5 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Their IT Systems
What You Should Know About Your IT Systems
Many small business owners are unaware of what IT systems they have in place and, more importantly, where they could be at risk. This is particularly common for businesses that are using smaller ‘one-man band’ IT service providers. Whilst no owner wants to be bogged down in technical details from their IT provider, there are are some questions all businesses should have clearly documented about their IT systems. See if you can answer questions on the following 5 areas of your IT systems.
1. Is your critical business data safe?
Any data a business relies on to function daily is critical data. How long could your business survive without access to your critical data? Do you have a data backup system? Is it working? Is all your data backed up? How far back do your backups go? Who is monitoring your backups to ensure they are working?
2. Does your business have an IT Disaster Recovery Plan?
An IT Disaster Recovery Plan sets out procedures to keep the infrastructure, systems and applications of a business running through unforeseen disasters. What would your business do in the event of a catastrophic hardware failure or office disaster (fire, flood, etc)? How long could you survive without access to your business IT systems? If you already have an IT Disaster Recovery Plan, has it been reviewed recently?
3. Is your IT Infrastructure fit for purpose?
Often a business takes advice from their IT service provider in regards to what IT hardware is implemented. In our experience we often see that inadequate hardware has been installed. For example, does your IT network have a server? Is your sever really a server or a standard PC? Does it have the built-in redundancy that a server should provide? Is the hardware covered by vendor warranty? Do you need a server, or is your business better suited to a Cloud-based solution?
4. Are your network, data and IT systems protected against malicious intent?
We see many businesses that have inadequate systems in place to protect against malware, spam and/or unauthorised access. Does your business have an anti-virus solution installed? Do you have a firewall installed? Do you have email filters in place?
5. Are your IT systems configured for maximum performance and value?
We regularly see systems where money has been spent on business-grade hardware which is then let down by poor configuration. Are you getting the most out of your IT systems? Is your IT service provider constantly ‘updating’ your systems but you struggle to see any real improvement in performance?
How did you go at answering these 5 questions? If you had difficulties or your IT service provider does not give you easily understood answers, itro can help you. itro’s IT Systems Assessment will close any gaps of knowledge you have about your IT systems. A Senior Engineer from itro will conduct a thorough review and give you a written report documenting your current systems, any problems or issues found and suggested solutions to address those issues. You will have the answers to every one of the above questions, and more. We find this service is frequently taken up by businesses looking to change their IT support to Managed Services with fixed monthly pricing. Without being bogged down in technical details you will know and understand the important IT issues your business faces and have the peace of mind of having a team of engineers manage your IT systems at a fixed price. If you are in the Melbourne area and would welcome a free itro IT Systems Assessment call us now on 1300 10 3000.