Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

My New Year’s Computer Resolutions

David Grenda, Founder, Grenda Computer Consulting

I hope everyone’s holiday season was happy and peaceful. Rolling up our sleeves and diving into the new year is always exciting. As this is season for resolutions, I’d like to suggest a few computer related resolutions that will keep your computers running smoothly and your business information safe.

First, have a solid, simple and reliable plan for backing up your company’s critical data. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often I see new clients who have been living on luck for too long. I also sadly see clients who are literally facing a business crippling disaster for lack of backups. As computing and technical support become more complicated, more technical support answers are coming down to “Well, just restore from a back-up and move on”.

Make sure you have a proper level of threat protection. Antivirus software is not enough. Malware, Spyware, Adware and the new bubonic plague of viruses called “root kits” are out there looking for your business network. Opinions on which product does the best job vary, so go with a trusted technical advisor who knows your business.

Make sure your computer systems have the proper patches and updates applied from the various software manufactures. These updates are distributed for important reasons. Enabling automatic updates is a good idea, but it needs to be monitored. Server patch updates, virus definitions and driver updates are important examples.

Avoid Windows Vista on any new computers you buy. Stick with Windows XP until the market catches up on drivers for devices to work with Vista, and some of the annoying problems are resolved. I have at least 5 devices at client sites sitting around without Vista drivers because the owners bought them on special and didn’t consider the drivers.

Covering these bases should put you on the right platform to build a successful year of computing. Good luck!

www.grenda.com Questions? Email me at david@grenda.com

Posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 am and is filed under Computers, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.