When Your IT Services Provider Fails to Deliver

When you come into work one day and find that your entire network and server have crashed and your IT Services provider is nowhere to be seen, what is your next move? This happens all too often.
Recently a client of ours decided to employ us as their IT Services provider.
We conducted an audit of their network and server environment only to find that the server was on its last legs, RAID array degraded, backups not working and no documentation in sight.

In order for us to successfully complete our audit, we needed to know things like passwords to firewall, routers and switches.
We contacted the businesses previous IT Services provider and got their message bank. We left a message and followed up with an email. A week later, we're still waiting for a response. During this time, the server finally decided enough was enough and so we were forced to put in a new server.

So, why did this happen? Who is to blame? How can you prevent this from happening in the future? Why did this happen? There are many contributing factors that would result in this sort of disaster.

A few may be a lack of maintenance and preventive maintenance to core systems such as the server, cheap hardware or build-it-yourself backyard servers, the use of cheap or unqualified IT Services providers, and the list goes on.

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. Who is to blame? Typically, it is your responsibility to ensure the continued maintenance of your IT infrastructure.
Although, if you have a top notch IT Services provider, they will generally remind you it is time for maintenance.
How can you prevent this from happening in the future? There are a few steps you can follow to ensure something like this will be less likely to occur: Ensure your IT Services provider documents everything and you receive a copy.
File this information away for future reference.

Make sure you have your IT Services provider perform monthly preventative maintenance on your IT infrastructure.
Even if your business only has one server. It is better to be safe than sorry. If your business cannot function without IT, you should definitely consider outsourcing or managed services.

With these, you can negotiate Service Level Agreements (SLA) with your IT Services provider to ensure they support and maintain your IT infrastructure to a high standard and are responsible when something goes wrong Create a disaster recovery plan. Make sure you know what you would do in the event that your main file server or critical systems crash Purchase tier 1 hardware, for example HP or IBM. While their products are a little more expensive than your generic brand, they are so because of the build quality and high class warranty and support.
When hardware fails, they can be on your doorstep in a matter of hours with new parts. When employing an IT Services provider, ensure the staff you deal with are suitably qualified.
Ask them what their background in IT is, where they studied and what certifications, if any, they hold.