There’s no point sugar-coating it, system failure could spell the end of your business.
The worst-case scenario here is that you’ll experience a surge of sales too big for your servers to handle. That means things aren’t going to work and not only will you lose out on money, you might put people off from visiting your site. That’s bad news.
Not only will you suffer a huge impact in sales, if your systems go down for good, you’ll suffer a blow to the integrity of your business, you might breach a service level agreement and fail to comply with the law, and you won’t be able to contact all the angry customers beating at your door.
There’s a lot to lose if you’re not taking care of the computer systems that are running your business.
So, where do you get started? Take a gander at your operating systems. Have they been updated since 2014? Are you still running unsupported operating systems to save costs? If you answered no and yes, you need to seriously think about updating. Modern applications are built for modern operating systems and will put pressure on your systems. Update as soon as possible and if it costs you money, it’s a valid expense. The insecurities and instability offered by outdated operating systems could cripple your business, or even worse, offer an easy access door for cyber-criminals to take advantage of.
Are you cleaning your computers? If they haven’t got enough ventilation, a dust blockage can give you a real headache. Even if your computers don’t break, you’ll waste time cleaning them out. Make sure it doesn’t get to this point by dusting your computers down at the end of each working day. If you’ve got a cleaner, you can instruct them to do this as a priority.
Cleaning the inside of your systems is important as well. If your computers are clogged up with dozens of temporary files and files you no longer have use for, you’re wasting space and slowing your computers down. Like dust, if these build up, you’ve got an issue on your hands. Masses of useless data and files will cause damage, so ensure that you’re cleaning your computers storage on a weekly basis at the least. If you don’t have the time to look after your system, looking into managed IT services can save you a future headache.
Anti-virus software should already be installed on your systems and this will be a great deterrence to the threat of viruses that will slip through the net. Whilst trojan viruses are of a great worry, some viruses exist that only serve to frustrate and annoy. Educate your employees, keep your systems updated and remove viruses with regular, daily, scans. System failure is one thing, but having your data stolen is another headache you want to avoid at all costs.
So, when your systems fail, what do you do? You’ll panic. You’ll lose business. It’s important to avoid a failure at all costs, because if a failure is your fault, you won’t be able to excuse your loss of profit and custom.
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