In problem-solving, individuals often lean towards two approaches: dealing with issues as they arise or preparing for potential challenges in advance. In simpler terms, it boils down to being either reactive or proactive.
But how does this translate to IT, and why does it hold significance?
Proactive IT involves a heightened awareness of your IT systems, recognizing associated risks, and deploying strategies to mitigate them. Conversely, a reactive IT approach often results in users grappling with issues that could have been preemptively avoided.
Proactive IT is a powerful deterrent, preventing stress, frustration, diminished productivity, and potential profit losses. The spectrum of IT risks spans from minor inconveniences to catastrophic disasters that could jeopardize an entire business.
For over 25 years, WEBIT Services has helped hundreds of clients in the greater Chicago area build IT strategies and utilize technology to their advantage.
By reading this article, you’ll learn four traits of proactive IT and why they matter.
4 Traits of Proactive IT
1. Risk Assessments: Paving the Way for Proactive Measures
Proactive IT works to understand your IT system and its IT risks. Addressing potential or existing risks becomes impossible if you don’t know they exist.
Consider a scenario where a company recognizes the need for cybersecurity training for its employees.
You cannot pinpoint weaknesses without recent risk assessments, an understanding of the company's IT security policy, or cybersecurity tests. Based on a security framework, regular risk assessments help answer critical questions about your system.
These questions include:
- How old is your hardware and software?
- Which technology is nearing its End of Life or End of Service?
- What hardware is still under warranty?
- How much available data storage is available?
- When was the last system maintenance, and what did it address?
- When were essential system updates implemented?
- What security processes pose risks or are lacking?
Quarterly risk assessments maintain an active record of your system, tracking risks and improvements, and setting new goals to address identified vulnerabilities.
2. Identifying Mission-Critical Systems: The Heart of Proactive IT
Proactive IT demands a profound knowledge of your current IT setup, technologies, and, most importantly, mission-critical systems. These systems are the lifeblood of your business, ensuring daily operations proceed seamlessly.
Understanding how these systems interact with each other is equally crucial.
For instance, if a sales tool experiences downtime, does it solely impact sales or cascade into the finance department? Recognizing these interactions and how they facilitate employee tasks is critical.
To identify mission-critical systems, answer pivotal questions such as:
- Is this something used daily?
- Can its malfunction lead to a significant financial loss?
- How much data must be retained?
- What legal obligations surround the data?
- Can the data be recreated?
- Does this system align with industry compliance standards?
Once you’ve identified these systems, you must also determine acceptable downtime. If a crisis arises, how long can you be without this system before unacceptable losses occur? Can you be down an hour or a week?
For instance, imagine that a tech helpdesk's payroll software is down for 24 hours—an acceptable pause for that business.
On the other hand, an online ticketing system, vital for daily customer interactions, would qualify as a critical IT system, demanding minimal downtime to avert substantial losses.
3. Addressing Single Points of Failure: The Power of Redundancy
Single points of failure are access points, technology, or people that can disrupt your entire system.
Creating redundancy, essentially duplicates where feasible and economical, addresses these vulnerabilities.
Take the example of a company firewall, often considered a single point of failure. If it malfunctions, connectivity is disrupted. To counter this, some companies invest in a second firewall. If one firewall fails, the second seamlessly takes over, minimizing interruptions to productivity.
4. Planning for Potential Crises: Building Resilience through IT Disaster and Recovery Plans
After identifying potential risks, mission-critical systems, and single points of failure, the next step is crafting an IT disaster and recovery plan. Proactive IT extends beyond knowing your system and risks—it involves planning for possible disasters.
In the face of a crisis, whether a system outage, a cybersecurity attack, or physical damage to your office, having a well-structured plan eliminates guesswork. Incident response plans provide a systematic approach, ensuring swift action.
Having a plan and preparations for emergencies is always better than going in blind. You aren’t scrambling to correct errors, hoping you have the proper hardware and information, hoping it will work. With an incident response plan, you will know what hardware or software to use and that it will work.
While no plan is foolproof, being prepared helps decrease downtime, protects data, and can save your business from financial loss.
An incident response plan addresses critical questions:
- How long can the business endure IT downtime?
- Who should be contacted in an emergency?
- Is our data adequately backed up?
- How do we respond to system failure and restore online functionality?
Next Steps for Cultivating a Proactive IT Environment
Proactive IT empowers you to tackle preventable problems before they escalate into crises.
Like a physical check-up, conducting risk assessments and crafting an IT disaster and recovery plan involves routine examinations to uncover and manage vulnerabilities.
Proactive IT can prevent a wide range of potential, preventable consequences, including:
- IT downtime
- Lost profits
- Unproductive employees
- Cyberattacks
- Slow technology
- An unstable IT environment
- Business bankruptcy
Talk to your IT provider or internal IT team about creating a proactive IT environment. Running an IT risk assessment is the first step to identifying vulnerabilities, risks, and existing issues.
After the risk assessment, your provider or team can help you create a plan to address problem areas.
Your IT provider or internal IT team can also help you build a recovery plan. If you’re unsure if you have a plan, ask your provider, “Do we have recovery plans, and are these aligned with real, plausible risks?”
Your plan will consider your immediate needs and IT budget to build the most effective strategy for your organization. If your circumstances change, you can revisit and adjust the plan accordingly.
WEBIT Services has been performing risk assessments, creating incident response plans, and enacting IT strategies for satisfied clients for over 25 years.
If you’re looking for a new IT provider, book a free 30-minute assessment to see how WEBIT services can help.
If you’re not ready to make a commitment but would like to learn more about IT strategies, we recommend the following articles:
- IT downtime | What causes it and how to prevent it
- 3 ways users address IT risks (and the hidden cost of doing nothing)
- Why do businesses need an IT strategy?
- Cybersecurity Risk Levels: Where do you draw the line?
