Today, there are more technological advancements than ever. A more significant number of these technologies present excellent and viable options for data management and systems efficiency. It’s thus unsurprising that automated systems powered by artificial intelligence and intricate technologies are becoming predominant in the industrial space.
With the aid of these systems, IT infrastructure management, which comprises a set of basic facilities, processes and software applications, becomes a walk in the park. However, the efficiency of these systems doesn’t eliminate the possibilities of attacks and vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructure of organizations.
Hence, every successful business must invest in securing their IT infrastructure to prevent unfortunate cases that may spell doom for the company. Common practices utilized by companies and businesses will be discussed later in the article.
The following presents five fool-proof tips for maintaining the security of your IT network. Before we discuss these tips, let’s talk about the concept of IT infrastructure and its importance to corporations.
What Is IT Infrastructure Management?
In basic terms, an IT infrastructure includes every digital and technical data processing activity involved in a company’s daily processes. It encompasses all elements of data and information management, whether virtual or physical, that play a role in running business activities smoothly.
These processes have a far-reaching influence on an organization’s business decisions and results, from engineered software applications to complex cybersecurity protocols to all policies and systems attached to information technology. Therefore, managing these activities and processes is often referred to as IT infrastructure management.
An IT infrastructure’s vulnerability typically stems from a tiny error that affects an entire system’s workability. Hence, it’s crucial to manage and protect the infrastructure adequately, making it a point of duty to ensure the proper utilization of these systems.
In a nutshell, the primary purpose of IT management is to ensure that fundamental components and complex system services work optimally. These tasks aim to increase productivity and reduce the possibility of risk and losses by reducing downtime to an achievable minimum.
By taking advantage of physical and virtual options that allow the possibility of hardware maintenance, online network support, and information safeguarding, IT management provides robust data backup and works to present working solutions should the need arise.
It’s also noteworthy that IT infrastructure management is divided into three categories: systems management, storage management, and network management. However, the actual steps of IT infrastructure management greatly depend on the approach utilized by your firm’s data management unit or the company you hired for this purpose.
5 Tips for Secure IT Infrastructure Management
Given the implications that a poorly developed IT infrastructure may influence a company’s progress, organizations invest significant amounts to ensure that their IT systems function optimally without the possibility of risk. Below are five tips that firms and organizations can adopt to ensure IT infrastructure security.
Conduct an Initial IT Assessment
Starting the process of securing your IT infrastructure goes beyond affirming the need for the procedure. It also translates to identifying the genesis of the problem and where to start the resolution. Therefore, the best way to get around this activity is by first of all conducting a general assessment of the system and its architecture.
The above step allows you to thoroughly examine the IT Infrastructure’s totality, enabling the swift identification of challenges. It provides the company with information on how best to tackle the problem. That way, examining experts can identify the weaknesses or gaps in the IT system and provide you with a security blueprint.
Enforce Stringent IT and Security Policies
Faulty policies translate to faulty systems; hence, your IT administrator should endeavor to draft stringent policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for your staff and organization. This process will also involve training and briefing staff members on IT systems and tools awareness. That way, they can appreciate the new policies and procedures appropriately.
Ensure that adequate guidelines that cover the entirety of IT security are implemented to ensure the smooth running of the system. These guidelines should include vendor identification, protocols for data transfer, and remote access of your IT network on mobile devices.
Also significant is adopting a good password policy that protects the company’s critical data banks and confidential information. This process prevents attempts to utilize company information without adequate authorization.
These days, many organizations use Infrastructure as Code tools to mitigate the effects of cost and risk while enhancing speed in data management systems. Passwords can be further enforced using the two-factor authentication option that places another layer of protection on the pre-existing password system.
Update Workstations and Software
Utilization of the latest technology in the IT infrastructure unit of any company is crucial to its success. Seeing as your IT infrastructure is an extensive collection of equipment, tools, and software that work toward data management, all functioning parts of the system should be updated in terms of repairs and individual security.
Do well to take advantage of firewalls and other security software that reduce the possibility of attacks and boost systems efficiency. Kindly read our article on how to make your Mac more productive to find out new ideas.
Update Your Firewall and Antivirus Applications
A firewall is a set of computer programs that work to protect the resources on your network from users on other networks. Firewalls work to examine web traffic and data to decide if they deserve forwarding to their destinations or not. They also work to block unauthorized parties and users from gaining access to confidential information about the company.
In cases of IT infrastructure management, next-generation firewalls are usually the better option as they possess intrusion prevention systems and can detect malware faster. This characteristic allows for the safekeeping of your company’s data and that of your customers.
Backup Your Data
Data backup is probably the most crucial part of the IT infrastructure management process, as a data breach can drastically affect the profitability of your business. The grave consequences of data loss can be prevented by backup solutions such as cloud services that allow encrypted backups to a specific cloud system.
Are You Curious?
IT infrastructure management is crucial to any business’ data management system; hence, it’s one activity that experts should carry out. If you’re interested in getting quality IT infrastructure management services for your business, contact a forward-thinking and reputable IT security provider to get started.