Like most modern businesses, the success of your organisation owes much to your investment in technology. Thanks to your infrastructure, you enjoy a level of productivity and growth that would have been unimaginable only a generation ago.

Yet for all the good that your IT networks do for you, being so heavily reliant on them does present its own challenges, especially if your servers crash, your networks grind to a halt, or other unforeseen errors arise.

The resultant downtime of such issues could spell disaster for your business, limiting your ability to operate, if not preventing you from doing so altogether.

The good news, is that there are simple, effective measures you can take to not only dramatically reduce downtime, but to stop it from occurring at all.

Below, the business IT support specialists at Pacific Infotech offer our five recommended ways to significantly cut downtime and enjoy maximum performance from your IT network.

1: Prepare for the Worst – Implement a Solid Disaster Recovery Solution

Whilst our main aim today is to help you reduce IT network downtime and prevent problems with your server from derailing your mission critical operations, it still helps to prepare for the worst case scenario.

After all, even with stringent security, round-the-clock networking monitoring, and other solutions (most of which we’ll get to later in this article), things can still go wrong, and when they do, that could mean some serious downtime for your business.

That’s where implementing a solid disaster recovery solution can reap big rewards for your business. Through a combination of offsite data backups, state-of-the-art software solutions such as the innovate Dell AppAssure platform, and on-call emergency IT support available 24/7, you’re well prepared for any eventuality. As such, even if an unexpected error does take your system offline, you’ll be back up and running in no time, with minimal disruptions to your day-to-day work.

2: Migrate Away from Physical Servers to Managed Cloud Solutions

Perhaps the most efficient and affordable to significantly reduce server downtime issues is simply to stop using those servers altogether and migrate your operations to the cloud.

Because managed cloud solutions work by pooling the resources of a cluster of servers located offsite, you’re never reliant on one single server in the way that you currently are if you’re dependant on physical hardware on your premises. As such, should one server slow down, crash, or be struck with some other issue, others effectively ‘pick up the slack’ keeping things running at their optimal best with no delays or disruptions to your work.

Your business IT support specialists at Pacific Infotech can answer any questions you may have about migrating to the cloud, and will be glad to help you make an informed decision about choosing the right solution for your business.

3: Keep Cool – Be Mindful of Your Server Room Environment

If you are staying with an onsite server room for now, pay particular attention to the temperature and airflow in that room.

An overheated server room can cause hardware and system failures, resulting in significant downtime. What’s more, if its the hardware that causes the problem, this can often take much longer to resolve than a simple system error, as your IT specialist will need to source the appropriate product and invest time integrating the replacement into your system.

To prevent this from happening, keep your server room cool at all times. Either invest in racks with in-built cooling systems or install a dedicated server room air condition system. Arrange servers in lines to maximise the efficiency of that air conditioning, and ensure that doors are always closed to prevent dust from entering and landing on your hardware.

4: Keep an Eye on Things – Invest in 24/7 Monitoring

The unfortunate thing about many of the issues that result in IT network downtime, is that they could have easily have been prevented from ever happening in the first place, if only they’d been spotted on time.

With round-the-clock server monitoring, your IT specialist can often detect potential security threats and performance issues before they start causing downtime, and can work swiftly and efficiently to eliminate them.

Should a problem somehow manage to slip under the radar, you’ll still have the advantage of full 24/7 network monitoring, meaning your managed server specialist can quickly take action to get things back to normal.

5: Complete an In-Depth IT Audit to Check for Vulnerabilities

Whilst all of the above can certainly do much to help dramatically cut IT downtime within your organisation, they’re not the only solutions available to you. If you’ve implemented a reliable disaster recovery strategy, migrated to the cloud and/or took measures to ensure your hardware and systems are well looked after, yet still find you’re dealing with downtime, then it may well be time to delve deeper into your infrastructure.

Working with an IT specialist, you can carry out a complete audit of your hardware, software, and networks, leaving no cable or component unturned as you check for flaws and vulnerabilities. At the very least, this kind of IT health check is likely to reveal the issues causing your downtime, at the most, it’s like to bring up a number of areas where you can greatly improve your infrastructure, not only cutting that downtime, but improving overall performance and efficiency as a bonus

To find out more about completing an Free IT audit for your business, migrating to a managed cloud solution, or any of the strategies for reducing network downtime that we’ve listed above, contact Pacific Infotech online. Alternatively, call to speak to one of our team on 020 313 76707.