As a business leader or IT manager, I do not have to tell you about the impact of the Pandemic on your organization's best laid plans last year. Going into 2022 it is even more important explore all your options related to your infrastructure and systems. At Affiliated we have been helping our clients refocus on several key issues, including reassessing their IT roadmaps and assessing, then cleaning up loose ends to get their houses for 2022 and beyond. If you have not already begun your process, here are five areas to consider related to your and operations management activities:
Backup Planning:
- Are your back up procedures defined?
- Do you have a detailed list of what you are backing up and when?
- How often do you validate it?
- When was the last time you did a test restore (and is it documented)?
- Does your backup process meet your leaderships expectation for return-to-production timeframes?
Enhanced Security:
- Do you have advanced endpoint protection on all your devices?
- Do you have an active security awareness training program in place?
- Have you recently changed the way your users connect to your systems or provided additional access to outside resources to your systems through your network?
- When was the last time you had a formal risk assessment completed?
Licensing:
- Are you current and compliant with your Microsoft licensing?
- Are you aware of the latest updates to the Microsoft stack and how they affect your organization?
- Do you have the appropriate security modules in place to protect your users and systems?
Software Upgrades And Operations:
- Are you current with the latest release of your operating system & virtualization software?
- Do you have your patching processes current and compliant?
- Does your organization have a formal expectation for software "management" - keeping current with software versions for operating systems and applications (e.g. we will be at current version - or current version -1 - for all operating systems and key applications).
Hardware Lifecycle And Maintenance:
- Do you have easy access to a complete list of all your IT assets?
- Can you define the age of all your hardware assets, and do you know the maintenance status of all your key equipment?
- Is your key equipment in risk of a catastrophic failure?
- Do you have a lifecycle management plan for asset replacement?If you could positively answer most these questions, then you may already be in good shape. If not, we can help get you there in a cost effective, efficient, planned manner.If you think this makes sense for your organization, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss your infrastructure planning needs in the next few weeks.
If you need help or a second opinion, we can help. Call our office at 614-495-9658 and we will be happy to schedule a brief 10-15-minute initial phone consultation. You can also send me an e-mail me at michaelmoran@aresgrp.com.
