Ten Best Practices for Happy Computer Networks
Here are ten things that every information professional should ensure that their users do to help themselves help you. If your policies, systems, and procedures do not enforce these behaviors, you really should rethink them. Automating them all is, of course, the best practice.
- Back-Up all user data at least weekly.
- Enforce strong passwords.
- Change passwords at least every 90 days.
- Scan all disks at least weekly.
- Apply security software patches at least weekly.
- Repair/Restore all permissions on files at least weekly.
- Reboot your end-user computers at least weekly and your servers at least monthly.
- Check free disk space at least weekly and report when less than 10% remaining to your help desk.
- Scan all systems for Viruses, Malware, Adware, and non-desired software at least weekly.
- Empty system, file, and web caches at least weekly.
An ounce of prevention can go a long way in the Information Technology field. These ten best practices will serve as preventative maintenance and keep your computer systems running a lot more smoothly! Your users should be happier, your systems should perform better, your trouble calls should go down, and your distraction level will improve.
What items did I miss? What other actions do you recommend? How do you implement each of these?Please share your suggestions to make this list better.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for August 5, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .
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