Cloud Communications

IT Should Make Some Serious New Year's Resolutions for System Improvements

By Ed Silverstein TMCnet Contributor

The New Year will soon be here, and it’s a fine time to make plans to ensure the next 12 months are efficient, prosperous and well-managed.

The effort to make sure that 2013 is a year of good tidings is as appropriate for information technology (IT) as it is for other business or personal activities. More people are doing it; in fact, about 25 percent of Americans came up with New Year's resolutions during the late 1930s, representing the large amount of individuals who now participate in this winter tradition (about 40 percent made resolutions for the New Year during the early 2000s).

In light of this, GFI presented in a recent report some 13 areas in IT that could be addressed in the coming year.

With the recent scandal highlighting the dangers of unencrypted e-mails – involving the former director of the CIA and his biographer-turned-mistress – encryption is certainly one area of concern. There can be encryption of e-mail, laptop hard drives, USB storage, data and network connections, GFI said.

While on the topic of e-mail, installing e-mail archiving can also improve compliance and the process of legal discovery, GFI adds.

Patch management needs to be at the top of the list, GFI similarly recommends, as it can cover servers and workstations, operating systems and third party applications.

Also, many businesses and other organizations need to be ready for the growing popularity of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Employees and other visitors regularly bring their own tablets, smartphones and other devices to various settings. Further, MDM (Mobile Device Management) solutions need to be in place for BYOD, the company insists.

Consider, too, using managed service providers; they can offer services for a lot less than what it would cost your own organization to provide them on its own. That includes outsourcing security services, monitoring, help desk, VoIP, e-mail, or other technology, GFI said.

Another important area is provisioning and deprovisioning employees. Getting them on the system needs to be done quickly – as does taking them off if they are fired or resign. And still another area for the New Year is two-factor authentication for system access, rather than just using one factor.

The start of the year is also a good time to consider upgrading operating systems, office suites, firewalls, switches, Wi-Fi devices, storage area networks, servers and workstations, GFI added.

The company also advises that IT consider installing solid anti-virus software at the start of the year. As a renowned provider of security solutions and anti-virus software, no other company could be more trusted than GFI in this matter. In addition, new options to filter spam can be deployed on premises or in the cloud.

Another related topic is security scanning, which lets users identify and correct vulnerabilities in a network, GFI said, noting that now is a good time to install it.

Another possible initiative is server consolidation, which leads to lower costs for hardware, maintenance, power and space requirements, GFI said.

Lastly, consider setting up a test lab, which can test patches and changes, and lets users practice new skills as the New Year unfolds, GFI said.

So here was a list of possible recommendations for IT staff. Have a happy New Year!

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