Manage Your IT Before It Manages You

Manage Your IT Before It Manages You

It’s after five on a Friday night. You’re on the way to your car when you get a notification on your phone. System Backup Fail. You head back to the computer center to see what the problem is.

It doesn’t take long to find the problem. Hard drive failure on the backup server. You check around. No one has the hard drive in stock. You check online. The earliest you can get a replacement is Monday.

You schedule a complete system backup every Friday. You have incrementals, but you have to wonder if they are complete since the hard drive was having problems. What do you do? Go home and hope for the best? Try to reroute the backup to a different part of the network?

Alternative Scenario

It’s Friday morning. You’re on your way to work. Coffee in-hand. You get a notification on your phone. Backup hard drive replaced. Backup software tested. You smile and enjoy your coffee. You’re glad you’ve been proactive about monitoring your system for possible equipment failures. Maybe you’ll be able to leave work a little early.

Who doesn’t want to be the person to enjoy the weekend? The problem is not everyone wants to address their IT systems proactively. A lot of companies manage their IT by reacting to a problem when it happens. That really isn’t a good way to operate. A reactive approach leads to

• Unscheduled downtime
• Increased Security Threats
• Loss of Data

Most businesses cannot afford to stop work while a system is being fixed or a cyber attack is contained. With more company data being stored digitally, companies need to ensure the integrity of their data.

Unscheduled Downtime

Most business owners would agree that unplanned downtime is costly, but few know how costly. One hour of downtime equals a $100,000 loss. A system failure on the weekend may not be as expensive as during the workweek, but it is still going to cost a company in overtime, expedited shipping for needed parts, and work delays.

Proactively monitoring network performance can identify potential problems before they happen. Tracking usage, as well as intermittent failures, can alert IT professionals to possible end-of-life components. Further testing of equipment can help isolate the problem so repairs or replacement can occur.

Increased Cyber Attacks

Every day cybercriminals troll the internet looking for vulnerabilities. If you aren’t proactively watching for attempted attacks, your company could be the next target. Many companies react to software updates. They don’t perform them unless they are forced to through continual popup reminders. Or, they hear about a breach that happened because the software was not updated.

In the cyber world, waiting to update software is like playing Russian roulette. At some point, you will be the company that reminds everyone else to update their software. Making sure all software is up-to-date reduces possible vulnerabilities. Monitoring your system for attempted attacks is a proactive way to assess potential risks.

Data Loss

No matter how small you think your company is, you have customer data. Maybe, cybercriminals can’t use your information directly, but the data could be enough to direct them to a company that stores more detailed information. Your system may hold personal information, such as social security numbers, birthdates, or banking information. If you are in an industry where safekeeping of customer data is mandated by law, you are exposing your company to significant liabilities if you are not watching who and how your data is being accessed.

With all the demands on a company, it is easy to let seemingly less critical tasks slide. That software update can wait until tomorrow. Do we really need a new server? All it takes is a proactive approach to IT management. Why not contact us to discuss how we can help turn your reactive approach into a proactive one? After all, how would you like to spend your Friday nights?