With the Government’s Covid Plan B restrictions now ended, we are starting to see greater numbers of people returning to the office full time and, others as hybrid workers. Wherever you are located, your working day is underpinned by your IT infrastructure. Over the pandemic, we focused on practical solutions to get you online (and keep you there) whilst staying cyber safe. Now, with some “normality” returning, it’s a good time to review your IT real estate and plan for the future.
Hardware failure
With all that modern IT allows us to do such as, online meetings, document sharing, multiple device synchronisation and even smart fridges, it’s sometimes easy to forget that this all relies on some form of IT hardware. Whether it is your smart phone, laptop, iPad or office server, it won’t last forever and, if it fails, can cause you all sorts of problems. This could be a minor inconvenience as you wait for a replacement device, or it could be potentially catastrophic if your data isn’t backed up. Here are some of the things you can do to pre-empt issues:
- Keep regularly updated lists of all your devices (a hardware asset register), including manufacturer warranty expiry dates and extend as necessary
- Implement a data back-up protocol and audit it regularly
- Undertake regular device audits – don’t just wait until something breaks
- Make sure you have an up-to-date Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan in place
- Create a schedule to test your BCDR plan. This could be something simple like restoring a small amount of data to verify the backup works, or a full Disaster Recovery test where servers are taken offline. Without testing, it is impossible to know if your BCDR plan is effective
Get in touch to find out how we can help you: 020 8078 0810 or [email protected]
Cyber secure
Our regular readers will know how seriously we take cyber security and our previous newsletters provide numerous tips on how to protect yourself. Cyber threats are constantly changing as we saw over the pandemic with the WFH-related phishing increases, The NCSC has just released an alert in response to Ukraine-related malicious cyber incidents that you can read here. This follows their guidance piece issued in mid-January with a really useful action checklist. If you need some help auditing your cyber security status do get in touch: 020 8078 0810 or [email protected]