Isn’t it time to give your IT infrastructure an NCT-style check-up?

by Jason Kotzé, Service Delivery Manager at Sleepless

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, change is seemingly the only constant we can rely on.

Yet despite this, many of us continue to use outdated IT infrastructure that exposes us to myriad risks each day.

Sometimes a simple mindset shift can make all the difference: you wouldn’t drive a car without an annual check-up, so why would you run your business without one on your IT systems?

Roadworthy state

Regular NCTs ensure that vehicles remain in a roadworthy state at all times, so applying the same mindset to our IT infrastructure is the first step to understanding how effectively, efficiently, and elegantly it serves the business.

This proactive mindset can make all the difference in the long run.

Complexity and a lack of technical knowledge are often cited as reasons why organisations and individuals tend to neglect their IT infrastructure.

This neglect often leads to a ‘Frankenstein’ set-up where different solutions from various stages of the business are patched together to solve critical issues at the time.

Aside from making the system far more complex than it needs to be, the constant patching and fettling only costs more time and money in the long run than a bespoke ground-up solution.

Obviously, the parallels between car maintenance and IT infrastructure can be taken only so far. IT capacity expands at an exponential rate each year and the security and efficiency of your system can quickly be eroded.

Rapidly obsolete

Protocols considered reliable last year can rapidly become obsolete and doing these checks only on an annual basis would be unwise.

Our ground-up approach to IT assessments takes this into account and we assess everything from physical connections and devices to the way the business applications are being consumed.

Gaps in performance along this path lead to lost productivity and frustration, while optimising the process smooths out the workflow and reduces frustration.

These turnkey system audits have highlighted an important recurring issue: user education and behaviour have the greatest active impact on a business’s security.

Exacerbated by the increase in hybrid and off-site work practices, the need to overhaul ageing IT setups and educate end users has never been more pertinent.

Improve security

Comprehensive hardware and software updates are often part of building a robust IT infrastructure, but simple changes like using stronger passwords (the most common security flaw) and implementing Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) are easily done and add another layer of security without having to spend a penny.

Phishing scams have seen a marked rise over the past year. Fraudsters have evolved their methods from poorly worded emails to far more complex approaches.

Simply being mindful that we should not be clicking emails and links from suspicious sources can stop an attempted attack in its tracks.

When it comes to more complex IT-related issues you can trust our team of professionals to develop bespoke solutions for you.

After all, you wouldn’t attempt an engine-out overhaul of your car, so why not entrust your IT infrastructure to the experts?

To talk to Sleepless about how to improve your infrastructure, click here.