There are very few businesses – dare I say any? – that can survive today without computer connectivity.  Computers and the software that operate them are an important investment for any small business, and one that must be protected.  Don’t consider your investment lightly, but don’t think it will break the bank either – computers are more affordable today than ever before.

Unlike many other costs, the costs for advanced computing power continue to drop.  And small businesses need to resist the temptation to put off technology investment in the hopes of getting more for less, tomorrow. 

There are no hard and fast rules that can be used to quantify the capital investment necessary for your business.  A SOHO (small office, home office) with one or two people can be operated with just or two computers, a printer and internet connectivity.  Slightly small business will likely want a small network to yield efficiencies to share printers and Internet access.  Larger small business will want to have servers and multiple networks. So the first step is to understand your needs, your applications, and the technology you need to buy.

Business professionals, who are not computer professionals, can either take the time to develop the expertise, or hire out the services to get their new computers up and running.  And while it is tempting to hire out, don’t be intimidated about developing the expertise in-house for system installations and operations.  In addition to the manual and on-line help, there are other helpful resources, for little or no cost; and the time invested in learning about your technology systems will likely improve your business’ future efficiency, training and operations.

A temptation that should be avoided is the “out of the box” syndrome, reports Glenn Dunki-Jacobs, the Information Technology Department Chair at Mt. Sierra College in Monrovia.   Whether Mac or Microsoft, or an open-source system, you must be sure to get the most-up-to-date system and security patches.   Dunki-Jacobs explains that too many small business operators expect a new computer to work right “out of the box,” without paying enough attention to reading the manuals, and protecting the information with proper security measures.  “Use common sense,” he says and invest in the level of protection that is necessary to the value of the data on your systems.

“Free is good,” says Dunki-Jacobs, so good in fact, that Mt. Sierra offers to small businesses a free on-site security analyses.

“People tend to lose all aspects of common sense when it comes to a computer,” says Dunki-Jacobs; “You can’t let children use an office computer, go to gaming sites and chat rooms, and then be surprised if a virus has been introduced onto their hard drive.”

It is as essential to protect your computer system as it is to lock your house or your car doors. Dunki-Jacobs recommends that upon acquiring a new computer, load the operating system and immediately go to the operating systems’ web site and download updates and security patches; keep your operating systems current, and keep your anti-virus services constantly refreshed. A baseline security analysis is available for online for free from the web sites of most operating systems (for example, the Microsoft site), so that you can have all the files on your system analyzed for any security problems and get recommended solutions.

After you have your system updated, Dunki-Jacobs recommends that you go to an independent security site, like McAfee or Symantec, and launch a remote virus and security scan, also free, to be sure your system is clean. 
    
“Free is good,” says Dunki-Jacobs, so good in fact, that Mt. Sierra offers to small businesses a free on-site security analyses by the students in the college’s degree program for a Bachelors of Science in Information Security.  For businesses with 10 or fewer employees, the Mt. Sierra students will perform a system check, and point users to free virus protection software, and other resources, to help protect the important information resources of your business.

Brenda J. Trainor is the President of Frontier Trail, Inc. a communications technology consultancy based in Monrovia, CA.  She can be reached at Trainor@FrontierTrail.com.