What are proactive critical IT services?
Most IT services can be seen as a means of preventing the inevitable PC crash that causes a lot of concern and dissatisfaction for customers. A good IT service will focus on being more proactive than reactive. The better the IT services, the more proactive services a store can offer. There are three critical areas of proactive support that should be considered invaluable to all computer owners.
Security
The first is network security. Today’s wireless networks are extremely secure when configured correctly. An incorrectly configured network represents a huge security risk for a user. By default, a wireless router, owned by most users, is extremely open to attack. Statistically speaking, 1 in 3 computer owners do not change passwords or default settings on their routers. This leaves them wide open to attack by hackers. Often, PC owners do not even consider that a hacker is no longer a person who sits in a dark room and quietly types in a maze of windows. Today’s hackers are more sophisticated than ever. Recently, The New York Times mentioned a recent spike in Wi-Fi hijacking. This article mentioned a method known as Wi-Fi drive-by. Essentially, a hacker would roam neighborhoods looking for wireless signals with default settings. In some areas, people left signs nearby to alert others to a free Wi-Fi hotspot. A good IT shop will be able to set up a Wi-Fi network to the proper settings to ensure things stay safe and secure.
Backups
Another critical area is backups. Nearly 40% of computer users do not back up their computers. This may be a nightmare in the making. The rest of the users do backups but on a single hard drive, which is better, but not by much. The best backup solution is to pay an IT service for a remote backup plan. Remote backup plans are managed by a larger company that almost always uses Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) hard drives. RAID hard drives simply mirror each other in sequence, so if one drive fails, there are 5 others that are exactly the same. This ensures the highest level of data integrity. Backups are an essential proactive activity for a PC user.
The final critical area of proactive IT support is overall machine order. Most of the users never think about defragmenting their computer hard drive, cleaning their junk registries or simply deleting wasted and unnecessary files. Most IT services include some sort of monthly maintenance cycle that can keep a PC running as good as the day it was purchased.
Today’s computers are increasingly complicated and therefore a good computer service with proactive principles can be a real lifesaver.