Background
A lot of SMEs have systems that “just work” — until they don't.
Questions to ask yourself
- Is any one server, database, spreadsheet, person, or supplier a single point of failure?
- Are important systems all sitting on the same machine?
- Could one mistake, cyberattack, or hardware failure stop production?
- Are we relying on technology that should have been replaced years ago?
What you can do today
Find “one system, no fallback” risks
Three quick actions.
- 01Walk the office. Find the “if this PC dies, we stop” machine. Photograph the serial-number sticker.
- 02List the five systems you'd notice in under an hour if they went down. Next to each: when was it last patched?
- 03Check the operating system on your most critical server. Windows Server 2012 R2 / 2016 / earlier are out of support.