Monthly Archives: March 2023

Considering Technology Spending in Uncertain Times

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According to a recent IDC survey, fears of an economic recession still loom. How can you target your company’s IT spending, getting the most for your dollar while staying within your IT budget? Read on to learn more about allocating your tech spending in the months to come.

How Economic Outlook Influences Technology Spending

 

According to Gartner, tech spending in 2023 is estimated to reach $4.6 billion. Yet an IDC survey paints a more cautious picture. According to the results of this survey, small to medium-size businesses are fearful about an economic downturn in 2023. About 60% of SMBs surveyed expect at least a moderate recession, and 20% anticipate a severe downturn. Does this mean putting the brakes on all IT spending? Not necessarily. 

Allocate Spending Wisely to Meet Business Goals

 

Rather than stopping all new spending, SMBs need to consider purchases in light of how they support overall business goals. For example, automation is a current trend. How will it help your business? Which processes can be automated, and what business goals are supported? Automation can help save on labor costs, too.  Chief Information Officers (CIOs) need to work with Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) to determine what purchases will deliver the best ROI relative to cost. A good first step is an IT audit. 

Starting with an Information Technology Audit

 

An information technology audit involves investigating and evaluating your company’s IT systems, infrastructure, policies and operations. An audit helps determine what assets your company currently owns, and where these assets currently are in their life cycle. What assets are in depreciation, and need to be retired? Are any assets duplicated?  Are you at risk from failure to comply with license requirements? Is corporate data safe from loss and compromise? An audit will help you identify weaknesses in your IT system and where you can streamline to cut costs. After performing an IT inventory, using IT Asset Management can be a good next step. This automated offering can give a clear picture of the health and effectiveness of your systems.

 

Making technology spend decisions involves your entire organization. For guidance in conducting an IT audit, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

Assessing Your Network Health

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How do you know how strong, secure and flexible your company’s IT network is? Does network traffic move along seamlessly, or get bogged down by insufficient bandwidth or other bottlenecks? Even more important, can you count on your network to keep your data secure, safe from attack or compromise? Read on to learn more about assessing the health of your network by answering these and other questions.

 

The Marks of Network Health

 

A healthy network has enough bandwidth to handle traffic from mission-critical business activities, the flexibility to provide failover for seamless operation and the security to protect data and applications from compromise. Your network is the backbone of your IT infrastructure, and digital transformation, data protection, cloud computing, communication and collaboration applications all depend upon a strong network to function at their best. 

 

Performing an Audit of Your Network

 

Has it been a while since you’ve assessed your network’s health? An audit is a good place to start. The gathering, analysis and study of network data can show where weak spots lie, whether they’re bottlenecks that traffic can’t clear, or spots in the network that aren’t secure. Operating system patches can be applied, and any versions of anti-virus and anti-malware definitions updated. With a clear idea of your network’s strength and security, it’s easy to know what to fix.

 

Consider the Human Element of Network Security

 

Technological tools aren’t all that’s needed to safeguard your network. Your workers also play a vital role. If they manage their passwords well by establishing hard-to-guess ones at the start and changing them periodically, they can help prevent intrusion from hackers. Not only that, by knowing the marks of a phishing email, they can prevent confidential data from getting in the wrong hands. It’s wise to “audit” the level of knowledge and vigilance of your staff as well as the strength and health of your IT network–and make changes accordingly.

 

Keeping your network healthy is vital to the continued success of your business. For more assistance, contact your trusted technology advisor today.