Multi-site IT Operations from Cardonet IT Services

Multi-site IT Operations Technology Risks, Challenges and Solutions

Multi-site IT Operations Technology Risks and Challenges

When you are operating over multiple sites, you are exposed to a number of risks and technology challenges. Those include:

• Network and Connectivity Issues - Unreliable Internet and latency due to differences in bandwidth, VPN access, and ISP quality.
• Cloud Performance Variations - Performance depends on regional data centres and variance.
• Cybersecurity and Compliance Risks - Inconsistent cybersecurity policies, regulatory compliance differences and a larger attack surface to attack.
• Data Synchronisation and Collaboration - Possibly inconsistent data across sites, collaboration bottlenecks and latency for different regions.
• IT Support and Remote Management - Inconsistent IT Support across locations with varying time zones and language barriers, a lack of hardware standardisation, and lack of centralised IT visibility.

Multi-site IT Operations Technology Solutions

These are all challenges we have experience overcoming. Some of the ways we do that include:

• Network and Connectivity Issues - Use of technology like SD-WAN for optimised network performance across sites.
• Cloud Performance Variations - The use of global cloud providers with local points of presence, such as Microsoft, AWS and Google for consistency.
• Cybersecurity and Compliance Risks - Have a Zero Trust Security Model, Identity & Access Management (IAM) and automated compliance monitoring.
• Data Synchronisation and Collaboration - Use global cloud storage with real-time file sync and global productivity platforms, with data replication and caching.
• IT Support and Remote Management - Use a global IT Helpdesk with 24/7 remote support and cloud-based endpoint management.

Multi-site IT Operations Technology Considerations:

• Standardise your IT infrastructure as much as practical to ease support.
• Use cloud-first or hybrid-cloud solutions for scalability.
• Remember bandwidth and latency impact cloud performance.
• Ensure you have regional cloud servers or CDNs (Content Delivery Networks).
• Invest in reliable and secure network architecture.
• Use SD-WAN (Software-Defined WAN) to prioritise business-critical traffic for better performance.
• Adopt Zero Trust Network Access for more secure for multi-site environments.
• Employ redundant ISP connections to ensure business continuity in case of network failure.
• Beware of latency and carry out performance optimisation.
• Standardise cybersecurity policies.
• Ensure regulatory and compliance alignment.
• Have a true IT support service for 24/7 issue resolution across sites.
• Deploy cloud-based endpoint management and automate software updates & patch management.
• Standardise tools for communication.
• Have centralised IT Procurement and licensing for efficiency, scalability and cost savings.
• Plan IT capacity based on current and future growth, with modular solutions where possible.
• Deploy redundant systems for site failover.
• Have a multi-site backup strategy.