COVID-19 is only the latest challenge businesses in Northern California have had to face. Last year many organizations had to overcome power outages. And who can forget the catastrophic Carr Fire and Mendocino Complex Fire, among others, that devastated Northern California in 2018?
Throughout each year and each new disaster, Executech has been there. We have supported businesses in navigating each scenario, ensuring their technology environments remained up and operational. To help you understand how we can be there for you, read how we have successfully created strategies unique to our clients to help them through hard times.
2018: Executech Braves Fires Head On As They Threaten California Businesses
Two years ago, fires devastated Northern California. A total of 8,527 fires burned through the area, resulting in the largest area of burned acreage recorded in a fire season. The fires got so bad that in August, they were declared a national disaster.
As many individuals and businesses began to evacuate, the possibility of enormous physical and financial losses loomed. For one of Executech’s (formerly DSA Technologies) clients, Nor-Cal Pipelines, the fires threatened the very core of their technical environment — their data center.
If the fires damaged the data center, Nor-Cal Pipelines would lose critical data, possibly putting the entire business at risk. Our amazing technicians in California weren’t about to let that happen. So, what did they do instead?
Executech Technicians Go the Extra Mile
As most individuals were leaving the area, retreating from the wildfires, a team of Executech employees got in their car to drive head-first into them. They were determined to help Nor-Cal succeed in any way possible.
Our technicians made their way to the location that hosted Nor-Cal’s data center, shut down the systems, and prepared everything to be relocated. They loaded the gear into their cars and transported it out of reach from the fires to a data center in Sacramento.
Our team set up Nor-Cal’s data center environment that night. The next day the systems were back up and running as if nothing had ever happened. The entire staff at Nor-Cal Pipelines was grateful to have Executech as a partner that day. And their data center remains in Sacramento where our technicians relocated it.
“Over a year ago, the wildfire disaster hit Northern California and impacted many businesses. In a stressful time for everyone, the team at Executech went above and beyond to take care of our business. Their team drove miles out of their way into the hazard zone to disconnect one of our servers and move it to a more secure location. Their team of consultants is truly excellent.”
—Dave Jaeger, Vice President of Nor-Cal Pipeline Service No matter the situation, our technicians go above and beyond for our clients.
2019: Power Outages Are No Match for Executech’s Focus on Preparedness and Disaster Recovery
One of our core beliefs at Executech is the power of being prepared. The future is never certain, and one unexpected event can force a company out of business. That’s why we focus heavily on disaster recovery and backups. Anything we can do now to save your business later is important to us. And we’ve seen it pay off multiple times.
Last year when California residents experienced power outages across the state, one business avoided losing everything thanks to teaming with Executech and our forward-thinking approach.
PK Willis is one of many companies Executech has worked with to help put together a disaster recovery and auxiliary power plan. Part of that plan included setting up a failover system that replicated their entire data center within 30 seconds, which is their recovery point objective (RPO). We put together this plan before the power outages, not knowing they would happen, but planning for any unexpected event in the future. As a result of that planning, PK Willis would only lose that 30 seconds worth of data in the event of an outage.
Many other businesses across California lost data and the ability to run their business because of those power outages. When you partner with us, we don’t just focus on the current state of your business. We focus on the future of your business. We work with you to set up backups, create recovery plans, and find solutions that are specific to your organization. Not only that, but we also test and verify that these plans work. We ensure that no matter what the future brings, you are in the best position possible to continue operations.
2020: Executech Helps Businesses Across the West Shift the Way They Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic
And that brings us to this year, where the entire world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic. As nonessential business personnel are told to stay home, companies are scrambling to get remote-ready. But it’s not as easy as pulling out a personal laptop and working from home. Many businesses are dealing with security concerns and threats, trying to figure out how to support their employees and customers during this time.
And just as in previous years, Executech has been here to assist our clients in California and across the West. We’ve helped acquire hardware, set up or improve Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), set up Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), and more. A couple of practical examples of how this has played out follow.
Executech Creates Solutions for Any Business
Firstly, we helped one of our clients, a California company dedicated to providing affordable housing across the state, quickly transition to remote work. When they had to shift their workforce to a work-from-home policy, they didn’t have the necessary equipment available. They needed laptops set up so that their employees could access company resources securely. As one of our clients, we did everything we could to get them remote-ready as quickly as possible.
First, we were able to secure 35 laptops for their employees. Many other companies were finding it difficult to get their hands on hardware due to increased demand. Next, we deployed these laptops with an expanded VPN and network to account for the remote work. This was all done in three days. Now, the company’s employees can access their local systems from home easily and securely.
Another example of how we have helped our California clients during this time comes from an architecture firm. Because architecture firms require vast amounts of technical resources for graphics and other needs, they typically aren’t the ones to adopt remote work. However, when COVID-19 forced one of our clients to move to a remote environment, we were there.
The firm already had Microsoft Surface tablets at its disposal. However, they needed our help accessing their resources remotely and running their systems through the tablets. By understanding the nature of their technical environment and needs, we were able to set up remote desktops for them to access via their Surface tablets. This provided them with full functionality for their graphics intensive applications. This was coupled with Microsoft Teams to maintain studio collaboration and make sure projects remained team efforts.
Executech Is Here For Your Business
These past three years, various businesses across California have had to deal with fires, power outages, pandemics, and more. As an IT provider, our role has been to create solutions for our clients based on their unique business needs and culture. Going forward, we will continue this effort to make sure our clients can get their jobs done. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know how to use technology as a tool to strengthen our clients businesses regardless of the curves in the road ahead. We want to be your partner in this process. We’ll help apply the technology that’s appropriate for you and focus on making your business agile and resilient.
