Thanksgiving is a time for family and, for some businesses, a time to prepare for themselves for the holiday season. As people get ready for their holiday feasts, business IT teams get ready to prepare for the usual tech headaches of the season. No matter if you manage small offices, IT management, or multi-branch network control, you need to be prepared for holiday tech challenges. So, with Thanksgiving around the corner, here are some common IT issues and how managed IT services can help.
Seasonal Traffic Spikes
Now imagine this: it is the day before Thanksgiving, and your server is overwhelmed by a drastic increase in website traffic. Employees can’t access critical business applications, causing workflow disruptions. These seasonal surges can overwhelm server capacity, affecting both internal operations and customer-facing platforms.
Solution: Managed IT services can help businesses plan for these surges. A dependable IT partner, like PCS, keeps an eye on traffic and scales server resources so that your server remains stable even during traffic peaks. Your proactive load testing and optimization prevent a bottleneck from becoming a full-blown outage.
Remote Work Connectivity Issues
Thanksgiving often means employees working remotely to be with family. This shift brings the challenge of maintaining secure, reliable connections.
Consider Sarah, an IT manager at a mid-sized firm. Last Thanksgiving, half of her team worked remotely. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, a VPN outage left employees scrambling to connect, threatening productivity.
Solution: Managed IT service providers optimize VPNs, firewalls, and network configurations for peak performance. They use monitoring tools to quickly detect and fix issues, reducing downtime. Managed IT services also provide employees with clear guidelines for secure remote access.
Increased Cybersecurity Threats
Holidays can mean a higher risk of cyber-attacks. Hackers know that IT teams might be operating with limited staff, making businesses prime targets for phishing and ransomware.
One business experienced a ransomware attack during Thanksgiving week, encrypting essential data. The understaffed IT team struggled to recover, causing major disruptions.
Solution: Managed IT services take a proactive approach to cybersecurity. With 24/7 monitoring, they detect unusual activity early and respond quickly to threats. Managed IT providers also deploy advanced endpoint security and train employees on holiday phishing scams, strengthening business IT defenses.
Software Glitches
Businesses often use the pre-holiday lull to roll out software updates. However, updates can lead to compatibility issues at the most inopportune times.
A company once rolled out a crucial software update the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, only to discover compatibility problems that caused delays. The IT team worked overtime to fix the issue.
Solution: Managed IT services pre-test updates in controlled environments before deployment. This reduces the risk of post-update issues. They also offer real-time support to resolve application errors quickly, minimizing workflow interruptions.
Hardware Failures
Hardware fails happen, even in well-maintained systems, especially when systems are being pushed.
Imagine a retail business with outdated point-of-sale systems. On Thanksgiving weekend—a crucial time for sales—a sudden failure disrupts operations, causing long lines and frustrated customers.
Solution: Managed IT services require routine hardware assessments to prepare systems to handle holiday stress. They set up backup procedures like spare equipment and swap-out strategies to cut down downtime.
To ease the stress of holiday tech issues for business IT teams, managed IT services are a lifesaver. Working with professionals like PCS can help businesses avoid common IT pitfalls, improve security, and have a reliable workplace during one of the busiest times of the year. This Thanksgiving, treat your business with effective IT management.
Want to learn more about PCS Managed IT Services? Contact us today!