Downtime is the not-so-silent business killer, as the second operations go down in a meaningful way, all hands are on deck to figure out what’s going wrong and how to fix it. But wouldn’t it be great if you could prevent all of that chaos in the first place? That’s the end result we hope you take away from today’s blog.
Here are three of the most common downtime-causing scenarios and how to prevent them.
Unreliable Technology
Faulty technology is often the culprit of downtime-causing scenarios.
Sometimes, a hardware component fails, leaving you high and dry while waiting for a replacement part. Other times, the software you rely on might crash because it’s either outdated or has a bug that needs to be addressed. In most cases, simple proactive maintenance can address these issues before they become problematic.
We recommend that any business have a remote patching and maintenance tool to address technology shortcomings all at once, automatically, without individually deploying the fixes on each machine on the network.
Untrained Users
User error is a common downtime-causing problem that you should address.
When we say user error, we mean situations where your employees either don’t know enough about the tools at their disposal to be effective, or they make a serious mistake that leads to considerable downtime. On the one hand, you have those who suffer in silence, and the only way you know it exists is if you monitor performance or pay attention to metrics. On the other hand, you have situations where operations are stunted because someone misplaced an important file or adjusted the wrong setting in a database.
In either case, you can ensure less downtime by training your team regarding what they need to know.
Unexpected Situations
Then you have the situations that you might not have considered.
Downtime is rarely planned for, but it can be caused by all kinds of problems—chief among them natural disasters and security breaches. Disasters like hurricanes, power surges, thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and so on can all force your operations to a halt. Furthermore, cybersecurity attacks against your business could force it offline until they are resolved.
Of course, it is impossible to predict all of these events, so you need to have other contingency plans in place.
Don’t Let Your Business Suffer from Downtime
We know that businesses can’t avoid downtime entirely, but the scenarios outlined above should give you a better idea of how to protect yours.
We also recommend that you have a business continuity plan in place that takes all of the above into account, then takes steps to minimize their impact on operations. Furthermore, you should have data backup and disaster recovery in place to keep your previous assets safe. If all of this sounds overwhelming, Business Solutions & Software Group can assist.
Learn more by calling us today at (954) 575-3992.
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