Managing a growing business is an exciting prospect, but growth can come with new problems. An expanding company’s business technology infrastructure can go through growing pains, for example. Even small problems translate to significant losses, as a single hour of downtime can cost a company millions.
To protect your business as it grows, be on the lookout for these common technology problems.
1. Security Breaches
Cyber-attacks are a booming illicit business. Criminals might use malware, phishing schemes, or manipulation tactics to gain illegal access.
Once inside, they can wreak all kinds of havoc. They might steal confidential financial information from you or even your clients. This could leave you vulnerable to regulatory penalties and civil liability besides any other damages.
Ransomware is another popular mode of cybercrime. These are attacks where a criminal locks an owner out of their own system. They then charge an exorbitant fee to restore access.
The average cyber-attack costs a business upwards of $200,000. Many small businesses can’t afford that kind of loss, so one successful incursion could mean the end of an entire company. Of all IT problems, security breaches are the ones that most demand your attention.
2. Data Loss
Data storage is one of the most important aspects of any IT system and one of the most common fail points.
A drive may become corrupted or fail due to old age. Crucial files can be deleted by accident. And hackers can force their way into an unsecured system to stage a ransomware attack.
Whatever the case, the best remedy is to have an automatic backup system in place. Managing and maintaining a backup plan is one of the most important IT services for small businesses.
Investing in one of these plans ensures that there are copies of all your business’ critical information. If a drive fails or important files go missing, you have duplicates that you can pull from. It’s the difference between a data loss incident being a minor inconvenience and a major disaster.
3. Regulatory Compliance
Running a business may require you to handle confidential information that belongs to your customers. Think of a retail business handling credit card details, or a medical provider needing to store patient records. To protect consumers, laws and regulations make certain demands of any company that handles sensitive information.
Even if you don’t suffer a major data breach, there are plenty of ways to violate these regulations without meaning to. To comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), you may need to improve your network’s uptime, for example.
Investing in managed IT solutions can not only protect you from cyber criminals and technical issues but can ensure you stay on the right side of the law.
Don’t Let Technology Problems Hurt Your Bottom Line
To run a successful business in the 21st century, you need the tech infrastructure to support it. Technology problems can cost a fledging company valuable time, result in lost sales, and even cause long-term damage to its good reputation.
That’s why managed IT services are a sound investment. They can prevent problems before they arise and provide around-the-clock IT support to help your company in business.
For all the information you need to keep your enterprise running smoothly, check out our other posts.
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