3 Steps You Need to Take to Keep Your IT Running Effectively

Your IT may not be the simplest part of your business but it doesn’t have to be a major problem. If you can get just a couple things right, the rest of the work can be made much easier. At the end of the day, three of the most important components of your internal IT infrastructure will be how you maintain it, how you secure it, and how you back it up.

Maintaining and Managing Your Infrastructure

You don’t have an IT infrastructure if it’s breaking down all the time. IT is not a “set it and forget it” part of your business; it must constantly be monitored and maintained to ensure that it is operating in an efficient manner. Problems like network bottlenecks and hardware failure can get in the way of you and your staff working at optimal productivity, so you need to have policies in place to periodically review your infrastructure and resolve problems that occur. Doing so will keep them from becoming bigger ones in the future.

This might sound like a daunting task for a small business, but we assure you that it’s easier than ever to remotely monitor your systems for discrepancies and other issues. In fact, this is something that SMBs often outsource to managed services providers like Preferred, especially due to some SMBs not having the staff to dedicate to this important task.

Securing Your Infrastructure

You cannot adequately keep your business running if you fail to protect it from external and internal threats. You must establish solutions and policies that utilize not only powerful security tools, but also established industry best practices. We recommend a Unified Threat Management tool for a great catch-all network security solution, augmented further by options like multi-factor authentication, access controls, and a Bring Your Own Device policy.

Naturally, this also involves getting your staff on board. It’s one thing for the boss to have the proper mindset about security, but it’s a whole other case for the average office worker. Be sure to show them how network security bleeds into everything they do for your business, too. They will be more likely to buy in then.

Backing Up Your Infrastructure

Finally, all businesses must have a plan in place for when the worst-case scenario strikes. It doesn’t matter whether it is a natural disaster, hacking incident, or something as simple as user error. There are moments when you will have to restore a backup, and you will be glad to have one available. Data backup and disaster recovery are two components of a larger solution called a business continuity plan, which is also something that your organization should strive to implement.

Preferred can help your business implement any of the above technology solutions, and more. Together we can help your organization overcome its internal IT challenges. To learn more, reach out to us at 708-781-7110.