In this article, we’re going to talk a lot about flooding: The Flood of 1950, the Flood of ‘97, and the Red River Floodway.
We’re going to talk about these things because, as Manitobans, there’s no better story to illustrate the power of prevention; even if costs seem high initially, preventing devastating loss is a good move.
As managed IT service and security providers, we understand the value of prevention; here’s what we think you should know:
Takeaways
- The Floodway and proactive IT services are alike; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
- Manitoba businesses of all sizes face IT challenges, from figuring out how to adopt AI in their processes to preventing ransomware attacks.
- A combination of proactive and reactive IT is needed to support your business.
- Constant C provides a comprehensive range of managed IT services in Manitoba.
What The Red River Teaches Us About IT Resilience
The Story Of The Red River Floodway
In 1950, the Red River flooded Winnipeg; some 70,000-100,000 residents had to be evacuated, four of eleven bridges were destroyed, and property loss was estimated at $600 million to $1 billion.
To prevent another catastrophic flood, the provincial government proposed building a floodway. The project was championed by Premier Duff Roblin; opposition members claimed the floodway would be a monumental waste of money and called it “Duff’s Ditch.”
The costs were high; it was the second-largest earth-moving project in the world at the time (next only to the Panama Canal), and the capital cost was estimated at $72 million at a time when the province had a net annual revenue of about $74 million.
In 1997, the Red River flooded again; the event was a 100-year flood, a flood so big that statistically, such an event would only happen once every 100 years. Though estimated property damage in Winnipeg was $500 million - $1 billion, estimated property damage in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, which did not have a floodway, was $3.5 billion, despite the population in the area being 10 times smaller than Winnipeg’s.
Some conservative estimates place the value of the damage prevented at $3.5 - $4 billion; other figures suggest the cost saved might be 2 or 3 times greater. You can read more about the 1997 flood in the study “The 1997 flood event in the Red River basin: Causes, assessment and damages.”
Billions of dollars of damage prevented during one flood is impressive; the amount saved from all of the floods since the Floodway was built is even more impressive. The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering estimates that the Floodway has prevented more than $40 billion (in 2011 dollars) of flood damage in Winnipeg since its construction.
“Flood Prevention” In IT
People scoffed at Duff Roblin when he wanted to build the Floodway; they claimed that investing such a substantial amount of money in prevention was a waste. Those people were wrong, and the Floodway has paid for itself hundreds of times over.
This logic holds true in the world of IT. Business owners may be reluctant to create backups, to use managed detection and response (MDR) to stop cyberthreats, or to contract a company for managed IT services. They may look at the cost of proactive and preventive services as one they can’t afford - but like the Floodway, the cost of those services can be more than made up for by the problems they prevent.
IT Challenges Manitoba Businesses Face Today
The modern world is shaped by IT, and the increasing technologization of business and communication has opened up a host of new possibilities and new challenges. Businesses in Manitoba must contend with:
- AI-powered cyberthreats
- Understanding when and how to adopt AI in their own workflows
- The rising costs of hardware
- Ever-changing cloud solutions
- Evaluating new threats and new opportunities as they arise
These modern challenges coexist with challenges that businesses have been contending with for decades: What to do when you lose access to data unexpectedly, or when your POS system fails, or when there’s a breach that impacts sensitive data.
How Proactive IT Support Keeps You Ahead Of The Current
Not to put too fine a point on the analogy, but much like the Red River, the world of IT is constantly flowing forward; predicting how it will flow and keeping ahead of the current will help you protect and grow your business.
Imagine if you could have predicted the rising costs of hardware like RAM and SSDs; you could have upgraded your systems before costs skyrocketed. Imagine being able to detect a cyberthreat before your data becomes compromised. Imagine having data backups so that you can always access crucial information, even when disaster strikes and your main systems go offline.
These are just a few of the things that proactive IT support can help you with. It’s here so that when the flood hits, you’re ready.
Manitoba-Wide IT Support You Can Count On
Constant C provides IT support to businesses across Manitoba. We offer a wide range of IT services, including:
- Flat-Rate IT Support
- Cloud Services
- Backup and Disaster Recovery
- Business Phone Systems
- Network Security
- Virtualization
- And more
Request A Quote
Don’t get caught unprepared when the flood hits. Schedule a discovery call with Constant C today.
FAQ
- What is the difference between proactive and reactive IT support?
Reactive IT support isn’t preventive; it’s curative. Can’t access files you have hosted on the cloud? Got hit by a ransomware attack? You call your IT support team, and they react to the issue.
Proactive IT support aims to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Can’t access files on the cloud? No big deal; you have backups hosted locally. Worried about ransomware attacks? You can relax; managed detection and response services catch potential nefarious actors before they can reach sensitive points on your network.
Ideally, your IT support provides a mix of proactive support and reactive solutions; the first mitigates the need for the second.
- Why do Manitoba businesses need local IT support instead of a national provider?
Local IT support means we can physically come to your location faster than national providers may be able to. We understand the local market, we have relationships with local internet and cloud service providers, and we can provide off-site data storage that’s still within the province.
- How quickly can Constant C respond to an IT emergency?
Very quickly. Our team is available 24/7; if you need support, you can call us.
