All too often, your IT team finds themselves running from one problem to the next. As long as everything is going smoothly, they don’t have much to do. When things start to fall apart, however, your IT team starts pulling their hair out! Sound familiar? By shifting your IT team from reactive to proactive, you can help your business day flow more smoothly even when problems arise.
Poor network security can cause serious problems for your business: compromised customer information, excessive downtime, and even the loss of company secrets. By tightening down your security, you can help decrease the odds that a data breach will happen to you. The difference between reactive and proactive security is simple: reactive security simply reacts to a potential threat, dealing with the fallout after it becomes known. Proactive security, on the other hand, identifies potential threats and makes sure that your business is protected against them. This might include:
- An on-site evaluation that will tell you the weak points in your physical defenses and whether or not a potential intruder will have an easy time accessing your computers, server rooms, and other sensitive areas
- An evaluation of your external security, including your website
- An evaluation of internal security and how well your network keeps out threats
By staying up-to-date with your IT security and adhering to the recommendations made by the team doing your evaluations, you help protect your customers and your business. It can save you money, increase the time your business spends up and running, and protect your website and network from malware: a winning combination that will help keep your business safe from outside threats.
Increase Your Regular Maintenance
In your business, do you use equipment until it fails, or do you assume a reasonable life of your hardware and replace it before it has the opportunity to cause problems? If you’ve been waiting on problems to occur, you’re being reactive. Proactive replacement might seem more expensive up front, but in the long run, it can save you money. For example:
- Replacing computers, from desktops to laptops, before they self-destruct ensures that vital employees won’t end up with unexpected downtime while waiting for a replacement.
- Maintaining your software means that you’re always using the latest tools, which will keep your security tighter.
- Taking care of routine maintenance on your servers and computers will ensure that everything stays up and running when you need it most.
Encourage your IT team to create a schedule for this maintenance, from machines that are due to be replaced to software that’s recently been updated. While you don’t always have to have the latest and greatest technology on the market, that proactive maintenance will often go a long way toward making your business day run more smoothly.
Anticipate Problems
Ideally, you want an IT team that’s aware of potential problems before they arise. Is there a known fault in a particular piece of software your company uses every day, from a security issue that has just been released online to a known issue that causes the software to crash at random? Does a piece of hardware used by your company have a reputation for self-destructing precisely at the five-year mark? By keeping your IT team up to date on the latest happenings in the field, you can provide your entire business with the tools it needs to keep running smoothly.
Proactive maintenance of all the critical facets of your company’s technology, including hardware, software, and security, protects your company from many of the potential failings associated with technology. Technology is only effective when it works. Shifting your IT team to a proactive stance will give you the confidence that all of your vital technology will keep working for you.
