If You Manage Information Technology Systems on the Fly, Beware of the Inevitable Crash

by Jim Avazpour

Winning companies are successful, because they know what they don't know. They don't pretend to be experts in any field except their industry. But even though business leaders agree in theory that specialization is key to success, many companies try to manage functions about which they have limited knowledge.

Would you try to fly an airplane if you weren’t a trained pilot? Of course not. The results could be catastrophic. The same is true any time you try to do something in business outside your realm of expertise.

Winning companies are successful, be-cause they know what they don’t know. They don’t pretend to be experts in any field except their industry. But even though business leaders agree in theory that specialization is key to success, many companies try to manage functions about which they have limited knowledge.

Take information technology, for example. Most small- to medium-sized businesses depend on IT to manage and access vital intellectual property—financial records, customer statistics, billing information and other mission-critical data. Yet they take shortcuts that not only put their data at risk, but also their entire organizations.

Backing up data is inadequate. Without a reliable and working connection between employees and a company’s computerized files, most companies are crippled—or worse. According to Gartner, Inc., a global IT research firm, two out of five enterprises that experience an IT disaster go out of business within five years.

A global software services company has even more alarming news: SunGard reports that one in every five organizations will experience a major IT disaster every five years.

The pilot analogy demonstrates how leaving all aspects of a company’s IT systems to in-house staff could be detrimental. Like an airliner, an IT environment re-quires a well-designed infrastructure. And, if the proper experts don’t continuously monitor it and perform periodic checkups and major overhauls at regular intervals, it will crash.

Are your IT bases covered? Or are you trying to “fly your plane” without proper training? Consider the following:

Do you have a computer room? If you do, and there are fire sprinklers in the room, this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Are you running Windows NT or Microsoft Exchange 5.5 server? Micro-soft ended Windows NT support in 2004. Since the company no longer publishes product fixes or security patches, Windows NT is a target of hackers and computer viruses. Microsoft also will drop support for the Exchange 5.5 server at the end of 2005.

Do you conduct nightly tape backups? If so, do you check the backup reports in the morning to ensure successful completion? And, do you replace your backup tapes once a year? If not, your efforts may be pointless.

Do you deploy a company-wide anti-virus solution? Is it centrally monitored? Without central management, some of your desktops are at risk. End users tend to ignore error messages, renewal/expiration warnings and other signs of trouble if they don’t prevent them from doing their work.

Are you blocking spam? According to security firm MessageLabs, spam volumes reached record highs in 2004. Analysts estimate a worker spends about one week every year handling spam. Nucleus Research reports that lost productivity due to spam costs companies $1,934 per em-ployee each year, or $21.6 billion annually at average U.S. wages.

Are you protected against spyware? Spyware causes most PC problems. Bigfoot Interactive recently found that 55 percent of online users have been infected with spyware. Research firm IDC ranks spyware as the fourth-greatest threat to network security, well ahead of spam.

Do you have a firewall? Do you update it at least once every 90 days? Firewalls have diminishing efficacy if not kept up to date.

Is your internal IT staff proficient and properly trained? If you don’t have the necessary expertise, you are wasting time and money, lowering your efficiencies and jeopardizing your business.

Are you prepared for a major disaster? Studies show that it’s not a matter of if a company will experience an IT disaster, but when. If you aren’t properly prepared for the inevitable, the price you pay might just be your entire business.

Whether flying or computing, the stakes are high. Make sure an expert is at the helm of the planes you ride and the IT systems you operate.

Jim Avazpour is President and CEO of Avazpour Networking Solutions. He can be reached at 913.498.8777 or by e-mail at jima@avazpour.com.