There are a couple of things that are worth noting if you are closing down over the Festive period:

If you are in a Shared building could the power be turned off at any time and if so would this affect your Servers?

If so it might be worth switching off your servers and restarting them when you return. Please check whether this will have an impact on your emails and remember that any backups will not run and therefore the latest backup will be the previous nights before the switch off.

If you are closed during the Festive period, even if it is just for the official Bank Holidays then this can throw out your Backups as the tapes will not be changed. Some backup software cancels jobs as the days pass and no new Tape is inserted but some don’t. In which case when you return you may need to reset or cancel the backups before they get back into sync.

If you intend to leave everything up and running then please make sure the last full backup is kept safe and off-site as in the event of a disaster this will be required and may be of no use if in the same building as the server.

Finally, if you are running a skeleton staff this can be an ideal opportunity to ensure all software is up to date and running smoothly. All servers and PCs should be up to date with the Microsoft Updates, Anti-virus software. It might also be worth running a full (time consuming) scan on all PCs and Servers using the latest version of your Anti-virus software.

Failing all that and if you can’t be bothered have a wonderful Christmas and give us a call if you need our help when you return after all the festivities!!!!!!

Happy Christmas!