Uptime is probably the single most important part of your IT setup - because downtime cost you your company's time and money. Depending on your company, maybe your team could survive a whole day without email access (it might be a pain in the butt, but it could be done). But what if you don't have that tolerance when it comes to response time? What if even going an hour without functioning email would grind everything to a halt? Think of the same scenario, but this time it's a server that's gone down - how long can your team continue to do their jobs without access to any of their files?
Odds are: not very long.
So what can you do to prepare against the dreaded downtime? We've compiled a checklist to help you evaluate your IT environment. All of the components below are essential to maximize uptime and keep your business running smoothly - without them, even a small bump in the road could leave you without the technology you need for hours.
User/Desktop Support
- Is a trouble-ticket system in place to assist in incident documentation and management?
- Are you able to easily report on the status of all tickets?
- Can desktops be cleaned on a daily basis (that means scanned for viruses, internet cache flushed, and critical patches and updates applied)?
- Do you have 24x7 support for everyone in your organization?
- Is technology in place to provide secure, remote access to workstations?
- Are web filtering and reporting in place to track employees' web usage?
Backups and Disaster Recovery
- Do you have a fully tested disaster recovery plan to ensure that your business can be restored quickly after a disaster?
- Do you have a written process on exactly how your data is backed up?
- Is your data backed up every day (or every hour)?
- Do you have image-based backups, so that a server or workstation can be restored within minutes after a disaster?
- Are backup logs checked for errors daily, and are daily reports delivered to confirm backup success?
- Do you have email continuity where your email is queued in the event the server is down, to give you access to your email via the cloud?
Administration
- Is system monitoring in place?
- Can all components of your network be monitored 24x7x365?
- Are your servers configured according to best practices for optimal performance and reliability?
- Is documentation in place to provide continuity through IT staff turnover, such as an online portal which includes an Information Technology Management System to document your network?
- Does your record-keeping ensure you’re up-to-date on issues with your network and how they were resolved?
Security
- Do you have the best available anti-virus software?
- Is your anti-virus consistently updated for maximum effectiveness?
- Do you have an email protection suite with anti-spam and are emails scanned for malware and viruses before receipt?
- Is your firewall properly configured to keep your network secure, and can intrusions be identified?
- Are security patches applied routinely and effectively?
Downtime can be a big deal. Just last week we worked on an email migration for a client because their old service was unreliable and would stop working for hours at a time. For this transportation company (where response time is critical to their business), losing email for a couple of hours seriously hurt their ability to meet deadlines.
Is your technology set up to give you the maximum uptime? Download this free checklist and give yourself a quick self-evaluation:
