Guide to the Uptime Mindset

Guide to the uptime mindset

The purpose of an organization is to be useful

–Ralph Waldo Emerson¹

It’s hard to argue with the simple strategy of ‘fix it when it breaks.’ And when it comes to pencils and pens – absolutely. There is no risk in using these till you can’t anymore. Throwing a pencil away and picking up a new one is meaningless.

But the stakes are entirely different when it comes to how much organizations’ operations are now built on tech tools. If a server fails or becomes inaccessible or a database gets corrupted, the impact to many people in and outside of your organization can be great. And so the strategy for maintaining the operation of these tools should match the stakes.

There is a way of thinking – uptime mindset – that’s focused on keeping systems running smoothly rather than responding to problems once they happen. It’s the thinking that builds reliability into your operations, so your team can better focus on their work to advance the business, and be less concerned about dealing with unexpected disruptions (could be because of a storm, a cyberattack, equipment failure, many things). This is an overview to help you get into that way of thinking.

1. What matters most?

The first part of preparation is to get a handle on the ways in which your business relies on tech. For example, start with asking what systems and processes bring in cash or serve customers, handle payments, orders or help with customer service. And ask the corollary, what, if it went down, would cause customers to go to competitors.

And then think about, with regard to these machines and software: what realistic timeline do you need for getting X back online if it’s taken down? And try to calculate what it would cost if a system you determine is most important is down for an hour, a day or a week.

2. Assume equipment failure

All equipment has a lifespan. Hard drives, SSDs (storage in most phones and laptops), servers, network equipment – all will fail. So identify the equipment failures that would halt your operations. And plan replacement schedules before equipment breaks. Keep a record of the age and warranty status of critical hardware so you’re not caught off guard.

And budget for equipment replacement as a regular business expense, not an emergency cost. For certain pieces of critical hardware you may want to decide to keep redundant devices on hand.

3. Involve everyone

Tech people understand the network and dependencies (they know what software needs to be running in the background, for example, to keep the most important systems going), but having continuity takes more than that. It takes people being given a sense that things are Ok – even in a crisis.

Make a plan with assigned roles that kick-in under emergency conditions. Better to have people feeling that they are being useful and that things are under control, than just feeling anxious or panicked, as can happen. IT should be consulted for guidance about tech roles that will need to be performed in a given emergency situation – every organization is unique.

Do you have specialized employees who perform a particular critical business function? What happens if that person’s unavailable? And are all business-critical functions notated and accessible to managers if someone with a critical skillset is missing?

Sometimes there is the thought that the manager can do the role if a subordinate is not available. But sometimes those people’s skillsets turn out to be different (they were hired for different reasons). And that’s not something ideally found out in the middle of an emergency.

Here are some jobs to consider: Who’s going to call tech support? Who will tell customers about any delays? Who decides whether to send people home or have them stay at work?

When people know they have a specific responsibility, you can sidestep some of the chaos of people either just fretting or everyone trying to do everything.

4. Backup well

The ideal backup – from an IT perspective – is not a backup, but layers of backup. And that’s what the 3-2-1 backup scheme gives you. At its simplest the concept is that you want three copies of your data on two different kinds of media and one copy offsite. That can mean a working copy at, for example, Microsoft 365, a backed-up copy on a local backup appliance, and a copy on another cloud service provider (like Amazon Web Services).

You also need to have documented step-by-step procedures for accessing your backed-up files.

5. Keep plans up-to-date

Outdated emergency plans are actually worse than not having plans. With obsolete plans you give yourself and your team a false sense of confidence. And if the steps in the plan are wrong and you’re in a crisis –!

To avoid that mess means you need to schedule regular verifications that your emergency plans are current. Have your IT team update the tech documentation and review it with your department heads. Employees need to periodically review their emergency assignments. Even if nothing has changed procedurally, have periodic conversations so everyone understands what’s expected of them – minds need to be refreshed, too.

6. Have backup ways to communicate

Phone systems can have outages. Email servers can have outages. Create a physical contact list. Have on the list personal cell phones and alternate email addresses. Establish a backup messaging app (like Slack) that works independently of your network.

Redundancy is important because people have different habits. Some check email frequently. Others do not. Some would respond immediately to Slack. Others would not be as aware of its notifications. The main point is that you need to reach your team and pretty quickly.

Planning to making the most of your IT resources

Like the well-known Reverend W. H. Alexander quote about the lumberjack who said that if his life depended upon his ability to cut down a tree in five minutes he would spend three minutes sharpening his axe, we know it’s not just the tools but their maintenance that makes the difference in our success with them. This applies to our human resources and our tech tools.

These principles work no matter the business size (a solopreneur will assign herself every role, I guess). The main thing with having an uptime mindset is simultaneously building your tech and your team’s reliability. Reliability doesn’t mean perfection, it means being able to deal with the bad things that happen.

Every organization faces challenges. That means putting uptime principles into practice is a competitive advantage, because not everyone thinks like this. And with the right mindset, tech investments are protected, operations run smoother and customers get the consistency that encourages them to keep coming back.

Bryley can advise about any aspect of maintaining uptime – hey, we wrote the newsletter! To speak to Bryley’s Roy Pacitto please complete the form, below, schedule a 15-minute, no-obligation call. Or you can email Roy at RPacitto@Bryley.com or reach him by phone at 978.562.6077 x217.

^{1 Emerson was describing our individual lives, but the principle of having a useful thing to do holds up when we get together in groups.}