IT & Data Health Check: Your First Step in Preventing Data Loss

Today’s IT environments are complex—often involving legacy software and hardware, new and trending technologies, and encompassing data centres, mobile devices, and the cloud. With so many different systems and software involved, it’s often hard to know the health of your IT environment until something goes critically wrong, even with the most diligent of IT departments. The result: system downtime, data loss, or exploited weaknesses.

The fact is: system misconfiguration, unpatched software, and plain human error puts your IT environment at risk. When it comes to data loss, there are several root causes:1

Hardware/system failure (31%) The fact is, hardware fails and without an adequate backup and recovery strategy that stores your data in multiple locations and even into the cloud, you are at risk. Unfortunately, many organisations find our they don’t have adequate data protection strategies after disaster strikes.

Human error (29%)

Human error can be anything from accidentally hitting delete to misconfiguration errors that cause data to be overwritten.In fact, misconfigured server infrastructure is often considered one of the most significant causes of data breaches within the IT industry.2

Viruses, malware, or ransomware (29%)

Despite best efforts of IT, a staggering 35% of IT specialists report their organisations lost data due to malware infection.

Data Breaches

When it comes to data breaches, the numbers are even more staggering. According to a recent Ponemon Institute study, 60% of organisations that suffered a data breach in the last two years cite as the culprit a known vulnerability for which they had not patched 3 Yet 72% of IT professionals said the most common reason patches aren’t applied is the fear it will break systems.4

Is your organization at risk of data loss due to server misconfiguration, inadequate back-up and recovery strategies? Or worse yet—are you vulnerable because your systems aren’t patched correctly? The best way to know is to have a trusted advisor like Team Computing perform an IT and Data Health Check to see where you can make significant improvements in preventing data loss in your organisation.

During an IT and Data Health Check, experts should interview key business and IT people in your organisation about the technologies that support your business: gathering information such as configuration settings of your key IT assets, existing policies, and procedures and other facts. They should also verify that all your data systems and processes are working properly with the specific focus on systems and policies around server backup, data protection, and disaster recovery. You should then receive a detailed report on the state of your IT and data health, along with specific recommendations on how you can take action to prevent data loss in your organisation.

After an IT and Data Health Check, Team Computing help our customers formulate a plan to optimize their existing data protection solutions or install ones, as well as help them get their current IT environment adequately patched to help prevent data breaches and spot misconfiguration errors that may lead to data loss. With a deep background and expertise in IBM technologies, Team Computing can easily create and manage the best data protection solution for your environment by combining their technical expertise with reliable and future-ready IBM storage solutions.

Don’t risk data loss due to inadequate patching, system misconfiguration, or incomplete data protection coverage! Get an IT and Data Health Check today from Team Computing.

Sources:

1. CIO. (29 April 2018). With the Bigger Dangers of Data Loss and Some Statistics, the Value of Backups is Becoming Apparent.

2. SC Magazine. (26 December 2018). Data Breaches Caused by Misconfigured Servers.

3. Ponemon Institute. (2018). Today’s State of Vulnerability Response: Patch Work Demands Attention. Sponsored by ServiceNow.

4. OPatch. (2017). Security Patching is Hard – Survey Results 2017.