Cloud-based systems are a fantastic option for businesses as they offer quick, cost-effective and efficient networking capabilities. What’s more they can also host your data, programs and applications in a secure online place which you can conveniently access at a time to suit you. They are suited perfectly to a working world where time is money, which makes it all the more frustrating should you ever experience any downtime.
Cloud network downtime can be caused by a number of issues from basics like human error, to power sources and even complicated cyber threats. In most cases though, these problems can be avoided if you take care. In this post you’ll find some steps and practices for you to take into consideration and help you avoid any costly and annoying interruptions.
1. Getting the Balance Right
A common reason for cloud networks crashing is that they cannot handle the amount of processes or applications you have them doing. Sod’s law is that such errors will happen when you’ll be in dire need of something on your network and it’s either painfully slow or doesn’t work at all. So to avoid this make sure your network has the capacity to deal with everything you need it for. Otherwise, you need to balance your usage more evenly among other networks, or in-house storage.
2. Properly Checking and Monitoring
Along with the above comes the necessity for your cloud-based network to be regularly checked to monitor your usage. You don’t need to hire new staff for this either; create a staff rota so the responsibility is shared. However, should there be any more technical issues, have a specialist member of your team on standby to deal with them just in case.
3. Thinking Ahead
As an alternative to the above, you can prepare for this and install some monitoring software which not only keeps a watchful eye over your network’s performance and usage, but can take appropriate action. These actions are determined by how sophisticated the software you invest in is, but it can range from simply alerting you to a problem to prioritising usage and reallocating tasks.
4. Boost your Security
Tackling external threats, hacks and/or viruses that could compromise your cloud network’s security is not something to be taken lightly. When you first set up your network, make sure your firewalls are correctly suited to your needs and that your protection software is regularly updated to deal with any possible cyber-attacks.
5. Emergency Power Sources
Quite a common issue and cause of network shutdown is through loss of power, be it from a power outage or a system failure. The very simple solution to this is to visit a supplier such as Critical Power Supplies and pick up a backup or generator so you are prepared for any such problem. Make sure this is equally durable and reliable to give you enough time to deal with any issues and get full power restored.
With these steps and procedures in place, you can rest assured your cloud-based network will be secure and you can alleviate any downtime financial and production worries.
