How To Prevent Downtime In Your Business

What would happen if your business experienced some lengthy downtime or short periods of downtime on a consistent basis, for example? In most cases, the outcome would be lost sales and revenue and a poor reputation, not to mention a lot of stress and frustration for you. Although the technology we use is exceptionally useful, it can also come with problems, and those problems can lead to downtime – yet we can’t stop using the technology. It seems like an impossible situation and that downtime is therefore inevitable, but that’s not the case. Read on to find out how to prevent downtime in your business so you’ll be more successful and a lot less stressed. 

Have Good Backup Systems 

One of the most important elements of preventing downtime is having a reliable backup and recovery system in place; in this way, even if something were to go wrong, you’ll be able to restore things quickly, and hopefully no one will even notice there was an issue in the first place. 

The best thing to do is regularly backup your data and important software to secure places, ideally off-site ones or ones that can be removed from your main workspace (if there were a fire or a break-in, for example, they would be kept safe rather than potentially being damaged or destroyed). As soon as there’s a problem, you can start the recovery procedure, and all should be well. 

Prioritise Preventative Maintenance 

If you can keep on top of the maintenance of your hardware, software, and general network infrastructure, you’ll be much more proactive when it comes to preventing any downtime. It’s far better to have a good maintenance schedule in place (even if it’s outsourced, which, when it comes to technical elements of your business, is often the best thing to do) and put extra work into keeping things working than it is to panic because there’s a problem and your business is down. 

Part of this should include structured cabling installation. When this is in place (again, it can be done with expert help), there’s far less chance of an issue occurring. It might cost more initially, but when you think about how much money you could lose through downtime, you’ll see it’s a great idea. 

Employee Training 

Human error is often a big reason for any kind of downtime occurring within a business, and just one mistake can cause massive problems with huge repercussions. It’s scary to think how something so small and accidental could potentially ruin your business, but what can be done about it? If it’s accidental, surely you just have to hope for the best? 

The reality is that although accidents might still happen, you can reduce the chances of them taking place with good employee training. Investing in training and awareness programmes can help your team see where mistakes can be made so they can avoid them in the future, and if they can also see the problems that those mistakes could cause, they’ll be even more likely to stick to doing the right thing and not taking shortcuts.