Freelance Writing Jobs | Today's Articles | Sign In

IT in Business: The Dangers of IT

Uncontrolled Outage Is the Greatest IT Related Threat to Business

Aug 24, 2008 Chris A Watkins

Common dangers and risks involved with IT usage are usually well prepared for, yet most ignore the greatest IT threat to business altogether.

Virus’ that attack systems, worms designed to penetrate and mine sensitive and confidential data of individuals and organisations -- everyone is aware of the common dangers and risks involved with IT usage and of course everyone takes precautions to guard against these, yet most ignore the greatest IT related threat to business altogether. The threat presented by uncontrolled IT operation.

Control Is the Key

The businessman who doesn't know what an IT function costs or why it is in place, is in charge of uncontrolled processes.

The Cost of Downtime

Uncontrolled process represents huge risk simply because it is impossible to predict what failures may occur or what those failures will cost the business. An unscheduled network outage can sideline a business for an hour, a half-day, a day or even more. How much lost revenue does each hour of downtime represent, how many hours of payroll and infrastructure cost accumulate while employees make tea and furnish customers with excuses?

Define and Plan

Not only should there be a general awareness of the purpose and cost of each IT function, but there should be a good grasp of alternative methods, comparative costs and performance, plus general knowledge of when change should be implemented. In short, there must be a strategy.

These are the basics of control and while definitive substitute products and services are not always available the strategy should always contain sufficient logically deduced knowledge to demonstrate awareness of the cost/benefit equation applicable in each area, along with cognizance of issues and risks.

The Realism of IT

No-one can expect to achieve one hundred percent up-time on a computer system, but there should be a clear idea of what each minute of down-time costs. In addition, workaround processes should be defined to minimise impact. This does, after all determine the basis of all IT related SLAs. The rapid evolution of business computerisation has given rise to a culture of corporate acceptance of unscheduled downtime. Due regard to the importance of anti-virus, fire-wall and other disruption and penetration controls, is a requirement. However, the manager who gains control of IT downtime reduces threat and cost to business by a far greater degree.

Analyse and Learn

As with all processes, the IT function can be analysed to identify weakness and locate points of failure. Signs of imminent demise or patterns of failure can be identified and rectification action taken before business disruption occurs. This process doesn’t even require deep knowledge of computer hardware or software. Powers of logical deduction are far more important.

The Importance of IT Control

IT has become such an important component of business that, while it may be unnecessary for the businessman to become a computer expert, it is highly important to gain a clear understanding of computer processes and functions. As with all other service provision realistic deliverables must be defined and applied.

Look out for the next article in this series - IT In Business: Business IT Development

The copyright of the article IT in Business: The Dangers of IT in Business Management is owned by Chris A Watkins. Permission to republish IT in Business: The Dangers of IT in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

IT Danger