IT maintenance is key for three reasons:
Firstly, IT maintenance ensures the optimal performance of equipment, such as laptops and desktops. It also helps with meeting compliance and data protection standards where necessary.
Secondly, effective maintenance helps improve your cyber security. The National Cyber Security Centre cite that attackers exploit flaws in IT equipment and infrastructure in the majority of common cyber-attacks. IT maintenance closes easy-to-access holes in your business.
Thirdly, by maintaining your IT effectively, you can reduce costs by increasing the lifespan and operational efficiency of equipment and infrastructure.
In this blog, we look at what IT maintenance is, its role in business operations, and why it is important.
What does basic IT maintenance cover?
Basic IT maintenance covers several areas, each of which should be reviewed on a repeating schedule to maintain good hygiene. These areas include:
- Patch Management – this is the process of updating systems and software. Often the update, or ‘patch’ will correct known security flaws, as well as improve performance.
- Monitoring – keeping an eye on your systems and their performance means that you identify issues quickly.
- Security Policies – by having a set of standards that must be met, you can reduce the likelihood that your business becomes a victim of cybercrime. These can include who can access what information, as well as password requirements, including two-factor authentication.
- Business Continuity Procedures – it’s no secret that backups are important. If the worst happens (for example, your server is compromised), you can restore your work and documents using a backup. This is not just important for hardware in the office, but any cloud storage you may have (for example, Microsoft Sharepoint or Google Drive). By doing this, you can quickly and easily restore documents and files.
- Training for staff – when a staff member joins your business, it’s important that they know how the systems work. You might need a handbook, or specific training sessions for staff in the workplace.
The three types of IT maintenance
There are three main types of IT maintenance:
Preventative
Preventative IT maintenance is anything designed to stop things going wrong in the first place. This could include having an up-to-date anti-virus program installed (such as Microsoft Defender), regular patch management, installing security updates, and the use of diagnostic tools that will identify vulnerabilities. These tools are regularly used by IT support and maintenance providers and require specialist knowledge.
Corrective
Corrective IT maintenance is there to resolve issues when they arise. In technology, nothing works 100% of the time, whether owing to human error or system malfunction. Corrective IT maintenance could be something like restoring a backup of a document to a computer. Other times, this could be something more complex that requires in-depth knowledge of the technology you are running and its processes. This is when you would likely consult an IT support and maintenance company.
Proactive
Proactive IT maintenance means that you are doing everything you can to keep systems optimised and performing well. It would be easy to assume that upgrading hardware and software whenever possible is the best way of working. In fact, it can be counter-productive. New software can take time to find its stride, and moving staff over wholesale to new systems can be disruptive. Proactive IT maintenance (sometimes called evolutionary maintenance) is the process of evolving IT systems when the time is right, specifically when the benefit to the organisation outweighs any potentially negative impact (such as the cost of upgrading a system balance against the benefit of upgrading).
Why is maintenance important?
IT maintenance is important for several reasons: security, optimisation, and cost-efficiency.
It would be disingenuous to say that any business is 100% secure, however, IT maintenance stops companies making a hacker’s job easy. By partnering with an IT Support provider for IT maintenance and support services you are greatly reducing the risk of your company falling prey to cyber criminals.
IT maintenance also helps optimise your business IT systems. For example, if a company works with a large amount of data, having a process that enables staff to work with that data quickly and safely is vital. There are different ways in which that can be done, so choosing the way that works best for your business is a crucial part of IT maintenance.
Lastly, IT maintenance can reduce costs over time, by eliminating the need to pay high costs for emergency IT support, replacing hardware if it stops working prematurely, and data recovery if something corrupts your company files.
Creating an IT maintenance plan
Creating a plan will help you develop a structured routine. We suggest you start with an audit of your IT environment (hardware, software, licences etc) then create a schedule for patching and updates, testing backups, security scans, hardware checks and licence renewals. You will need to detail which staff are responsible for key tasks, define the issue escalation process and document everything. Finally, diarise regular reviews of the plan to ensure it is kept up to date.
Outsourcing benefits
Outsourcing your company’s IT maintenance requirements can be an excellent option for a smaller business. It gives you access to a team of specialists for less than the cost of hiring someone in-house.
Choose a partner like CloudTech24 and benefit from agreed monthly costs, 24/7/365 cover from our expert team, proactive monitoring, fast response times, licensing, strong cybersecurity, while freeing up time so your staff can focus on growing your business rather than IT maintenance issues.
