Michael Kraner President Michael Kraner is the President of Primary Support, an information technology firm specializing in premium consulting, full service support, and customized solutions to companies of all sizes. Primary Support’s mission is to help companies enhance their technical efficiencies to gain competitive advantages that will help increase their business productivity and profitability. Primary Support also has a special small business unit focusing on the unique needs of emerging companies.

[ CLOSE THIS WINDOW ] Network Infrastructure Best Practices for 2002 by Michael Kraner All companies are dependent on technology to function, stay organized, and remain competitive in the market. Whether it's in the legal, financial, technical, medical, or retail services sector, every industry shares a common imperative need, and thus, a common goal: to increase business productivity resulting in bottom-line benefits. Companies can accomplish this goal and ensure business productivity simply by implementing proper infrastructure and technical best practices. Today, businesses use many technical mission-critical applications for communications, business security, and data storage and protection. Without the proper infrastructure in place, companies cannot guarantee the protection, confidentiality, and integrity of their data. Ongoing technology problems caused by outdated or improperly configured systems can result in income loss and the loss of existing and/or potential clients. Whether your company is a small business or a Fortune 1000 firm, management has the responsibility to harness technology that will increase internal technical efficiencies and maximize corporate effectiveness while providing data security. Implementing the right infrastructure should thus not only help increase business productivity, but also importantly, protect a company's network and the data it contains. Primary Support encourages organizations to place emphasis on increasing their technical efficiencies to gain competitive advantages while maximizing network security. Following are the four components of a solid business network, each of which must be configured to work together: Firewall Protection Backup Solutions Anti-Virus Solutions E-mail Solutions Firewall Protection Organizations with high-speed Internet access generally leave their networks connected 24/7, and thus, inadvertently allow outsiders access to the network and all its data. (A good analogy would be leaving the door to your house unlocked all the time.) Without firewall protection, this open access presents a potential loss exposure. Hardware firewalls are the only way to effectively eliminate would-be trespassers and security threats. (In simple terms, a firewall is the lock on a door that keeps out unwanted guests.) Firewalls should be an organization's first line of defense against the unprotected Internet. In addition to providing external protection, firewalls can also be used to limit internal contact with the outside Internet. Companies can configure firewalls to block employees from using the Internet for non work-related activities, or to record logs of all incoming and outgoing traffic. Additionally, firewalls can be configured with Virtual Private Networking (VPN) capabilities, which allow remote users (telecommuters, business travelers, etc.) to securely access company files. Backup Solutions Backup solutions are a vital component of an organization's network infrastructure and disaster recovery plan. A properly configured backup solution enables companies to recover their data in the event of a disaster, including those caused by natural events, terrorist attacks, user/human error, and computer viruses such as the recent Nimda, Badtrans and Goner viruses. A backup copy is the first step in protecting data from disasters. To effectively manage a backup solution, an organization must protect/backup its important data on a daily basis, and more importantly, ensure that the backup is operating properly. Additionally, data should be backed up and stored on tapes at an off-site location (off-site backups should be used to secure all employee data, proprietary information, organizational forms, e-mail, etc.) The best backup solutions have multiple points of failure, which greatly minimize the risk of losing data. Anti-Virus Solutions Anti-virus solutions, when configured properly, provide extreme value to organizations, as they reduce virus threats that can negatively affect costs and system uptime. Viruses may destroy data and severely limit the ability of an organization to operate. An effective anti-virus solution must be configured and managed via the organization's production server, which will work to protect all local installations in the network at one point in time. Additionally, the anti-virus installation must be configured to update automatically each day, as there are always new viral contagions to protect against. A good anti-virus solution will also allow the network administrator to disenable certain file types that are more likely to contain viruses, but are also not necessary document types for most businesses (such as .exe, .vbs, .bat, and .html.). E-mail Solutions In today's fast-paced business environment, e-mail has become a mission-critical communications application. Successful organizations must have the electronic tools to create, store, and share information, both internally and externally. E-mail greatly increases employee efficiency and productivity by allowing users to communicate with large numbers of people in a time-efficient manner. From a business development standpoint, e-mail is especially critical as more and more people take advantage of its speed, ease of use, and convenience. It is clearly becoming the favored form of communication. E-mail allows people to communicate outside of business hours and from any location, providing for increased business communication and development opportunities. E-mail is also the most time-efficient way to coordinate and communicate with multiple parties and groups simultaneously. Furthermore, proper e-mail configuration is an effective method to professionally brand and market your company by utilizing customized e-mail addresses (such as yourname@yourcompanyname.com). Today, more than ever, technology is an underlying key to success for all organizations. It should be viewed from a macro perspective, as it is the backbone of a company's internal and external effectiveness. The most successful companies balance their business goals with proper technology planning to foster greater communications and teamwork--both of which are crucial for any organization. Equally important as the infrastructure components discussed above is network support and maintenance. Proactive and preventative maintenance is the only way to ensure proper network functionality and data protection, which will result in lower cost of network ownership and increased business productivity.