These are the negative impacts of IT system failures on your business

Many companies in Salt Lake City would not be able to operate as well as they do without IT. It helps in keeping costs low, improves the security, speed, and consistency of various processes, and generally makes life easier for employees.

How can IT system failure affect businesses?

Because of how crucial technology is, the impacts of IT system failure on businesses can be severe and numerous. Here are some of them:

1. Reduced productivity

When IT systems go down, your employees cannot use or access the equipment and resources they need to do their jobs. This causes longer turnaround times and delayed outputs.

Unexpected outages can also hurt your workers’ states of mind. Some may become stressed, while others may have difficulty regaining their focus after the sudden interruption.

2. Loss of important resources

Your business could lose irreplaceable data during an unplanned IT outage. If your servers were to fail, for instance, the information stored on them become inaccessible. These files could be as crucial as customer information, sales records, financial statements, or trade secrets. If these files were never backed up anytime before the outage, then you may lose them forever.

If system failures happen frequently, your business will become less efficient and competitive, making it harder to sell products and services.

3. Increased risk of human error

You could lose access to tools that automate crucial processes during an IT system failure. This will force your employees to perform these processes manually.

If your workers are already stressed out by the system interruption, then they are likely to make mistakes. This could be as simple as misspelling words or as severe as mixing up numbers on financial reports. Such errors can result in wasted resources and serious delays.

4. Damaged reputation

Trustworthiness is key to attracting and keeping customers. You want to demonstrate to your clients that you can protect their data and consistently deliver expected results within reasonable deadlines. IT system failures can prevent you from fulfilling these promises, which can lead to a significant blow to your company’s reputation. Disgruntled clients may then take their business elsewhere, and you may have a hard time convincing them to come back.

5. Lost revenue

If system failures happen frequently, then you would eventually lose revenue. Your business will become less efficient and competitive, making it harder to sell products and services. What’s more, outages will cause you to incur additional expenses on repairs and replacements.

What can you do to prevent IT system failures?

IT system failure can happen anytime, but you can take these steps to minimize its negative impacts:

Be proactive about maintenance

Instead of following a break-fix approach to IT management, wherein you act only when something goes wrong, take a proactive approach to maintenance. This means regularly checking your devices and software for vulnerabilities and addressing them before they worsen and cause system failures.

Invest in redundancies

Redundancy means having two or more systems in place to support critical processes. Should one system fail, the others can immediately take over, preventing prolonged interruptions. For example, you could invest in extra servers to back up your main one and buy uninterruptible power supply units to keep your devices running during power outages.

Boost your business’s cybersecurity

Outages can occur because of cyberattacks. Augmenting your cybersecurity posture not only reduces the risk of cyberattacks hitting your business, but doing so can also mitigate an incident’s effects when it does occur.

Implement a disaster recovery plan

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) covers everything you need to do to minimize downtime and data loss during an IT system failure. This typically includes steps like backing up data and allocating resources for quick repairs. A DRP is essential if you want to quickly resume your operations following an outage.

Train your employees

Your employees should know what to do during system failures. They should also be familiar with your DRP and other contingency plans. Training them on these can reduce mistakes and ensure that everyone knows their roles in keeping the business running during outages.

IT system failure can have far-reaching effects on your business, so it’s important to take steps to prevent them or mitigate their effects. On top of following the above tips, you can also partner with [company_short]. Our team of IT specialists will proactively lower your risk of experiencing outages by keeping your systems in top condition. We can also help you design and implement strategies to dampen the effects of system failures. Contact us today for more information about our services.

Top 6 mistakes to avoid when adopting cloud technology

Cloud computing is undoubtedly one of the most useful technologies today. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, cloud-based solutions and services enabled companies to operate efficiently and effectively even with remote workforces.

However, when done haphazardly, cloud adoption can expose your business to various pitfalls, including uncontrolled costs and cybersecurity risks. Here are the top mistakes to avoid when adopting cloud technology for your business:

1. Allocating insufficient bandwidth

If your internet bandwidth cannot accommodate the number of cloud users in your company, your cloud apps will inevitably slow down. This sluggish performance will result in lowered staff productivity, delayed projects, and frustrated stakeholders.

When allocating internet bandwidth, you must also take into account possible spikes in the number of cloud users, which may occur during business-critical events such as product launches and seasonal promotions. Also, consider your employees’ cloud usage. For instance, tasks that require activities like streaming videos or processing large files use more bandwidth than emailing or web surfing.

2.Mindlessly migrating all your business apps

Not all applications are suited for migration. Some are too complex and may require re-coding, while others are built on legacy systems that are incompatible with migration or other cloud-based applications. Such apps are often best replaced or left on premises.

Prior to cloud migration, assess which among your applications and data can be migrated and which ones must be left as is. Doing so will help you avoid extra costs, misconfigurations, and other headaches in the long run.

3.Ignoring the service level agreement (SLA)

The SLA is a contract between you and your cloud service provider (CSP). It details everything you can expect from your CSP and their services, such as uptime rates, disaster recovery, and data security, among others. The SLA also provides information about fees and other financial implications.

Before signing up for a cloud service, go over the SLA carefully. If there are provisions or technical jargon that you don’t understand, ask your CSP to explain them. Beware of vendor lock-ins, as these may force you to pay additional fees just so you could use your desired cloud solutions.

4.Forgetting to set a goal

Cloud adoption can have significant ramifications for your business, so each step in the process counts. One simple but crucial step you can’t neglect is identifying what you want to achieve from the migration in the first place. Do you want to improve your business’s flexibility or augment its cybersecurity? Or are you looking to save money?

When you understand your goals, you can better assess which cloud services, solutions, and providers will work best for your business. You can also develop clear success metrics to track your progress and ensure that you’re getting the most out of the migration.

Cloud adoption can have significant ramifications for your business, so each step in the process counts.

5.Neglecting cybersecurity

Your CSP must implement the necessary precautions to protect your business’s data. These include enterprise-grade anti-malware solutions, firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection systems, and more. Your CSP must also conduct regular testing to ensure that their security measures are always up to par.

Keep in mind, though, that these measures are only half of the equation. Research reveals that over 80% of data breaches involve user error, so you and your staff will have to do your part as well. Train your staff in cybersecurity best practices so they know what to do and what not to do in order to protect your cloud data.

6.Not accounting for failure

For all its sophistication, cloud technology is far from perfect. Cloud servers may experience outages and cyber incidents. Your business can suffer downtime because of such events.

Therefore, it’s not enough that you implement measures to prevent impending disasters — you also have to be prepared for when disasters strike. Setting up redundancies like data and server backups, for instance, will ensure that your apps and files remain recoverable after outages and cyberattacks. These measures will allow you to quickly resume business operations and avoid costly downtime.

Cloud adoption can be very rewarding for your business, especially when done correctly. At [company_short], our IT experts can assist you in every step of the cloud adoption process, from planning to migration and beyond. Start your cloud adoption journey by contacting us today.