Tip of the Week: Preparing For a Successful Upgrade

A business’ IT solutions aren’t the kind of thing that you can worry about once and never touch again - this is why manufacturers and developers are always sending out upgrades. However, you also need to have a strategy ready before you go to implement these upgrades. For this week’s tip, we’ll review how to put this strategy together.

Step 1: Determining What Needs an Upgrade, and Why

Naturally, the first step to any upgrade process is identifying that an upgrade is necessary. When a component of your business network requires an upgrade, it will generally be for at least one of three reasons:

• You want your solutions to have an increased capacity or range.
• You want to improve the security of your business and its resources.
• You want an increase in your business’ productivity, with less maintenance required.

If a part of your infrastructure could facilitate any (or all) of these objectives if it was upgraded, it’s probably a good idea to do so. That means that you need to start the next step.

Step 2: Planning and Preparing for Your Upgrade

A technology upgrade isn’t something that can be done on a whim. If you want yours to be successful, you need to have done your due diligence ahead of time. You will want to make sure that your network can support this upgrade in its current state, and any other considerations that come up.

As you’re preparing for the upgrade, you also need to consider any potential negative ramifications that it could have on your users. Will this upgrade be a lengthy one, and will that cause a lengthy interruption to your business’ processes? Proactively considering this will allow you to make plans to decrease the impact of these circumstances. For instance, if an upgrade is projected to create a lengthy interruption, it may be wiser to have it implemented after hours, when your resources are less likely to be called for.

Step 3: Protecting Yourself

While your upgrade will ideally run smoothly and not cause any issues, it is better to be prepared for an unideal situation. This is why an upgrade absolutely should be preceded by a comprehensive backup. With a backup taken, any issues that your upgrade may incur can be easily mitigated - so while you won’t have gained anything, your losses will be minimized.

Washington Works can help you manage your technology, ensuring that your upgrade processes are done correctly. Reach out to us at 301-571-5040 to learn more!