Reducing Business Risk with IT

by Chas Arnold, VP Sales and Marketing

What business risks do you have? Reducing a significant amount of business risk can be as simple as implementing the right IT practices. Security, downtime, and data loss are among the biggest concerns for companies when considering their liabilities, but a well built infrastructure with solid procedures in place can help mitigate those concerns. Security A hole in your network security is cause for huge concern considering the many mutations of spam, viruses, spyware, and even internal attacks from disgruntled employees. Your IT network should be protected on both the server and client side of your network, meaning you need enterprise level firewalls, anti-spam packages, and anti-virus software both on servers and employee computers to make sure your network is protected. Physical access to server room equipment should also be guarded, and a detailed security policy should be published for all employees to follow. Downtime Downtime in a company is not often calculated as a hard risk, but the impact of losing productivity can cost your company thousands if not hundreds of thousands in lost revenue. Avoiding downtime means having constant monitoring in place to know when a server is being overloaded or other resources are over capacity. Processes must be in place to make sure the IT network is stable, and levels of redundancy should be implemented so failover is automatic. Proactivity and planning is the key to minimizing downtime and decreasing lost productivity and revenue. Data Loss Companies that lose all their business data have a very small chance of surviving without a reliable means of restoring data. Avoiding data loss starts with a reliable backup system. Data should be backed up regularly and stored at a secure offsite location. Instead of relying on an employee to change tape drives, backups should be disc based and happen automatically to minimize human error. The same goes for email archiving, as it is the most common form of communication and is often used as evidence in legal proceedings. If reducing risk is important to your business, examining your IT liabilities should be your top priority. DynaSis provides managed security, guaranteed uptime, proactive monitoring, and reliable backup systems. Contact DynaSis today to learn more at 770.882.2432