Your IT infrastructure is a critical component of your business’ success. As businesses grow so to do their IT requirements. This means components are added and withdrawn over time and are subject to fluctuating demand as the business evolves. The dynamic nature of corporate IT requires companies to be proactive when it comes to ensure the health, resilience, security, and capacity of their IT systems.
Performing a full Network audit periodically will give you or your IT department valuable insights into the overall health of your network and allow you to identify fragility, security vulnerabilities or areas that could be hampering your business’ productivity. These insights will help you plan by identifying components that are either reaching the end of their lives or are nearing the limitations of capacity.
Let’s take a more in-depth look at some of the best reasons to perform a network audit.
Identify back-up deficiencies
A full network audit will not only screen the health of individual components like backup servers, it will also help you identify locations where data is being stored beyond the protection of your backup infrastructure. Backup infrastructure riddled with holes could result in regulatory compliance issues or simply the possibility of staff losing documents they’ve spent a lot of time on.
Identify areas for improvement and highlight outdated hardware
Performing a Network audit will draw your attention to underperforming or outdated hardware. This will allow you to take steps to implement upgrades individually or plan for a more radical overhaul of your technology.
You might be able to implement quick fixes such as upgrading the memory on individual machines to improve performance or changing system settings or security configurations.
Create an inventory of all software used
If you can’t readily produce a list of every software programme used by your employees, then a network audit is just what you need. It will shine a light on every software programme that is installed on your system and perhaps even uncover some that you were completely unaware of. This will help you identify underutilised, out-of-date and even unauthorised programmes that are taking up valuable space on your network.
Removing such programmes could improve system performance and decrease the need for costly capacity upgrades.
Create an audit trail to review the implications of changes over time
Regular audits can be used to document changes made to a system to that the effects of individual changes can be properly scrutinised. Understanding the effects of past changes will help you plan future alterations with greater confidence.
Ensure Compliance
A network audit may be the best way to prove that your business adheres to the stipulations of strict compliance regulations as well as best practice guidelines. With businesses expected to conform to an ever-increasing number of data security standards and regulations (such as ISO27001, PCI DSS, Cyber essentials and GDPR) it’s more vital than ever to be able to provide evidence of compliance.
Identify security vulnerabilities and existing threats
Tightening security is probably the most compelling reason to perform a full network audit. An audit will identify security vulnerabilities, such as outdated software, weak access criteria and poor patch management. The audit will also allow you to identify and take action against active threats on your system, and strategize in order to minimise the risk of future malware intrusion.
Reduce the burden on your IT team
Using a third-party network audit provider on a regular basis will keep your network running optimally while allowing your IT department to focus on the day-to-day issues. A regular full network audit will also avert future downtime by drawing attention to system fragility and weak points before a business-critical issue comes to the fore.
By conducting a regular, thorough audit of your network you’re not only keeping on top of security and compliance, but you’ll also ensure your network performance and Quality of Service is the best it can be.
We’re ISUMO
We design, build and support complex network infrastructures that deliver the security, scalability and availability that your organisation and users demand. Working as part of your team, supplementing their skills or leading them to achieve exceptional results.
Contact us or give us a call on 0207 871 1476.
