2017 IT Checklist

2017 IT Checklist

The new year is the perfect time to take a little inventory of your IT and shore up any areas that could use a bit of attention.  We’ve put together an IT checklist to help you get started.

1. Take Inventory of your Computer Equipment

You may have some aging computer equipment, and like anything mechanical, all equipment has a useful life.  If you’ve gotten used to the speed of your equipment, you may not realize that it’s not running as fast as it used to.

  • Is your equipment booting up quickly and is it responsive throughout the day, or do you find yourself waiting for applications, web pages, and documents to open on your screen?
  • Is your wireless connection keeping up with demand or are you losing your connection frequently?

Though we’re creatures of habit, sometimes a different computer set up can help us work more easily and efficiently.

  • Would you improve the productivity of your staff by replacing their desktop with a laptop that they could bring into meetings or work from home with?
  • Would consolidating the use of multiple computers into just one laptop with a better monitor/keyboard arrangement make it easier for an employee to manage their data?
  • Would having two monitors improve someone’s ability to keep an eye on key activities throughout the day?

Make a note of equipment that needs updating and replacing so you can factor that into your project planning for the year. Don't forget to include employee mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets in your inventory—more people are using mobile devices regularly for work now.

2. Verify Your Software License Quantities

If you use software to run your business, and that’s just about all of us, it’s important to keep track of the software licenses your own.   Keeping track of your software licenses will help ensure that you don’t purchase more licenses than you need and will also help determine when you need to purchase additional licenses or even a license upgrade.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself when inventorying your software;

  • Is the license single use or concurrent use?  For example, does a 5-user license allow 5 specific users to access the application or 5 simultaneous users.
  • Does the license allow the application to be installed on just one computer or device, or does it allow the installation on multiple devices?
  • Was the software downloaded and does it renew automatically each year to stay up-to-date?  Is the update relying on a current credit card number?

Knowing the licenses that you own (and where they are) will make life easier if you need to reinstall a computer or if you find yourself in the middle of a software audit.

3. Consider a Security Review

Cyber security issues make headlines in the news nearly every month.  Do you know how well your organization is protected?  As cyber security threats continue to increase in frequency and strength, a periodic review of your IT security would help ensure that your computer systems, and most importantly your data, remain protected.

Items to include in a security review are;

  • Desktops and Laptops
  • Mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones
  • Servers
  • Wireless Access Points
  • Routers and Firewalls

Now is a good time to review important matters such as security and incorporate new policies and procedures that can help to reinforce your network security.  NETiMAGE uses an in-depth security analysis tool and multi-point checklist to provide a detailed report about your network security.  Call us to schedule your security review this month.

4. Create or Update an Acceptable Use Policy

Educating end users on the proper way to handle your organization’s data is one of the most important steps you can take to safeguard your company against security-related issues.  Human error is the leading cause for security breaches.

An acceptable use policy is a document that states the rules and best practices that a user must abide by in order to access a corporate network and use Internet access.  An acceptable use policy would include topics such as password policies, websites that should be avoided, web activity that is permitted and not permitted, parameters for transmitting electronic data, how computer and mobile devices should be safeguarded outside of work, etc.

Having an acceptable use policy with the proper enforcement is an effective way to communicate important computer usage guidelines to make sure that everyone is operating from the same playbook and protecting what’s most important to your business.

5. Revisit Your Data Protection Initiatives

It’s data that’s at stake in most security breaches.  Viruses and malware are designed to destroy data, stolen data can be sold for financial gain, and ransoms can be demanded in exchange for data, so even the smallest amount of data – a password or social security number – is highly desirable to a thief.  Are you taking these steps to protect yourself?

  • Are you using a fully encrypted backup and disaster recovery system?
  • Is your anti-virus and anti-malware software up-to-date?
  • Have you installed the latest Microsoft security patch?
  • Is the data that your storing off-site in a secure and encrypted data center.
  • Are you backing up your hard drive if you save your data locally?

It’s also important to protect your data from weather-related outages resulting from severe storms and flooding that we occasionally see here in the Northeast.  Are you properly prepared for these scenarios?

  • If you lose power in your office, do you have the ability to stay in touch with customers and employees for several days?
  • If you had to temporarily relocate your office, do you have the ability to bring all of your applications and data with you so that it’s “business as usual” until you can get back to your regular office?

The new year is a great time to think about making small changes and improvements that create big benefits.  And when it comes to IT, there are many!