Your IT network is the life blood of your company – it connects all departments from payroll to sales to accounting, and keeps your information moving. If the blood isn’t flowing – the body, or your company, ceases to function. As the owner of a business, it’s your duty to know some essential things about your company’s IT Network.
Knowing your network does not necessarily mean you need to know how your firewall is configured. Rather you do need to know how your network operations are secured, the general risks associated and the action plan to enact in case of a breach. In this article we break down the top 6 things you need to know about your IT network:
It’s always best that we see our primary care doctor for a full physical examination about your health—same goes with your network health. Gathering and analyzing your network health will help ensure your company’s network health keeps up with new technologies, integrations and more. Helping your business reduce risk for virus attacks and downtime brought by your outdated network.
How quickly can backups be restored in an emergency so your business remains functional? Whether it’s an earthquake or flood, hacker, or a malfunctioned server, it’s essential that business critical systems and applications are backed up via a reliable source, and can be spun up in under an hour. Many companies use a combo of on-prem and virtual backup systems in case the physical location becomes compromised.
Does your company have the proper firewalls and network security layers in place to adhere with compliance standards such as PCI and HIPPA? Cyberattacks are increasing increasing, driven by global connectivity and usage of various services—like the cloud, applications and more. These services store sensitive information that may put your organization at risk of being stolen by cyber hackers. Security incidents affect businesses that cause irreversible financial damage. It’s essential that policies for passwords, remote access, etc. are in place to protect company assets.
A Business Disaster Recovery plan refers to the actions that will be taken in the event of a disaster so your business experiences the shortest and most cost-effective downtime possible. You need to know if your IT manager, or your IT company has a business continuity plan in place, that it’s been tested, and that it works!
Will newer, faster servers, workstations and mobile devices produce more sales, greater efficiency and lead to increased company profit? It’s important for every owner to know how IT expenditures relate to company productivity. If you’re spending money on an outdated system that runs slow and crashes frequently, how does that impact an employee’s output?
How is your company growing? What are your 5 or 10 year goals and how does technology factor into those plans? What is changing in the next year? What new software will be implemented and how much will it cost? Owners need to have an overview of how the company’s network aligns with future business goals.
As a business owner you’re responsible for the financial longevity of your business. However, the client experience, the livelihood of your employees, the compliance and industry standards must also be taken into consideration as it relies on technology.
