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Holiday Survival Guide
Have you left this year on vacation, with the certainty that you were going to have to solve some problem? Have you already come back and everything was a mess?
Internet never sleeps, and the services it provides either. Servers need to be always active and up, Apps running, and everything greased like a fantastic Swiss watch. In the manufacturing companies, another of the same. Unwanted production breakdowns, quality problems and unplanned machine interventions, make receiving more than one uncomfortable call while you try to relax taking a caipirinha ...
Unfortunately, the reality tells us that these examples are our daily business, and this means that the holiday period for many people in the field of production and IT is more a stressful period than relaxing one, always being on the phone or resolving incidents.
Is it possible to "survive" a summer without incidents, or, at least minimize them to the maximum?
The answer is yes, considering certain things and following certain precautions, you can spend a "quiet" summer, being sure that everything is under control.
Internet never sleeps, and the services it provides either. Servers need to be always active and up, Apps running, and everything greased like a fantastic Swiss watch. In the manufacturing companies, another of the same. Unwanted production breakdowns, quality problems and unplanned machine interventions, make receiving more than one uncomfortable call while you try to relax taking a caipirinha ...
Unfortunately, the reality tells us that these examples are our daily business, and this means that the holiday period for many people in the field of production and IT is more a stressful period than relaxing one, always being on the phone or resolving incidents.
Is it possible to "survive" a summer without incidents, or, at least minimize them to the maximum?
The answer is yes, considering certain things and following certain precautions, you can spend a "quiet" summer, being sure that everything is under control.
# 1: Always think of the worst
If there is something that always happen, is that what never happens, always happens when you are on vacation. As a professional, you cannot look at a crystal ball and see what systems will be critical, or what line will stop for any problem, so you should always expect the worst and anticipate the unexpected.
# 2: Manage your resources
Depending on the degree of criticality of a line stop or system breakdown, plan the appropriate human resources that can solve an incident. Send an email to the managers of each department, as they are your clients, informing them about your planning and to find out who will work during the holidays, when they will be working and in what applications. This will give you a good indication of what systems will be in use during the holidays, the level of response, and what to expect in the event of an interruption or breakdown.
# 3: Define communication channels
Make sure that each department manager knows who to turn to in case of an emergency and what response time can be expected. Managing expectations is a key component of customer satisfaction at any time, but it can be especially important to maintain a good level of service between you and your customers during the holiday season.
# 4: Manage your resources
It is extremely important to have the right resources (IT, production, or others) under control. To know at any time their status and the evolution of the most relevant metrics. The monitoring tools perform this task natively, identifying problems before they occur, following trends or simply reacting to certain events. Keep in mind that having a monitoring tool installed can be your best ally in the event of a breakdown or service downgrade, which could help in saving thousands of euros in the event of a problem.
# 5: Provide tools for remote access
You cannot always escape the problems (neither Amazon does), and, if they do happen, make sure you have the right tools for a proper and fast resolution. This means that IT staff will need remote access to computers, servers, PLCs or other office or plant elements to perform remote administration tasks. In the market there are remote support tools that will give IT staff the ability to initiate remote control sessions from anywhere. A crisis can be avoided if someone can remotely restart a service or eliminate an out-of-control process. Sometimes these tools provide the possibility to automate actions in case certain events occur. This is a very powerful weapon, since high automation of incident management is possible.
#6: Manage your Resources from a Smartphone
With current technology, monitoring tools provide the possibility of web interface accessible from any device, such as tablets or smartphones. Make sure that your provider (internal or external) of monitoring services, gives you the ability to control your key resources from this type of device, even giving you the ability to perform actions on them in case of need. All the information in the palm of your hand.
If there is something that always happen, is that what never happens, always happens when you are on vacation. As a professional, you cannot look at a crystal ball and see what systems will be critical, or what line will stop for any problem, so you should always expect the worst and anticipate the unexpected.
# 2: Manage your resources
Depending on the degree of criticality of a line stop or system breakdown, plan the appropriate human resources that can solve an incident. Send an email to the managers of each department, as they are your clients, informing them about your planning and to find out who will work during the holidays, when they will be working and in what applications. This will give you a good indication of what systems will be in use during the holidays, the level of response, and what to expect in the event of an interruption or breakdown.
# 3: Define communication channels
Make sure that each department manager knows who to turn to in case of an emergency and what response time can be expected. Managing expectations is a key component of customer satisfaction at any time, but it can be especially important to maintain a good level of service between you and your customers during the holiday season.
# 4: Manage your resources
It is extremely important to have the right resources (IT, production, or others) under control. To know at any time their status and the evolution of the most relevant metrics. The monitoring tools perform this task natively, identifying problems before they occur, following trends or simply reacting to certain events. Keep in mind that having a monitoring tool installed can be your best ally in the event of a breakdown or service downgrade, which could help in saving thousands of euros in the event of a problem.
# 5: Provide tools for remote access
You cannot always escape the problems (neither Amazon does), and, if they do happen, make sure you have the right tools for a proper and fast resolution. This means that IT staff will need remote access to computers, servers, PLCs or other office or plant elements to perform remote administration tasks. In the market there are remote support tools that will give IT staff the ability to initiate remote control sessions from anywhere. A crisis can be avoided if someone can remotely restart a service or eliminate an out-of-control process. Sometimes these tools provide the possibility to automate actions in case certain events occur. This is a very powerful weapon, since high automation of incident management is possible.
#6: Manage your Resources from a Smartphone
With current technology, monitoring tools provide the possibility of web interface accessible from any device, such as tablets or smartphones. Make sure that your provider (internal or external) of monitoring services, gives you the ability to control your key resources from this type of device, even giving you the ability to perform actions on them in case of need. All the information in the palm of your hand.
Muutech’s response
Does your business have a centralized and simple tool that monitors both your information systems and your production lines proactively and notifies you before problems occur? If the answer is no, you're in luck, Muutech offers monitoring solutions that help IT and production staff control their operations and provide more effective services to improve the business, no matter the environment in which they operate. Muutech’s monitoring platform offers a unified, scalable and secure monitoring solution to help IT and production professionals take control.
Because in the end, beyond the economic and technical terms, the implementation of a monitoring system has a much more important direct return: sleep tremendously calm knowing that everything is under control.
Does your business have a centralized and simple tool that monitors both your information systems and your production lines proactively and notifies you before problems occur? If the answer is no, you're in luck, Muutech offers monitoring solutions that help IT and production staff control their operations and provide more effective services to improve the business, no matter the environment in which they operate. Muutech’s monitoring platform offers a unified, scalable and secure monitoring solution to help IT and production professionals take control.
Because in the end, beyond the economic and technical terms, the implementation of a monitoring system has a much more important direct return: sleep tremendously calm knowing that everything is under control.
CEO & MANAGING DIRECTOR
Expert in IT monitoring, systems and networks.
Minerva is our enterprise-grade monitoring platform based on Zabbix and Grafana.
We help you monitor your network equipment, communications and systems!
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