Infrastructure Done Right: Part I

From the Oct. 2007 Issue

Most tax and accounting firms and other businesses I visit have mechanical issues that need attention and correction. Your firm, regardless of its size, is probably no exception. Qualified internal IT personnel as well as outsourced vendors frequently make incorrect recommendations based on their level of knowledge or perception that the firm won’t spend the money to do things right. This year is an excellent time to prepare your network infrastructure for the future while giving you more flexibility and reliability in day-to-day operations. When your infrastructure is right, you also have greater productivity, team member satisfaction and easier disaster recovery.

My hope is that you can use the following as a checklist to see how your technology infrastructure measures up to current and reasonable standards. If you are a smaller business, you will still need most everything listed. The items underlined are specifically for businesses of 50 or more people, but you will notice that very few items are underlined. Additionally, my team maintains a list of specific part number recommendations at www.nmgi.com. Look for technology recommendations on our site. Since many of you are now doing your final upgrades of the year, I have tried to prepare a simple list of key technologies. This column specifically builds from the outside communications towards servers. Next month’s column will then work towards workstations. Here are our best suggestions for the properly dressed infrastructure:

Protection

a. Surge protection — Every item that touches your network should be plugged through a surge protector. Common items missed include copiers, printers, scanners and monitors. Key vendor: APC
b. UPS — All servers should have UPS protection. You may want to consider having UPS protection on desktops if you have frequent power outages. Key vendor: Liebert
c. Backup — Traditionally associated with servers, most backup now involves removable disks, network attached storage (NAS) and off-site Internet backup. There are still applications where tape makes sense. Key vendors: High-Rely and eFolderbackup
d. Continuous Data Protection (CDP) — This technology can back up servers in real time, replicate the data to another site or your home and, from there, can be duplicated to an Internet backup site. Sometimes the CDP is part of your firewall, but most often today, it is purchased as a separate appliance.
e. Generator — If you are in an area where you have extended power outages, full building generators can provide enough power for your entire network. Minimally consider extended power for your servers and machine room’s air conditioning.