Your current office IT setup may not only be hindering optimal productivity, but could also be leaving you unsupported when a server crashes. Now is the time to consider an alternative IT setup that will solve your problems.
Company-wide downtime is a direct result of inefficient IT setups that can cost businesses money and customer support. Most often, this downtime occurs when a server goes down without backup support and you lose access to the Internet, which in today’s digitally-connected, cloud-based world is a very significant problem. Because downtime can reduce work productivity, affect customer service, and ultimately lose the company money, the best option for avoiding detrimental server crashes is to employ an alternative DNS setup as soon as possible.
How IT Downtime Hurts Your Business
When basic online technology services like email, Internet, and printing capabilities become unavailable to workers due to server crashes, they are often forced into being unproductive for lengthy periods of time. These are essential tools that many employees at all levels in your company need to do their jobs effectively. Once services are eventually restored, employees are then going to be behind on their work and need more time to catch up.
This may sometimes adversely affect customers, especially if they have to wait longer for orders to be filled or for service requests to be answered. Additionally, because of your lacking server infrastructure, the company will end up paying hourly wages and salaries to employees for simply being at work without producing the results needed to keep your business running.
What Causes IT Downtime?
There are a variety of reasons why your company may experience IT downtime. Companies that do not utilize managed IT service providers experience more downtime than those that do, simply because those that go it alone may not have the resources available to fix their problems effectively.
The problem is clear: if the Internet goes down, your company goes down. Most businesses today are at least partially reliant on the Internet to complete certain business process while some companies are entirely reliant on it. But just because your server goes down, it doesn’t mean that your entire company should be forced off of the Internet. With a proper IT setup utilizing a secondary DNS (or “domain name system”), you and your employees can still use the Internet even if your primary server connection is technically down.
What is the Solution to Minimizing IT Downtime on a Consistent Basis?
The best way a company can achieve minimal IT downtime is to set up a secondary DNS setting on your network. The secondary DNS connects to a public DNS like Google, and the primary DNS connects to the local DNS provider.
The primary DNS, which routes the Internet from your IP address to the domain name requested in your browser, will allow of your office’s computers to access the local DNS when going onto the Internet unless it stops responding. If the primary DNS stops responding, the server is instructed to access the secondary DNS through the router. With this “switchboard operator” type of setup, no downtime will be experienced while the primary DNS is getting fixed.
Keeping a full-time IT monitoring staff on-site is expensive, especially if the size and demands of your office go beyond easy fixes. For this reason, it is far easier and more cost-effective to hire an outside managed IT provider to set up and manage the server infrastructure for your company. Your business can then have 24/7 monitoring of both your primary and secondary DNS setups to avoid downtime and keep your office technology running smoothly.
If you are looking to save money and eliminate downtime, contact Scale’s managed IT team to learn more about alternative DNS setups and other processes we can initiate to make your business more efficient and profitable.
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