In our digital age, cybersecurity is a business essential that every company, whether it’s a multinational corporation or a 20-man startup, needs to take into account. Even your brick-and-mortar startup on Main Street, USA is going to need a well-built IT infrastructure.
A solid IT infrastructure isn’t just about cybersecurity, it’s also about organizing all kinds of data that are crucial to your company, from everyday ops and employee management to customer data and business analytics.
But what exactly is IT infrastructure? Well, it refers to the physical and digital aspects of your information technology needs. This means hardware like computers, cables, wires, physical servers, as well as the software that connects everything together.
So when you’re setting up your ‘computer stuff’, leave it to experts and enlist the services of an expert IT infrastructure consulting firm and work closely with them. As you go through the consultation process, here are some things to consider:
Plan Everything to a T
As with anything, planning is crucial to the success of any endeavor, and when it comes to IT infrastructure, this means planning out where every single wire, cable, and workstation goes in relation to your business needs. Having all of this organized first makes installation and maintenance a breeze.
Choose Between a Data Center or Cloud Storage (or Both)
As you set up your IT infrastructure, you’ll need to decide where your company will store all of its relevant and sensitive data. Hosting it in a physical data center is one of the most secure ways to do this, but it can be expensive, not to mention it involves a complicated installation and maintenance process. Having a physical data center can also be expensive in terms of necessary equipment, upkeep, and of course, energy costs.
You could consider storing everything in cloud storage, which is when you rely on a third-party provider to host your data on their servers, but this usually involves paying a monthly rate and having to trust your third-party provider’s security protocols.
Some companies do a combination of both, enjoying the security of a physical data center with the flexibility of cloud storage. Discuss this in-depth with your IT infrastructure consulting firm.
Beef Up Your Cyber (and Physical) Security
Like we mentioned earlier, cybersecurity is one of the most important aspects of moving your company into the digital business space. Securing all of your business data, whether it’s employee information, customer data, or business analytics, is of utmost importance, and your IT infrastructure will determine just how well you guard this data.
Your cybersecurity is dependent on two things: digital and physical security. Your digital security is concerned about protecting everything in cyberspace, and the services of a reputable cybersecurity firm should help you out. Meanwhile, the physical security of your data is reliant on physical security protocols when accessing workstations, data centers, and even the positioning of your cables.
There are many more aspects of a strong and robust IT infrastructure, and as with anything, your best bet is to consult an expert IT infrastructure consulting firm about the best way to handle your unique business needs.