If you’ve got IT employees on staff, you’re likely not paying less than $50k per year per employee. Naturally, an operation with a handful of professionals running internal operations is poised for continual forward scalability. That said, it’s still absolutely integral that you maximize the investment you’ve made in your employee assets.
One way to do that is to lessen the load you put on your internal tech people strategically. This doesn’t mean reducing data your company produces, or that your tech teams manage. It means working smarter, not harder. Following, we’ll explore a few ways to lessen the load on tech people while maximizing their investment, and maintaining forward operations.
MSPs And vCIOs
Managed Service Providers can outsource IT management totally or incrementally. Sometimes you don’t want total outsourcing because you haven’t maximized internal employee investment yet. Sometimes you are at an early enough stage of operation to do this from the outset.
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Your internal tech people need not worry, though. If you’ve got a Chief Information Officer who’s afraid for his job, he needn’t be. MSP solutions can basically manage updating software, troubleshooting, and security. They can put out all the little fires, freeing up internal tech people to work on core operational prerogatives.
A vCIO, or virtual Chief Information Officer, can be used to manage even complex security needs. This service through an MSP can be used by your on-site CIO to turn baseline management into a turnkey operation, and allow him to focus on what’s more important.
FTP Protocols Reduce Operational Difficulty For Tech Teams
File Transfer Protocol, abbreviated FTP, is sort of like an agreement for file transfer management that takes place between a client, and a server on a network. Clients and servers have separate data and control connections; here’s a blog with tips on helping your business find the right FTP clients. Doing so will reduce data management load of IT teams.
Cloud Computing Considerations
Cloud computing can cut costs extensively, and reduce the load on IT teams. Through the cloud, you can outsource on-site personnel owing to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) protocols. With a cloud network, employees have access from wherever they’ve got a secure internet connection. Additionally, cloud computing allows easier outward scalability and security.
Cloud computing backups can automatically safeguard data each time you change something on the network—if that’s something amenable to general operations. Also, cloud computing has greater “horsepower” than internal network solutions – especially if powered by cloud logging solutions.
If you’re hosting your own in-house server array, your tech people help you buy the right servers, allocate space for them, install them, and maintain them. This is a process with a cycle attached to it. You need new servers every 3 to 5 years even with the best management, owing to tech realities like Moore’s Law.
That’s quite a bit of work, and it’s going to be more expensive for most businesses than a cloud transition. Additionally, it will require more employees. You might outsource to vCIO, MSP, and cloud options now as a means of maximizing existing IT clientele, and making it so your business doesn’t have to hire more people.
Automated Patch Protocols
Whether you’re using external MSP options, or you’re on a strictly internal IT team, you need to apply automation where appropriate. In terms of security, antivirus patches can be key in helping your business avoid the newest viruses. In 2017, the WannaCry virus hit. In March of that year, a vulnerability became widely known.
Those in the know on patch management automatically had a patch to that vulnerability applied as soon as it was available. This was well before hackers had a chance to engineer a worm. Those without this kind of security were impacted when the worm came that May. Altogether, the WannaCry worm backhanded businesses in 150+ countries.
Automated security solutions are key, but they’re not the only ones your internal IT team can use to expedite operations. Automated testing, logging, notification, and customer management solutions additionally exist. Find which options best match the needs of your business.
Enabled Tech Departments Enhance Operations
Your internal tech people will likely be weighed down putting out digital fires at some point during regular operations. Your goal should be to give them the tools necessary to succeed. MSPs, vCIOs, cloud computing, automated patch protocols, and FTP clients can all be quite helpful to internal teams. Consult tech teams to see what would ideally enable them, and apply such solutions as applicable.
