Ramblings of a Geek

If you are a small business that uses computers at all you most likely have someone in charge of managing your computer/network.  This person may be in-house, a consultant, a managed service provider or even Jill from accounting that also knows a little bit more than average about computers.  If you use computers in your business you really should have a professional working with you to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your technology.  No matter how small or large your network is you need to address a few key items with your technology.

This post will detail what I feel are the most important items that you need to address with your small business network.  If your current IT provider doesn’t do this for you it may be time to ask them why.  In future small business IT articles I’ll detail some of the different IT support options available.  I’ve been involved with several small business IT providers and have seen many of the positives and negatives of each scenario. Also, if you have an in-house resource these items should already be addressed.  If not, your IT person has some work to do.

Onto the issues:

Is your data backed up and can you restore it from your backup?

Do you even know how much data you have?  Do you know where your data is?  What would happen to your business if you lost your files; what would happen if you, one of your employees, or all of your employees lost their email; what if you lost your customer data; or what would happen if you lost your accounting data?  There are many MANY ways you can backup your data and for each network there are easily at least a handful of good options.  Now that you’ve thought about those pleasant nuggets and have your data backed up somewhere can you restore and access it again?  Backed up data is no good if you cannot restore it.  Make sure your IT provider can address both backing up and restoring your data.

So, you have your backup, what happens if the building burns down?

You’ve taken steps to make sure you have your backup and you can restore said backup – what happens if the building burns down, thieves steal your computers, or some freak natural disaster destroys your building?  You took that backup off-site didn’t you?  Any qualified IT support person will help you plan for this.  It’s always easier to replace hardware that was destroyed or stolen than it is to re-create your data.  In fact, if you don’t have your backup off-site and you do lose it for some reason it’s not unreasonable to think that your business might be done.  Shut the doors and send your customers elsewhere.  Customers will understand a disruption if a disaster does happen but they won’t be so understanding if you can’t help them when you are back up and running.  If you don’t have an off-site backup plan, get one – now.

Do you have your network documented?

There has always been a certain subset of IT workers that keep everything in their head. They may make excuses as to why they haven’t written things down, but an underlying reason frequently is to create a sense of job security.  If your consultant won’t provide you documentation of your network you have to start wondering if it might be time to look elsewhere.  Here’s the thing, they shouldn’t provide it for free.  In other words, expect to pay for it – probably 4-5 hours worth on average.  Building documentation on any computer network is not a trivial process, and doing it right takes some time.  When I was a consultant I tried very hard to document each of my client networks at least for myself.  I couldn’t keep everything in my head as it’s easy to forget details here and there.  The key here was that unless my client asked me to provide said documentation for them I kept it on my end.  If they asked me to provide this document for them I had my own process in which I fully fleshed it out and handed over a binder with a full write-up of their network.  Every business that has more than a couple of computers should really have a good set of documentation.  This is without exception.  If you ever have an IT crisis having this valuable information at hand can reduce (or eliminate) downtime, and if you ever need to change IT providers this documentation will make it MUCH easier to do so.  In addition, should your building get destroyed or someone steals your equipment you can also use this documentation to assist with replacing your hardware.  Oh, and one last thing – keep your documentation safe (don’t just leave it laying around) and keep a copy off-site.  I will go more in depth on documentation in a later post.

Is your network secure?

Do you have customer data on your network?  Do you have financial data for your company (and possibly customer financial data depending on your business) on your network? Do you have or want wireless?  Do you want remote access?  If you answered yes to any of these questions you really need to make sure your network is secure.  This is especially true if you have wireless or remote access as both open potential direct holes to the internet.  Your network security should address your firewall(s), VPN, wireless, anti-virus protection, anti-malware protection, and file permissions at the minimum.  All of this information should also be in your network documentation.  If it’s not – get it in there now.

These are my top four issues that I would address with any of my customers – they are critical to running your business’ IT infrastructure.  Even if you have just a couple of computers they’re important, and possibly even more important since you may not have a server to centralize your data storage.  If you think I missed a critical point please let me know.  I will definitely talk more about these topics more in the future but this is a good place to start.