All our schools and businesses are now reaching the rapids. It’s the same water as the trickle they discovered all those years ago, so should be fine right? Anyone who has ever been white water rafting, will tell you this is absolutely not the case. You need to have the right equipment and skills to be able to safely make it out the other end. It is also true that without guidance the majority of people wouldn’t make it to the other end, at least without falling in… a lot.
Minimising the risk
When thinking about minimising risk it could be easy to assume we just need to buy all the safety equipment available and wrap ourselves in cotton wool, well you’re wrong.
Mountain biking is a huge passion of mine. When riding, I only wear what I deem to be essential safety equipment; a helmet, knee pads, and some gloves. The main way in which I keep safe is by relying on my experience and skill to ensure that I return home in one piece (most of the time). This is exactly the same when we think about using technology, there are certain tools that are absolutely necessary in order to keep our users and data safe; security software and eSafety monitoring solutions to name a couple. Beyond that the majority of safety is delivered through passing on experience and skills from one to another; through course lead training or informal passing of knowledge.
Despite doing all this we will all fall in at some point (or crash in the case of mountain biking), it’s inevitable, and so we also need to know how to recover.
Learning to fall
Learning to fall or more specifically hit the ground properly is a skill; at least that is what I have been trying to convince people of every time I return from a day’s cycling with a couple of knocks. “It could have been a lot worse”, I always tell them. “It could have been a lot worse” is a phrase that we all use, maybe it’s just the thing you say to soften the blow or negate further conversation on the topic. However I like to think it is because they, like me, learnt to fall properly.
When it is a member of a school that has said this it is usually when they have just recovered from a disaster of some kind. No one wants it to happen but those that can come out the other side with only a few cuts and bruises are doing pretty well in my opinion. The reason for that is because the amount of downtime, data lost, and money spent was minimised. All because they had a good disaster recovery strategy in place.
The key message here is that when we think about security and backup of data in technology, it is absolutely right to make sure the right procedures and products are in place to reduce the risk; but it is also equally important to not become complacent and expect never to fall in. With careful navigation and some reliance on the skills and equipment at your disposal; although you still need to navigate the rapids you at least now stand a chance of reaching the other side. We are now getting closer to the ocean. Although far more opportunity lies there, the conditions are also very changeable – keeping us on our toes. The security and skills we learn now will be just as important in the future too.
About the author
Ian has been a network solutions product manager for over 2 years having joined RM 5 years prior. His passion for helping others to understand technology in an uncomplicated and easy to consume way is driven by his own experience of having to navigate the world of new technologies. Focused on delivering solutions that have a real positive impact to those that use them Ian spends his time separating the fads from the game changers, particularly prevalent when it comes to cloud technologies.
Further reading
Part 1 of series : The progression of technology - Navigating the rapids