IT basics
Why your IT should be written down
Many businesses run on technology that only one person truly understands. That works right up until the day it doesn't.
1 min readExplainer
The short version
If the only record of how your systems work is in one person's head, your business depends on that person never leaving or getting sick.
What good documentation covers
- What you have: computers, servers, network equipment, with ages and warranties.
- How it connects: the network, internet services and how sites link together.
- Who has access to what, and who the administrators are.
- Accounts and vendors: domain, Microsoft 365, software providers, internet, with contacts and renewal dates.
- How things are done: new hires, departures, backups, restores, what to do in an outage.
Why it matters
- People leave, get sick and go on vacation. The business should keep running regardless.
- Problems get fixed faster when nobody has to rediscover how something was set up.
- Recovery after an attack depends on knowing what you had and how to rebuild it.
- Changing providers goes smoothly when everything is written down.
Where to keep it
Somewhere secure that more than one trusted person can reach, with passwords in a password manager rather than in a document. Keep a short emergency contact list on paper too, for the day systems are down.
Keep it current
Documentation is only useful if it is up to date. The best time to update it is right after a change, when the details are fresh.
Talk to us about your technology
Tell us what you run today and what is getting in the way. We will get back to you about how we can help.