7 Ways to Keep Your Servers Safe and Sound

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself how safe your company’s resources really are? When it comes to your servers, there’s no messing around. Servers need to be regularly monitored to ensure they run at their best. Your servers allow their users to share and access their information from various workstations. Servers store your data and keep it accessible—quite simply, their job is to serve information to other computers.

There are many things you can do to keep your servers safe from harm, both internally and externally. In this case, external safety refers to the physical protection a server, while internal safety refers to the data stored on the server. Naturally, the two are directly related.

Keeping your servers safe and running smoothly is an integral way to nurture the success of your business. Regardless of whether your company is a startup or an established business, it is likely that you have multiple servers on your network. The more you care for your servers, the better they’ll serve you—so let’s start talking about how.

Keep your staff/coworkers away from your servers.

Keeping your servers safe from physical damage is just as important as server backups and antivirus software. If your servers are out in the open, it is all too easy for them to fall victim to the clumsiness of another employee. Giving your servers their own space is integral to their physical safety. Keeping them safe in their own room or server closet away from your staff is the best way to avoid any physical damage.

Keep your cool by keeping your servers cool.

This simple tip is a lot weightier than it may seem. An important part of setting up your server room is making sure it has some type of cooling method to ensure that the servers do not overheat.

In other words, your servers need to be able to breathe. Your server room should receive appropriate airflow from AC and centralized air systems. If necessary, one may also install portable AC units. It’s important to continuously monitor the temperature of your server room in case the temperature unexpectedly spikes. Your server room/closet should have a temperature between 64.4F and 80F. It should have a relative humidity between 45-50%.

Make sure your security is tight.

Your server is responsible for your mail, web documents, files transfers, and services from connected client computers which are attached through the network. It goes without saying that these are areas you’re going to want to keep private and secure.

The best way to protect your privacy is to add an extra layer of security to your servers. You can do this by only allowing access to specific users who can enter exclusively with a username and password. Proper permissions setup in active directory is key. You can also limit file access to select employees only, and keep your eye out for any suspicious activity. As the old saying goes, “stay alert, stay safe.”

Install Antivirus and Firewalls ASAP.

Just like any machine, servers are susceptible to many different types of viruses and cyber threats. Each of your company’s servers should have antivirus software installed and properly configured. This software should be checked and updated regularly. Installing both antivirus software and firewall software and hardware is essential when it comes to the safety of your servers.

Don’t forget to back it up.

Your data is your everything and is not a force to be messed with. Therefore, it is essential to back up your servers in order to keep everything safe and accessible. Keeping your servers backed up is the best way to prevent data loss. Backup your server to a geographically different location to ensure data integrity in the event of a physical disaster such as a fire, flood or theft. Your clients rely on you for the safety of their data as well.

If you don’t choose to use a backup and recovery plan, from a managed IT services company, you will be responsible for backing up your own server data, something not to be forgotten. While ensuring the safety of your data, backing up your servers can also save you time and money. If you choose to move your data from one server to another, it will be easy to restore your data.

It’s always better to use preventative measures, instead of cleaning up after a crash.

No one ever wants to hear the words, “The Server Crashed.” To avoid this, it’s important to have a server troubleshooting and maintenance routine. Again, if you choose not to use managed backup services which include backup and disaster recovery planning, you are exposing your business to risks of data loss. Downtime usually means you are losing money instead of making money.

Have designated roles for each server.

In other words, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. This is an older technique that has stuck over the ages. Even though servers were once seen as expensive, it is widely recognized that when a server goes down, all production goes down as well. Keeping all your information on one server is simply too risky.

There are many kinds of servers, each with its own unique features. From email servers, file servers, backup servers, web servers, and beyond, each server can be programmed to host a plethora of different services.

Always have a backup of your data off-site. Your data is too precious to you and your clients, so keep your servers cool, backed up, and virtual. A managed IT company will make sure you have a disaster recovery plan in case of an emergency. The best way to prevent data loss is to run a real live test of your backups. Unplug your server and pretend you don’t have access to it anymore. Then see if you can retrieve your data from your backups, how long the process will take, and whether you can work while your server is down. Document everything and repeat until you meet your recovery point objectives.