when things are condensed due to the two-week break for the 4 Nations Cup in February. But the spate of back-to-backs in different rinks has certainly done Minnesota no favors in the realm of getting healthy and staying healthy. Of the Wild’s 21 wins, two have been notably impressive. In October, they went on the road to Florida and blasted past the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers 5-1. A month later, in Edmonton, they rallied from an early deficit and beat the Oilers — who were within one win of the Cup last season — by a 5-3 count. Beyond those two games, the Wild have generally beaten the teams they should beat (San Jose, Anaheim, Chicago, Nashville, Columbus, etc.) and have had trouble with the NHL’s elite. ADVERTISEMENT Heading into Friday’s visit to Dallas, the Wild are a collective 1-6-1 versus the others among the top five in the West — Winnipeg, Vegas, Edmonton and Los Angeles. And it’s worth noting that after those signature wins in Florida and Edmonton, both of those foes won handily during visits to Minnesota in December. More wins, and more signature wins, are going to be needed if this team is to contend for anything notable. In the smiling Russian kid that wears number 97, the Wild have their first true contender for NHL most valuable player honors in the quarter-century history of the franchise. His seemingly nightly habit of getting pucks past the opposing goalie — honed by hours and hours of “we need to drag him off the ice” work post-practice — is like nothing Minnesota fans have seen, maybe ever. On July 1, Kaprizov will be a free agent, and Wild owner Craig Liepold vowed in a preseason meeting with reporters that no other team will offer Kaprizov more money or more years on his next contract. That might mean an eight-year pact worth $15 million a season. Having given fans a taste of the good life with a superstar wearing green and Iron Range red, keeping Kaprizov in Minnesota is their most important New Years’ resolution. The entertainment complex that Marcus Foligno dubbed the “Kirill and Zuccy” show is a sight to behold, with numbers 97 and 36 showing off some amazing chemistry as they torment opposing goalies and defenses. But the Wild need more than an amazing top line if they are to play games in May. The holiday break perhaps comes at the best time for a few players mired in some mid-winter doldrums, such as Marcus Johansson (six straight games without a point), Matt Boldy (one assist in the past five games) and Ryan Hartman, who has not appeared on the offensive score sheet in more than a month, going an unexpected 16 consecutive games without a goal or assist. “I’ve had opportunities to score. I think I’ve made plays where some guys have had opportunities, the puck just hasn’t gone in,” Hartman said as he headed into the Christmas break. “Obviously, if they do, it’s going to make you feel much better.” ADVERTISEMENT And as the Wild’s unexpectedly great season moves into 2025, that is something all Wild fans can agree on. ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. 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