How Snow Can Threaten Your IT Systems
Snow is expected (at press) for the weekend ahead, and while Greater Vancouver weather forecasts are more like speculations than probabilities, it’s a good idea to be prepared. When it comes to your company’s IT systems those preparations involve a heightened awareness of the increased risk of downtime and other weather related concerns. Below is a breakdown of what you can watch out for to ensure a winter wonderland doesn’t bring your operations to a screeching halt.
Top 3 Ways Snow and Extreme Winter Weather Increases Your Company’s Need for IT Support Services
I. Snow Storms Lead to Power Outages and IT System Failure
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reports that winter storms are a leading cause of national power outages. Snow on power lines becomes an issue when the weight becomes too much for the lines to bear and they break. This can also occur when snow (and/or ice) build-up on tree branches leads to breakage at which point they may fall on power lines. This may happen at the site of your facility or at a municipal site – either of which can disrupt electrical power and result in IT system failure. When this occurs you lose access to time sensitive data and productivity tools for as long as it takes for repair crews to attend to the matter.
Mitigate the risk to operations by moving your IT systems to the cloud. This allows you to backup data and maintain operations given that you can access information, email, workloads and more with cloud-based software. Migrate to the cloud today.
II. Staff Can’t Get to The Office
It’s a running joke among our eastern and northern neighbors that Greater Vancouver residents don’t perform that well on the roads when there is even the lightest blanketing of the white stuff. We can’t deny it, and it’s pretty evident by the absences at workplaces and schools when snow falls. To ensure those “snow days” don’t lead to a drop in productivity and inability to service customers, clients, and other stakeholders you need to ensure that personnel can access projects and workloads from home or other remote location.
When your company uses cloud-based solutions such as MC Office 365 you have little to worry about, as team members can connect, collaborate, and continue to work where they left-off the day before.
One silver-lining of COVID-19 is that it rapidly accelerated technology. There’s a good chance that your organization has already made the transition to cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS). If not, it’s time to get started by taking advantage of our expertise.
III. Disruption of the Supply Chain
Supply chains throughout southwestern BC are disrupted during extreme winter weather, and many of these disruptions are closely tied to your IT systems. By having an IT support provider audit your supply chain you can mitigate much of this risk. How?
Hardware along with software applications driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will optimize the performance of the supply chain activities such as distribution networks and routes analysis to provide alternatives when weather becomes a problem. IT support will also provide systems to better manage data and communications across all parties in the supply chain. View more on how IT support can improve supply chain management, which can be a life-saver throughout extreme winter weather.
Don’t let snow days get in the way of your organization’s success. Contact SAV Technology today.