Straight Talk for Company Leaders: What You Don’t Know (About Your IT Solutions) Could Be Hurting You

Let’s be honest: Most small to midsize companies think they have their technology bases covered. Company leaders trust what they hear from their IT teams, and honestly believe that their current resources and security practices are strong enough to keep their company productive, secure and cost-efficient for the foreseeable future.

When asked about the performance of their IT team, they often say: “We’re all good – everything’s working fine and we’re happy with our IT.”

Can you relate?

Unfortunately, almost every small company has some hidden IT weaknesses lurking in the background. And what you may not know about the inner workings of your network, security, infrastructure, and desktop environment could actually be a significant risk—to your data, your reputation, your business livelihood. You may not even know there’s a weakness or gap until it’s too late.

Whether you’re a multi-practice law firm, a healthcare company, non-profit organization, or other small to midsize organization, it’s critical to know with certainty that your IT practices are strong, airtight and all working as they should.

Questions to Ask Yourself and Your IT Teams

IT technology is a highly complex field and comes with its own technical terminology. It’s not easy to understand everything your IT team says, or what it all means. But even though it’s hard to understand what your IT team tells you, it still falls on you to ensure the organization is operating without serious risk, including technology risk.

While most companies believe they are okay with their current IT solution, there are several ways to know for sure. Here are several questions to explore with your IT teams to be 100% confident in your environment:

• When was the last time you tested your backups—and what were the results?
• If Ransomware gets in our backups, how do we recover?
• If our servers are on-site, what happens if the building burns down or loses power for an extended period of time?
• Are there sprinklers or pipes above or near our server room?
• Have you tested your technology failover processes? Did they work as you expected?
• Where do we have single points of failure/no redundancy? What happens if one fails? How long will it take to get back up and running?
• Have you tested various performance scenarios with your infrastructure, desktop, collaboration, and internet systems? What did you learn?
• When was the last time we did a vulnerability scan or penetration test to confirm we don’t have major risks?
• Can you show me a report of our current patching status for both PCs/laptops and servers?
• What software and hardware are we running that are end-of-life or don’t have support contracts associated with them?
• Has anyone looked at our technology provider contracts in the last three years and asked, “Is this the best we can do?”
• If everything appears to be working well, could we benefit from an outside assessment to confirm our findings?

The Proof Is in the Pudding

If you’re not sure your IT systems are 100% optimized and working, now’s the right time to run those performance tests and explore new solutions, if necessary. With the ever-present risk of power outages, property damage, data breaches, and ongoing cybersecurity tactics, being prepared for every possible scenario is the name of the game.

If you need help or assessment from an experienced IT managed service provider, reach out today.