10 Years On From Y2K…

By Guy Bunker | January 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment

… And do you know anymore about your IT estate than back then? The chances are you know less. Ten years ago there had been a mass ‘panic’ to find all the systems and ensure that they wouldn’t fall over when the millennium changed a slow decline in understanding what was where has subsequently ensued. Of course back then we weren’t worried about the data, it was the systems… and for most organizations, the bulk of the IT was within IT boundaries. There were laptops, but very few people had email on their phones. How times have changed (or not as the case may be).

From a compliance perspective, you should know where all the systems are and their various levels of OS and application patches. There should be anti-virus, anti-malware on the various endpoints and kept up to date. Data, especially customer data (and other company confidential data) should be monitored and controlled in all places – which means that the smartphone should be treated like the laptop and suitably protected.

2010 will be the year that ‘cloud’ computing becomes even more important to business. A recent survey on datacentres by Symantec has found that it is the medium size business (less than 10,000 employees) that are looking to new technologies to provide cost savings as well as business advantage. But… before rushing down that route, companies need to look at what they have today and get their house in order. So, now the snow is starting to clear and people are thinking about the upcoming year:

Find out what your IT environment really looks like today. Where are the systems/devices that hold your information (don’t forget the smartphones, memory sticks etc.)
Work out what data is important to you and where it can be found.
Create a list of potential applications that could be put in the cloud (out-tasked).
Arrange a meeting between the senior IT folk and line of business leaders to talk through each other’s plans and help set priorities.
Take a read of some of the multitude of articles on what is important to IT, security, storage in 2010 and see which are relevant to you.
Create a plan of action for the next 90 days which brings IT closer to the business – and vice versa.

2010 looks like the year when there will be a lot of talk about the recession ending, but in reality it won’t make a huge difference for the next 6-9 months, so there is time to get things in order. Once the market really does pick up, and budgets become a little more relaxed there won’t be time to plan – as it will be all hands to the pumps to make money!

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 – 1969)

Guy Bunker

PS It’s not a bad thing to look at your home IT as well… do you need to revisit your backups (what, you still aren’t doing backups?!?!?!), or renew subscriptions to AV applications, or if you have a new computer for Christmas, look at deleting the data off the old one before getting rid of it.

Bookmark It