3 Ways Your House and Your Network are Related

Your house and your company's IT infrastructure have more in common than you may have realized. Both infrastructures contain multiple systems that interact with each other, and both require proper maintenance in order to keep overall operations running smoothly. Here are three things we can learn about network maintenance from comparing the two.

A Single Infrastructure Contains Several Systems
Think of all the different systems that make up your home. You have electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, and more. Now think about what would happen if just one of these critical systems were to go out. For example, if a major thunderstorm took out your power, you would technically still be able to live in your home and stay dry from the rain, but you would be highly inconvenienced until the your power is restored. While you would still be able to get house projects done without electricity, it will take you twice as long to accomplish anything by candlelight.

A computer network is also made up of several different systems. There's the Internet that connects your organization with your customers and other businesses, and then you have the intranet that helps your staff communicate with each other. Your company's IT infrastructure likely includes other useful systems like a print server, a fax solution, VoIP, a security system and more. While all of these systems are important, if just one system were to go out, you would still be able to keep operations going, albeit at a much slower pace than what you are used to.

The Importance of System Hubs
The most important pieces of equipment for your house are the ones where different systems interconnect to perform a vital function. A great example of this can be seen with your home's furnace. A heating unit like a boiler requires multiple systems such as electricity, water, and a heating source like gas or oil. Each system needs to be working at 100% in order for the unit to function properly. If just one of these systems where to go down, then your house wouldn't be able to be heated, rendering your home unlivable.

A network component that's comparable to your furnace with all the systems interconnecting is your server. Your server unit is the hub that hosts your company's data and handles the flow of traffic over the network. Your business may be able to limp along if your printers went down, but if your servers stopped working, then operations would screech to a halt and your profits would be on ice. Just like it's important to change the filter on your furnace, it's equally important to perform maintenances on your company's servers. Proper server care will keep the critical functions of your network going strong and prevent issues from turning into problems that cause expensive downtime. Computerware can maintain your servers remotely with our managed IT services so that you can keep the heat on your sales!

The Inevitability of Expansion
With both houses and networks, the need to expand is inevitable. A homebuyer will choose a house based on how much square footage works with their budget. Then life happens and more people are added to the family, causing the need to expand either to a larger house, or do a major remodeling project that adds more rooms. Remodeling is a very, very expensive endeavor that will often require a loan. As your business grows, you will put more demand on your IT infrastructure, which will require an expensive expansion.

Because network expansion is such a major expense, you don't want to be caught off guard having to foot a major upgrade bill that will tank your quarter's profits. Network expansion is kind of like family planning, the more prepared you are for your IT upgrades, the better you can afford the needed technology, because you won't be caught by surprise.

Computerware can help your business plan its network expansion with our IT roadmapping service. With this IT planning service, we will take the time to assess your company's needs, goals, growth rate, and your current technology situation. From this assessment, we will be able to create an IT roadmap allowing you to budget your IT expansion piece-by-piece. This service is equivalent to slowly expanding an extra bedroom onto your house so it will be completed by the time a new member of your family arrives. Proper planning makes expansion affordable by eliminating the need to sign up for loans.

A properly maintained home and IT network can make both life and work a lot easier. Think about how frustrating it would be to deal with networking issues all day at work, and then go home to a leaky roof and backed up pipes. While Computerware can't shingle your roof, we can perform maintenance on your company's network remotely, and send a technician to your office if the problem requires it, all for one affordable service! Call us today at (703) 821-8200 to learn more about our managed IT services designed to maintain your network so your business can operate at maximum efficiency.