CPA Firm Swerves Around Disaster When Server Crashes

A server crash is never a welcome event, but when you’re a CPA firm and it’s the middle of tax season, it’s a recipe for disaster. Luckily, for Miller McDonald, Inc., this unforeseen failure didn’t turn into a catastrophe. In fact, it wasn’t luck that got them back up and running. It was preparation and the work that they did with VC3 to make sure they had effective data backup storage and recovery procedures.

Miller McDonald, Inc. is a 30-person CPA firm located in Bemidji, Minnesota. Kevin Onstad is the partner who oversees IT. In this role, he makes decisions on how to invest in technology and manage cyber risk. There was a time, however, when Kevin was the main go-to person for any IT issue, and problems large and small landed in his lap.

While Kevin was happy to help, he came to a point when he realized that his time would be better spent on actual CPA activities rather than IT support. He also knew that while he was quite tech savvy, he didn’t have the training or experience to handle the firm’s increasingly complex IT environment.

That’s when he made the decision to partner with VC3 for managed IT and cybersecurity services.

Data Backup and Recovery Was a Priority

When VC3 takes a new client company through onboarding, one of the first tasks is to make sure that data backup and recovery is working. For Miller McDonald, this was a priority.

Kevin worked with his VC3 Strategic Advisor to create a disaster recovery plan that took into account their unique parameters for recovery. One of these parameters was that downtime during tax season was unacceptable.

Fortunately, the updated backup plan was operational when their server crashed… during tax season.

Rapid Data Recovery System Performed as Planned

Instead of everything going dark, however, Miller McDonald employees only noticed a small blip as VC3 routed server operations through the rapid data recovery system that was now in place. (That’s the lucky part of this story!)

It turned out that the rapid data recovery system had to operate as the firm’s file and application server for quite a while because supply chain issues delayed delivery of the parts needed for repair. When the parts finally arrived, VC3 was able to bring the server back online with no impact on operations for the CPA firm.

VC3 Partnership Handles the Workload and the Unexpected

Even with the most diligent computer maintenance, no one can guarantee that you’ll never ever experience a failure. But having an effective data backup and recovery system in place means that a tech failure doesn’t turn into a business failure.

As the Miller McDonald firm approaches another tax season, they’re confident that their technology can handle their workload and the unexpected. And Kevin Onstad doesn’t lose any sleep worrying about IT.