Data Security and Disaster Recovery

Data is a major asset for businesses, whether it is internal shop data such as inventory or customer data such as vehicles and account balances. The application of your accumulated data helps you run your day-to-day operations and furthermore enables you to maintain your competitiveness in the marketplace and gain customer trust and loyalty. Now the real question is: how do you take care of this crucial data? 

Maybe you have a top notch pen and paper system that works for you. Even with the best filing system, it is typically time consuming to locate and copy invoices and orders on request, or to research what jobs or items a customer has received or still needs. Add all the combustible materials of an automotive business environment into the mix, and fire is a very real danger. 

Let’s assume you are computerized. Your computer suddenly shuts off and won’t turn back on. Think about how much time you can afford to have your computer systems down. An hour? Maybe two? Definitely no more than a day - Murphy’s Law and all. Now consider if you had no data to restore because you did not perform a backup. How much time can you afford to spend re-entering data? Why would you want to?

So how do you take care of your data? What would you do if you lost your data? How do you not lose your data in the first place? Take into consideration the key points below and create your own shop data guidelines and disaster recovery steps! Don’t allow yourself to become a part of a painful statistic in data loss.

When evaluating your data security status, it is important to know that if you are on our subscription plan and your data is stored on the cloud, it is automatically backed up daily.

Prevention:

Use a firewall.

Configure your firewall to only allow trusted connections. AutoFluent® uses port 3306 for local connections.

Use an antivirus software. 

Antivirus software protects against malware and threats. The only antivirus software we trust, use, and recommend is ESET NOD32 Antivirus. 

Provide Limited Access: 

Place passwords on your computer and your software systems. AutoFluent® makes limiting access to your data easier by giving each employee a password and individual permissions per user.

Use an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS).

In the event of a power outage, your computer will be safe from suddenly shutting down in the middle of the workday. This prevents data corruption and lets you continue providing your customers with the service they need. 

Maintenance:

Keep computers and software up-to-date! 

Perform any updates whenever they become available. AutoFluent®’s latest release version is 9.1.49. It’s important to run the same version of AutoFluent® throughout all your computers to avoid any data discrepancies.

Inspect your equipment regularly. 

Stay aware of any new physical devices, cables, or software that appear on your computer or network. 

Conduct Training.

Training your staff to correctly use and maintain your software programs is a crucial part of data accuracy. Nobody wants to find a 6-month-old issue to fix. You want reliable data entry done the first time around.

Perform backups daily.

We can’t tell you how many users have lost years (and we mean years) of data because they didn’t perform a quick backup of their AutoFluent® data. AutoFluent® has an easy access tool built in to help you perform a backup! Just login, click Backup, then check “Backup to Web” before performing the backup so that we can keep a secure file for you. This would be the file we would to recover your AutoFluent® database if your server computer would stop working. Our AutoFluent® Subscription Cloud customers enjoy the convenience and security of automatic backups every night! 

Disaster Recovery:

Have a plan.

A fundamental step of disaster recovery planning is to ensure your data is protected. A secure business management software system with offsite data backup is indispensable. You’ll have one less thing to stress about, and couldn’t we all use that? AutoFluent® Support has successfully restored data from a backup for a countless number of shops. 

Share your plan with your staff.

Having everyone know what steps to take and who to call after a disaster makes the difference in your downtime.