Year-End IT Checklist For 2022

Email

Email is still one of the primary communication lines for businesses to stay connected with vendors, partners, and customers. It’s a vital tool for us to keep on top of multiple projects at once, and having the written records of our correspondence helps us remember what was said and what commitments we made. Given how much we rely on our emails, it’s important to make sure the tool is working correctly. Here’s what we check:

• Space and archives: If you receive a lot of emails, you can run into issues over time with your inbox exceeding the allowed capacity. You can solve this problem by going through and deleting a bunch of old emails or archiving those emails in a different location. I usually do a little of both at the end of each year.
• Spam filter settings: Both your email service provider and the email software application have filters that do their best to identify spam. These filters are not perfect, which means you will inevitably end up with spam in your inbox and important emails in your spam folder. The good news is you can adjust these spam settings to help the software do a better job of correctly routing your emails
• Antivirus settings: Email is one of the primary methods by which dangerous computer viruses get into our system, so it’s vital to scan your incoming emails for programs that can do real damage to your office IT environment.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is one of those office systems that is easily overlooked, at least until something bad happens. A good cybersecurity suite can keep your office safe from Malware programs, Phishing links, and even Ransomware. Microsoft and Apple do a decent job of providing a frontline defense against these attacks, but it makes good business sense to invest in a second security layer against these attacks.

Data Backups and Data Syncs

Data backups and data syncs are two different things. Syncs allow you to access the same data from multiple devices, like your home and office PC, while backups create a full copy of your data in a location that is 100% separate from your daily operations. Like your email tools, backup and sync processes can run into trouble if the amount of data you need to store gets bigger than your account, and if you are not paying attention, you can find yourself without the proper safety net when you need it. Keeping all of your precious data backed up is easier than it has ever been, but getting it right does require you to take a quick look from time to time.

Remote Connectivity

Remote work is not going away, so it’s important to ensure employees can connect to office software applications while maintaining full security across the company network. Now is an excellent time of year for your team to think through all of the ways that remote staff is connecting into the office and taking the time to ensure that hackers cannot also use those connections to access the company’s data.

Power and Internet Backup

Power outages happen most often during the coldest and hottest months of the year when the power grid operates at maximum capacity to keep up with energy demands. An outage of just a few seconds can throw the office into chaos until computers, phones, routers, and servers are restarted. Since most power outages don’t last very long, inexpensive Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS) can keep your systems running until the grid power is restored most of the time, minimizing the downtime for the office.