Businesses are run in different ways but what are the technical signs that they’re being managed well? This is useful for every CEO and CTO to ponder to ensure that their business either reaches or exceeds the mark from a technical standpoint.
Getting the Basics Right
Businesses need to have a technological backbone that’s strong enough to withstand whatever is required of them. Doing anything less than this will ultimately lead to problems when the systems get thoroughly road-tested during a busy sales season or in the middle of a product launch.
By getting the basics right from the start, you can avoid many of the potential pitfalls and leave time for the tech team to focus on making improvements and troubleshooting minor issues.
Ensuring Privacy
Intellectual property and other private information should remain that way. Companies often need to use the internet, perform market research and other functions without leaving a trail behind them for others to follow or copy.
Reliable proxy providers can be beneficial for this purpose. A residential proxy or rotating proxies can protect the corporate IP addresses and replace them with different IPs that rotate throughout use. This helps to keep the web activities confidential to avoid problems with corporate espionage and other hassles. Check out the services of a provider like Smartproxy that offer both residential proxies and datacenter proxies with different pros and cons to each.
Locking Down the Security
With serious intrusion attempts growing every year, companies cannot afford to be slack when it comes to having the best security software.If the technical proficiency isn’t available in-house or you lack human resources, it’s best to hire outside professionals to manage this aspect of the network rather than try to do it while understaffed. Not all IT staff will appreciate the added help from an outside firm, but when it comes to cybersecurity, it’s worth being better protected (even if there will be a few ruffled feathers as a result).
Robust Server Management
The servers employed by the company include both in-house ones used to operate the corporate network and external ones used to host websites, SaaS apps, and other offerings available to the general public or business users.
In-house Servers
In-house servers are commonly used for the intranet that employees rely upon. Whether working in the office or connecting to the network while working from home, servers must stay operational and be well-maintained.
Staff will need to be on-call to handle any emergencies because the servers going down would directly impact business operations. A third-party IT services contractor can handle 24/7 IT support calls to reduce the load on the company’s employees.
Web Hosting, SaaS Hosting, etc.
While web and SaaS hosting can be managed internally using a combination of web servers and load balancing to split the traffic between multiple dedicated servers, it’s also possible to utilize a third-party web host instead.
Another possibility is co-location where the company’s web servers and software are housed in a third-party’s data center and connected to the data center’s internet backbone for extra reliability. The benefits? In-house staff still manage the servers remotely and use server software that’s familiar to them to ensure a smooth-running site or dependable online app performance.
When a business uses external hosting, it’s up to the hosting company to provide hosting hardware, software, internet access, and oversight.
Never Falling Behind on Maintenance
Software needs to be maintained. The same goes for the technology with in-house or co-located servers and individual PCs and laptops used in the company.
Not only should hardware be monitored for potential failure, but the software must be patched with necessary updates as required too. Failure to do so will leave the network open to hackers who can exploit known vulnerabilities in the older versions of installed software. This also applies to firmware updates on hardware components inside complex IT and other equipment.
Employee Training is a Priority
Technologically, companies are only as good as their weakest link. Often, this comes down to a constant training and practices for all members of the staff.
Security threats, the need for private web use, constant hardware and software updates, and configurations to maintain smooth operations require regular staff training as an absolute priority.
Getting Help from the Outside
An independent security review is invaluable to pick up on areas that are being missed by employees. Consulting with a security expert once a year provides a useful double-check: look at current systems and configurations for mistakes, bad configurations, unexpected vulnerabilities, and areas to improve upon.
Either through mere oversight or human error, mistakes do occur. The important thing is not to make employees feel bad about it, but to correct mistakes quickly and learn from them. Treat them as learning experiences and expect a reasonable number of them to be found on an annual basis.
By following the above practices, it’s possible to create a technically proficient company that operates more efficiently.