A single technical problem can quickly derail your business. Hacked billboards, malfunctioning dashboards, hard drive crashes, and insecure cloud data plague businesses on a daily basis. These problems aren't limited to major companies, either — any business that uses a computer can be affected. Here are five tech glitches your small business might encounter and the best way to solve them.
1. Invest in an uninterruptible power supply to protect against power outages.
Without a powerful generator, there isn't much you can do to protect against a power outage at work. You should take steps to protect your data, though — especially because power outages can corrupt hard drives and digital files that aren’t saved correctly. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) solves this by automatically kicking on to support your systems when the main power is off. While a UPS won't power your systems for long, it will buy you the time you need to save your work and properly shut down your devices or properly start generators.
2. Back up data to the cloud in case your hard drives fail.
Hard drives have an average lifespan of about five years. If a hard drive fails, there is still a chance that data can be recovered, but it’s probably not a chance you want to take, especially if the drive contains vital business information. Use a service that automatically backs up your drives to the cloud on a nightly (or even hourly) basis to help prevent a loss of data if something happens to your hard drive.
3. Use Internet backup services to protect against connection failure.
We live in an era where hardly anyone carries cash anymore. If your business's Internet fails — or your website loses connection to its servers — customers won’t be able to use a credit card to purchase anything, and you could potentially lose a tremendous amount of revenue in a short period of time. Services like Comcast Business ConnectionPro provide you with a 4G LTE backup router that takes over if your main Internet service provider fails.
4. Research security options to safeguard against malicious cyber attacks.
Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly common and small business cybersecurity should be a priority. Hackers employ denial-of-service attacks, SQL injection attacks, and a variety of other methods that have one end goal: to disrupt your business and interfere with day-to-day operations.
Make sure you keep all Web browsers, firmware, and security applications up to date to ensure the best defense against malware and viruses. Additionally, you should install a secure firewall to protect against potential hackers. You can also limit individual access to information on a single employee’s terminal cannot be used to access the entire company’s data.
5. Invest in high-quality routers to handle network traffic.
Whether you run a tech start-up with multiple employee connections or a restaurant that offers free WiFi, the right router guarantees all users can surf the Web with ease. A router with multiple WiFi frequencies means you can limit your free guest WiFi to one band and keep all employee activity on another. If the router has built-in security protocols, these can act in conjunction with your network security software to help protect against any threats looming on the Web. WiFi Pro from Comcast Business allows you to create these kinds of private WiFi and guest WiFi connections. As an added benefit, you can gather data on your access page, like customer email addresses. The more customers who enter and use the network, the more information you gain.
Most importantly, make sure you have a business disaster recovery plan that details how your business will recover in the event of a network outage, cyberattack, or other technical problem. Planning in advance will prepare you for any glitch that comes your way.
