Before planning your next customer’s data center installation, GFI has put together a checklist including business problems to be considered.* Spam: wastes staff time and may be a scam, phising for instance.

* Viruses, Worms and Trojans: can damage computer systems or steal confidential information.

* Non work-related surfing: staff can inadvertently download a virus or spyware and severely impact a business.

* Intellectual Property: can be easily stolen by an employee with an iPod, USB drive, mobile phone, digital camera, CD/DVD or floppy disc.

* Email: an important business communication medium but archiving and retrieval are vital. Emails can easily be deleted or difficult to find which can present legal and productivity problems.

* Conventional fax machines: can impact on staff productivity due to wasted time. Confidential information can be compromised by incoming faxes left lying around the office.

* Mobility: a business needs to efficiently communicate with sales and service staff in the field without having to make individual calls.

* Patching: identifying security holes and staying up to date with patches is a constant chore and failure to do so can affect security on the system.

* Alerts: a business needs to be informed instantly – and automatic actions taken if possible – if there are problems with servers or infrastructure. This enables appropriate technical resources to be deployed before there is a serious impact on productivity. * Suspicious activity: a business needs to know if it’s being hacked internally or externally. Identifying suspicious activity, such as users accessing confidential information on the network, can prevent security breaches.