Ask Yourself This
If you have a small business I.T. network of any size, you should be able
to answer questions in each of the following areas positively:
Page Links:
Server Security
- Have you taken any security measures on your server(s)?
- Is there a policy for regularly updating service packs, security patches
and updates?
- Is your server(s) health regularly monitored?
- If you experience problems with your server that have an immediate impact
on your business, are you in a position to respond?
Support Server implements a plan for immediate protection
and ongoing maintenance of yours servers security.
Backup Routine
- Do you have a backup policy in place?
- Do you know what information is being backed up?
- Do you know what locations on your network you can save work to that
will be backed up?
- Is your backup run manually, or is there a pre-defined schedule when
a backup runs?
- Periodically, do you take a backup and remove the tape from the cycle
as a permanent archive?
- Do you have someone within your company that can account for the status
of backups?
- In the event of their absence, is there a second ‘backup’
person who could immediately take over backup administration?
- Can you provide the last 9 working days (2 weeks) of backup tapes, or
other form of backup?
- Are your backup tapes clearly labelled?
- Where are your backup tapes stored?
- If you permanently lost access to your office now - could you replace
your network and your data?
- If one of your employees accidentally overwrote all of your accounts
data with an older version last week, could you retrieve the information?
Support Backup monitors your company backup procedures
and notifies the 'Networking Team' of any issues for investigation.
Anti-Virus Protection
- Do you have anti-virus software in place?
- What is the anti-virus software protecting?
(Servers, workstations, files, emails and attachments, Internet connections,
etc.)
- What is the schedule for anti-virus definition updates?
- Are these definition updates distributed automatically across all computers
on the network?
- Has your anti-virus software told you that a virus has been prevented
from entering your system within the last 3 months? (If you regularly
use email or the Internet it is likely you would have come across a virus.
If you are not notified, your system could easily be infected)
- Do you regularly check your virus software is functioning?
Support Anti-Virus monitors your virus position, responds
to threats, and keeps your network(s) protected.
Disaster Recovery
- Do you have any Disaster Recovery proecudures in place?
- Do you have backups tapes (or other media) available in case of a disaster?
Support Gold prepares a company for a Disaster Recovery
situation.
You should be able to positively answer all of these questions. If you
can't, it may represent a weakness and potential threat to your business.