It may sound silly, but the best way to tell if your company’s IT is working the way it should is when you don’t even notice it.
Think of it like visiting the doctor. If you are a healthy person, you aren’t going to need to schedule a doctor’s visit. In fact, you will probably even put off an annual physical as much as possible. After all, you are healthy and busy. A visit to the doctor can wait. But, if you wake up one morning with a fever and sore throat, a visit to the doctor will be your top priority for the day.
The same attitude generally applies to your IT network. If everything is running smoothly, you don’t need to pay close attention to it. That healthy IT system allows your company to run exactly the way it should, boosting productivity and efficiency. But, if it should get sick, if a server should crash or a program freezes, getting an appointment with your IT professional will become your top priority.
Since IT is so critical to all businesses these days, people are starting to adopt a more proactive approach to their IT management, trying to prevent issues before they turn into problems for the company.
In fact, this is one of the main services many IT support providers (including Network Depot) offer to their clients. The proactive monitoring and maintenance can end up saving companies a great deal of money and time- two things businesses can’t afford to lose.
Now here’s the kicker- proactive maintenance will not prevent everything.
Let’s go back to the analogy of the doctor. Even if you are a very healthy person- you eat right, you exercise at least three times a week, you get at least eight hours of sleep per night, you drink lots of water, you get your annual check-up, you will eventually catch a cold. You are still vulnerable to a virus or infection. You won’t go through life never getting sick. What you will do, however, is make sure of two things. First, you won’t get sick as often. Second, when you do get sick, your body will be able to work harder to fight off the sickness.
Again, this is no different from your IT system. Although proactive maintenance is not going to prevent all IT issues, it will help prevent most of them. And, when an issue does come up, your network won’t be as vulnerable so the issue will likely stay small and controlled.
In the end, what it always comes down to is the bottom line. By using a preventative maintenance strategy, you are essentially purchasing a health insurance policy for your network. It might seem frustrating at times to have that insurance deducted from your paycheck every month, but if a big problem arises and you have to call up the IT hospital, you are going to be really glad you have it.