Information technology is now vital for every industry. As companies scale and grow, technology is a key enabler for selling more, serving customers better, and keeping costs under control. Moreover, in today’s competitive labor market, employees insist on state-of-the-art technology to succeed in their jobs.
Unfortunately, companies of all sizes face various problems with IT. With the rapid pace of change and increasing complexity, it is hard for organizations to keep up. In this blog, we will explore the five most common technology problems companies face with their IT and infrastructure.
1. Cyber Attacks
Cyber-attacks don’t just happen to large companies. While hacks and data security breaches at companies like T-Mobile and Colonial Pipeline may make the news, companies both big and small fall prey to cybercriminals. Large enterprises are big fish, yet they also have large IT budgets and cyber security teams dedicated to fighting off hackers and managing security risks.
For most other companies, the situation is different. Smaller companies often lack the dedicated staff and sophisticated software tools to defend against cyber-attacks. Ultimately, ransomware, data theft, and downtime are just as financially painful to smaller companies as they are to larger organizations.
Each year, SMB companies make up a sizable portion of security breaches. As detailed in the latest “Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report,” SMBs were 43% and 28% of the cyber breach incidents reported in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
2. Backup and Disaster Recovery
Backup and disaster recovery technology is another area of concern. There are many different solutions on the market. The challenge is most organizations don’t understand the technical complexity and nuances of backup and disaster recovery software and services.
Nothing is worse than suffering a data loss or cyber security incident, only to discover that the company’s backups were misconfigured and never tested. Data loss destroys employee work product and intellectual property, harms productivity and a company’s reputation, and often causes severe financial pain.
Industry experts often recommend a 3-2-1 strategy for backups. That is, there should be 3 copies of critical data; stored on two different media, with one copy of the data stored off-site in a cloud environment. Configuring this sort of robust backup protection is complex and requires technical expertise. If done incorrectly or managed poorly, the downsides can be extreme.
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3. Technical Support
Many leaders and business owners underestimate the level of tech support required by their organizations. Despite advancements in high-speed Internet access, mobile technology, and SaaS software tools, the everyday technology world is only getting more complex, not less so.
Add in extra cybersecurity countermeasures and the reality is that many employees simply struggle to get through their workday without serious technical interruptions or challenges. Therefore, companies should simplify and properly integrate their workplace technology. Simplicity by design should be a guiding principle.
Nevertheless, even with the best-designed technology stack, stuff breaks, software updates trigger new problems, and employee churn makes it difficult to keep all staff well-trained and on-track. Skimping on support resources invariably leads to lower employee productivity and morale. Therefore, companies should wisely invest in adequate technical support staff to assist employees in real-time throughout the workday and after hours.
4. Slow and Unreliable Networks
High-quality networks are foundational to a company’s success. In today’s highly integrated workplace, the corporate network usually carries voice, video conferencing, and a multitude of data applications. The demands on corporate networks have never been greater. The use of voice-over-IP and especially video-based collaboration, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, have exploded during the pandemic. Video-based collaboration is bandwidth-intensive and employees have come to expect high-quality communications, whether on the Wi-fi or the wired network. Users simply won’t tolerate slow performance or spotty networks.
The networking challenges extend to home offices as well. With the huge shift to remote work, employees at all levels now need stable and reliable Wi-Fi and high-speed Internet access for their home offices. And whether in the office or at home, secure networking is another top-of-mind concern.
Secure and high-quality networking requires investment in world-class technology. At NENS, we leverage Cisco Meraki for Wi-Fi, wired networking, and network security. Meraki combines best-of-breed performance with unrivalled manageability, which is key for keeping networks operating at peak performance.
5. Regular Maintenance
Proactive maintenance and monitoring are vital for the health and security of a company’s technology infrastructure. Patching and the proactive maintenance of operating systems and networking devices prevents the exploitation of software vulnerabilities by cyber criminals. What’s more, regular software updates fix bugs and improve the performance of computing hardware and networking devices.
Keeping on top of regular maintenance requires robust remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools. RMM tools enable global management of a company’s infrastructure while leveraging automation tools to update and manage devices quickly and efficiently.
Common IT Problems in Business: The Conclusion
As we have seen throughout this blog, organizations of all sizes face a host of technology challenges. Outsourcing day-to-day technology management to an IT service provider is a great way to solve these challenges. By relying on outside expertise, companies can cost-effectively manage their infrastructure, while delivering a superior technology experience to their staff. For most growing firms, outsourcing is a better bet than trying to build an internal IT function, since IT talent is scarce, and the risks of failure are high.
At NENS, we specialize in helping organizations maximize and secure their IT infrastructure through cybersecurity and managed services.