One of the most common experiences we have as a managed IT services and IT consulting company is small and medium sized businesses coming to us with stories about complete IT disasters. The good news is we can help these companies prevent similar situations from happening in the future. The bad news is that in many of these situations, there is no getting back the lost data, time, and resources that their previous IT mishaps took from them.
Here are three ways we see small businesses make key mistakes that lead to IT meltdowns and catastrophe:
1.) Backing Up Data in an Incomplete Manner – While most businesses are at least smart enough to back up their data in case of a hardware failure or other technological disaster, many still don’t do it in an appropriate way. Some businesses do not back up data regularly enough to robustly prepare themselves for massive data loss. They may back it up in intervals that are too far apart and lose important data regardless when disaster strikes. Some also only depend on one type of data backup, rather it be physical or cloud based, and don’t have redundant backups when necessary. Data backup needs to be comprehensive. Any IT consulting firm worth their salt will tell you such. Many small businesses don’t realize the way they are dropping the ball in this area and it leads to difficult and unfortunate situations.
2.) Untrained Employees – Too many smaller companies do not comprehensively train their employees on cybersecurity risks that every company faces. Employees should have good training on password hygiene, social engineering hacking, ransomware concerns, and up-to-date information on common phishing and scam attempts. Too often will a well meaning employee fall prey to a sophisticated bad actor and cause a serious data breach because of it. High quality data security and network security awareness training for staff can mitigate these problems.
3.) Not Having Remote Access Capabilities – This has become an even bigger issue in recent years. It turns out not every disaster is technology related. Whether it’s a technical issue, weather, or something else preventing people from coming to a central location to access their work, companies need a way to remotely access their work in this day and age. Having remote access for IT issues saves time, energy, and can prevent an IT hiccup from becoming much worse.
If you have any issues with these problems or other issues causing IT concerns at your company, Pacific Computer Consultants would be happy to discuss how we can help. Schedule an appointment with us today to discuss our managed IT services and learn how we can improve how things work at your organization.