3 Ways To Avoid Network Crashes

If you’re a business owner, you most likely have a lot of people who rely on you and your company. We live in an increasingly digital reliant age of business, where most small to mid-size businesses can compete at the scale of their larger counterparts. BUT, the affect of downtime hits hard on businesses both large and small. So, the question is, have you listed the solutions to avoid network crashes or loss of internet for your business? 

What Network Crashes Can Cause 

Naturally, the first problem that a network crash presents is the total lack of productivity it will cause your business. After all, your staff likely relies on the network in order to access materials and resources they need in order to do their jobs. Without access, they’re left without the means to generate revenue for your business. Meanwhile, they are still contractually entitled to receive their salary for their time at work. This, combined with your operational costs, means that your cash flow during a network crash dips into the red.

A crash can also lead to data loss, and seeing as your data is one of the most valuable assets to your business operations, data loss isn’t something that can be shrugged off, as we’ve discussed before.

Causes of Network Crashes

Unfortunately, there can be numerous causes to a network crash. Fortunately, each can be somewhat easily mitigated with the proper foresight and maintenance.

OS Issues

There’s a reason we always say to double-check if your systems can handle an update before you install it. Compatibility issues between your solutions can occur if you aren’t careful about which updates you choose to install, and you might wind up with an internal configuration conflict or worse. To avoid this, make sure you always have a trusted IT professional evaluate your solutions and the proposed update to make sure that you won’t run into any unexpected complications.

Electrical Problems

Any disruption of power to your server can lead to a crash, regardless of whether a lightning strike caused a power surge or someone tripped over the wrong cable. However, these kinds of issues can largely be avoided by utilizing an reliable power supply and practicing proper cable management.

Environmental Conditions

Or, in other words, the state of your server room. In order to function properly, your IT needs its environment to be cool and clean. Excessive heat can interfere with its operation, so the server room maintenance should include good ventilation and climate control. Heating issues are also why your components need to be kept clean. Built-up dust can prevent heat from escaping, allowing it to build up and damage your systems.

Equipment Failure

Sometimes, things just break. Whether a component has simply gotten too old and worn out, or you just so happened to get a lemon, if it doesn’t work properly, your network will crash.

Avoiding The Crash

1. Expect the best but plan for the worst …

Have a plan! Be sure you have quality Firewall to ward off any skeezy hackers, back up your important documents in The Cloud, and have a ready list of phone numbers to call for help! Knowing who you need to contact will shave valuable minutes, even hours, off of the IT disaster. To help you get started on your list, the phone number to reach ANAX for all your IT Services and Solutions is 702.478.9000. Now, go prepare!

2. Don’t Skimp!

You worked extremely hard to get in this professional position … don’t cut corners when it comes to your office equipment. ANAX is affiliated with top-performing brands like Toshiba and Ellumina: ANAX even provides quality office equipment support and maintenance for these brands. Your office will be running like a paper-jam-free, well-inked copy machine in no time!

3. Just Breathe…

Slowly inhale through your nose and exhale out your mouth. With ANAX on your side, you don’t need to worry about IT mishaps. You can rest easy knowing that your IT solutions to avoid network crashes (or other IT problems!) is a phone call away … only ten little numbers to push for professional, quality assistance. Now, you can focus your time and energy on other business aspects … like your sanity!

With ANAX managed IT services, you’ve always got a partner on your side. Call us (702) 478-9000 or message us HERE to schedule a consultation today!

Five Reasons Your Network Fails

Can You Afford Extended Downtime?

We live in an increasingly digital reliant age of business, where most small to mid-size businesses can compete at the scale of their larger counterparts. BUT, the affect of downtime hits hard on businesses both large and small. So, the question is, how would you business handle a network outage or loss of internet?

“It’s clear that many organizations settle for sub-optimal network management solutions, thus costing them hours to report and resolve network issues,” said James Bear, president and CEO of Veriflow, a California based software company. So, what are five reasons a network can fail, and how do you avoid them?

1. The “human element”

Human error is a factor in network outages, according to nearly all of the 315 IT pros surveyed (97%.) But how large a role people play in outages varies according to respondents. About half of respondents (52%) reported human error leads to few network failures, while a quarter of them (18% – 25%) find human error leads to frequent or “most” outages. Most important of all the findings, however, may be that just a fraction (3%) of the network pros said they catch and correct human mistakes before downtime occurs.

2. “Incompatible changes”

Another cause of network incidents is changing the configuration without properly evaluating impact prior to implementation. Nearly half (44%) of the survey respondents answered this type of issue happens “several times a year.”

3. “Manual dependence”

Most IT pros polled (69%) rely on manual measures to ensure network performance – e.g., “inspecting devices via the command line interface, inspecting configurations, and performing manual traceroutes or pings.”

4. “Predictive monitoring”

Just 6% of respondents said network monitoring tools predict between 90% and 100% of network performance issues and outages. Another 15% said tools predict 70% to 90% of network problems, and 13% said tools predict 50% to 75% of those glitches. The rest of the respondents said that monitoring tools predict less than half of all network bugs.

5. “Resolution time”

Few IT pros in the survey said the time necessary to detect and resolve a network issue once reported to them is less than an hour. Most replied that the process takes longer – anywhere from one to five hours.

For a big company with a large IT staff and commensurate budget, accepting a “suboptimal” solution for network management may be only a matter of lost productivity, which may or may not fall to the bottom line. But for many businesses, frequent, prolonged network outages can have implications greater than inefficiency. For retail organizations with a high proportion of e-commerce revenue, downtime can mean lost sales. For financial services firms, outages can delay time-sensitive transactions. For healthcare providers, sluggish network performance can lengthen wait times for patients, leading to caregivers seeing fewer patients. In this case, the consequences can be twofold – reductions in the quality of care and revenues from payers.

Regardless of size, most businesses don’t settle for sub-optimal internal solutions. Instead, they engage IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) like ANAX that specialize in remote monitoring and management – not only for networks, but desktop computers and mobile devices, too. Our team of IT Services experts can create custom IT Solutions for your business, no matter the size.

Call us (702) 478-9000 or message us HERE to schedule a consultation today!