The Importance of IT infrastructure Maintenance

The process of keeping your computer server working at its optimal level.

Reading time: 3-4 minutes

Author: Clarissa Vosloo

While you thought your IT infrastructure might just keep on running forever and ever. Take a moment and think again! Unlike humans, who is supposed to get checked annually for their health, your IT infrastructure need frequent attention to ensure maximum uptime and to pre-empt any future issues or failures.

The question is… Does your infrastructure get the special care it needs?

As an example:

Server Maintenance is important because this allows for healthy servers. Healthy servers lead to maximum uptime during production hours, which leads to fine-tuned performance, which leads to working efficiency which leads to more income for your business… you get the picture.

Server Maintenance Checklist (Daily / Weekly)

Server maintenance checklists are tools used by IT professionals when conducting routine server maintenance. Find a few

  1. Double-check and verify backups
  2. Check for any hardware warnings and or failures
  3. Check the RAID array
  4. Verify storage utilization
  5. Review server resource usage
  6. Update your control panel
  7. Update software applications and operating systems
  8. Examine remote management tools
  9. Verify network utilization
  10. Verify operation system updates
  11. Physically clean server hardware
  12. Check for hardware errors
  13. Review password security
  14. Evaluate user accounts
  15. Consider overall server security
  16. Check server logs regularly

These are just to name a few… are your servers going through these checks regularly?


Changed mindset

Be a creator of circumstances rather than just a creature of circumstances. Be proactive rather than reactive.

Brian Tracy

In IT we often talk about the “break-fix mindset.” And that’s the habit we’re trying to change. The break-fix mindset is when you only fix the issue (breakdown of your equipment after it already failed). The mindset we’d like to form is a proactive mindset. Thinking and acting ahead of anticipated events – being proactive. Hiring IT specialists to do regular maintenance on your IT infrastructure. Ensuring that regular maintenance is done on your infrastructure can be beneficial to:

  • Improve Security: Having all server maintenance in place can decrease the chance of a successful server attack.
  • Optimal performance: Over time, software components are not only made more secure but of course more efficient. This type of improvement can be a clear performance increment but can also eliminate a bottleneck that can occur in complex situations: in both cases the gained extra small resources can add up, that can prevent blocking situations which results in a more stable environment (van Velzen, 2016).
  • New or enhanced features: Eliminated operating system or software component level bugs reduce the chance of breakdowns, increases the overall reliability of the system which helps higher level service towards our clients – best to approach problems proactive, before those risk production work – that can be translated to business efficiency at the end (van Velzen, 2016).

How can IT Maintenance save you money?

Too many business owners fail to invest in IT until it’s too late. They don’t have IT consultants, and don’t conduct ongoing maintenance on their tech. The see IT service as an unnecessary expense, or otherwise can’t fit IT maintenance into their budgets (The Tech Block, 2020).

When it comes to production, the phrase ‘time is money’ rings true. Preventive maintenance drastically reduces downtime, which can decrease income.

When preventive maintenance is properly implemented, equipment is routinely maintained so it can run in optimal condition at all times.

Preventive maintenance can dramatically reduce the risk of these costs. Using preventive maintenance software, your crew will perform routine checks and planned maintenance at convenient times, steps that help you avoid large and expensive fixes down the road.

In addition to reducing downtime and expensive fixes, preventive maintenance will also increase the life of your equipment. 

When you can consistently provide quality, on-time service to your customers, you’ll end up with happier customers, better reviews, more referrals, and ultimately more sales (The Tech Block, 2020).

Call Us Today for your reliable IT services and to save you money!