What does it take to run a successful business?
You need a product that people want, a business plan to help market and sell your product, and a reliable team of workers. But one of the most essential tools to help run a successful business is a reliable computer network.
Computer systems help business owners run and manage their day-to-day operations. Without a decent setup, it’s nearly impossible to remain competitive with rival businesses.
It’s important to make sure that your computer network keeps running so your business can keep running. Keep reading to learn some ways about how to manage your computer network.
Make Sure Your Computer Systems Are Compliant
Data management is a hot-button issue – people who provide their information to businesses want to make sure that their information is secure and won’t be mishandled. Some rules and regulations dictate how businesses are responsible for data and its management.
For example, if you have medical information on your systems, they need to conform to HIPAA standards. If you keep track of financial information, your systems need to adhere to the Sabarnes-Oxley Act.
It is a good idea to check if there are data standards for your business. If you have to adhere to multiple standards, purchasing multiple systems may be a good idea to remain compliant.
Keep Your Passwords Secure
It should go without saying that you need to keep your passwords safe. However, you may be putting your password and your systems in danger without realizing it.
You should avoid sharing your password or writing it down. If your company’s computer network has a password that all employees use, avoid sending it through email and make sure employees memorize it.
Your password should be cryptic and difficult to figure out. That means that you should not put any personal information like birthdays or names of family. You should also avoid using real words.
When you construct a password, use a mixture of alphanumeric characters and symbols. Letters should be in lower case and capitalized. Make sure that they are also at least eight characters long.
Do not make your password so complicated that you cannot remember it.
Inventory Your Most Important Resources
When you begin to look at managing your computer systems, you need to note your infrastructure. You can do this by walking around your office and documenting everything you have or install software that can do this for you.
If you want to check your network yourself, locate your core switch and write down what’s connected. This list should include your firewalls, routers, servers, and distribution switches.
If this sounds like too big of a task for you to handle, check out this resource on managed IT services.
Have Multiple Backups of Your Data
A massive system failure or corrupted files can be devastating on their own. What can make this even worse is if you don’t have backups of your systems and data.
There are multiple options you can consider for backups.
Cloud storage is great because your data is kept in digital storage and at your fingertips as long as you have an internet connection. You may already be familiar with some of these services, such as Dropbox and Google Cloud.
If you want a way to store your files, a USB drive can handle that. External hard drives, on the other hand, can store your computer’s entire system.
Network-attached storage is a server that connects to your network that allows the storage of files. As long as your computer is on the local network, you can access the files on the NAS.
Keep Your Network Secure with Anti-Virus Software
It’s not enough to have anti-virus software; you need to keep up with the updates. Your software should update automatically if you have it enabled. The only thing you need to do after that is restart your computer.
You should restart or shut down your computer at least once a week to make sure that the updates install. A great time for this is when you leave at the end of the week.
Failure to restart your computer after updates install can leave your computer and your network open to malware and viruses.
Set Up Alerts
When issues occur, you should have alerts in place that notify your IT department. Set these alerts based on the working hours of your IT workers. Businesses without 24-hour IT support staff use a support desk during business hours and an on-call system when out of the office.
It is also a good idea to send alerts to members on your server and application teams during normal hours.
Create a Data Recovery Plan
If you ever lose your data, there is bound to be chaos. You can mitigate some of this by having a data recovery plan in place.
Start by assigning the responsibility of the person or persons responsible for data recovery. If you assign the role to multiple people, notate who is responsible for which pieces of data.
To help coordinate recovery, create a timeline that explains when certain systems and files should be back in place. Some of these items may be important than others; it is important to recover these resources first.
Specify if an external IT partner will help with recovery.
Have Protocols That Gather Network Information
When something happens to your network, alerts can help expedite fixing the issues. You can move this along even faster if the software provides additional information as to what’s wrong.
You can obtain this information by using Simple Network Management Protocol. This collects and organizes information about the devices on a local network.
Manage Your Computer Systems Effectively
Managing computer systems can be a big task, but as long as you have a plan in place, it can be simple. Be sure to backup your data, and have a recovery plan in place. Have a way to manage your system that provides information about its operation.
Invest in good security measures, and make sure everyone on your staff carries them out.
If you found this article helpful, keep tabs on our blog for more.
Read Also: What Is Edge Computing? A Simple Guide