Summer in Chicago comes with unique challenges for IT infrastructure. While often associated with refreshment and fun, the dynamics of this season can spell additional concerns for an IT department. Increased heat can stress the network infrastructure; employee vacation days tend to increase, and heightened demand potentially strains a system. Here are some practical strategies Chicago based businesses can employ to stay cool under as they face summer IT challenges.
Key Summer IT Challenges
Challenge 1: Overheating Hardware
Increased ambient temperature greatly affects IT hardware. ASHRA (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) recommends maintaining server rooms at 18° to 27° C (64° to 81° F) with a relative humidity between 30% and 60%. On average Chicago summer temperatures range from 78° F to 92° F with an average humidity of 68%.
High temperatures prompt network equipment to reduce data transfer speeds and increase latency, the average response time of the system to a user request. The heat may cause a reduction in processing power, and increase in error rates, and, when extreme temperatures are recognized, servers may protect themselves from damage by shutting down completely. In addition to degrading system performance, increased ambient temperatures can shorten the lifespan of hard drives and other hardware components.
Chicago summers with their frequent heat waves strain IT cooling systems. Maintaining a healthy ambient temperature also requires addressing proper airflow to prevent hot spots. Stressed systems use more energy and raise usage costs. Summer’s extreme weather fluctuations prompt power grid instability. These outages at a minimum can trigger system downtime, and at its worst, cause catastrophic damage if not properly mitigated. Overheating power supplies and batteries can fail. Fire suppression systems, triggered by overheating, can also severely damage equipment.
Challenge 2: Reduced Staffing
Most Chicago schools break for the summer, allowing families to target this season for vacations. Reduced staffing challenges can lead to slower response times from IT, affecting service to both internal and external customers. Employees responding from less secure vacation locations may increase cybersecurity risks such as data breaches, unauthorized network access, and malware infiltrations.
Some IT departments, overwhelmed with summer demands, attempt to address the coverage of critical functions by denying vacation requests. But this approach increases the risk of employee dissatisfaction, higher turnover, and even burnout.
Challenge 3: Increased Seasonal Demand
Today’s businesses rely heavily on their IT infrastructures. Industries related to hospitality, entertainment, or home improvement, for example, can face increased network usage during the summer months. This heightened usage puts its own stress on a system and requires consistent monitoring, ensuring any performance reductions or threats are addressed.
Practical Strategies for Cooling Down Summer IT Challenges
Before the summer arrives, Chicago businesses should engage a network infrastructure consulting team to review the unique risks they will face during the season. These professionals together with the trained technicians of a Chicago IT managed services provider can help mitigate these challenges. What are the practical strategies they may suggest?
Strategy 1: Optimize Ventilation and Cooling Systems
First, evaluate the current state of the physical infrastructure. Do a maintenance check on the HVAC system that houses the network. Is the system sufficient to maintain a healthy ambient temperature? Does the ventilation system prevent hot spots from forming? Install monitoring tools that alert to any potential issues with the HVAC system.
Strategy 2: Staffing Tactics
Plan early to rotate on-call IT employees during the summer months. Consider using managed IT services to fill operational gaps and to ensure critical activities such as regular data backups are maintained. These licensed professionals not only give you support, as a fresh set of eyes, they can identify risks and mitigate them. A managed IT service can automate updates and backups, allowing the network to run effectively with fewer manual interventions.
Summer is a good time to educate employees on the latest cybersecurity tactics such as new phishing techniques. Review remote access policies and ensure employees understand them. Require MFA (multi-factor authentication) to access the network. (A managed IT services group can assist in applying MFA to system access.)
Strategy 3: Proactive Planning
Perhaps the most important strategy for cooling down summer IT challenges occurs before the seasonal heat arrives; it’s proactive planning. Schedule time with IT and important stakeholders to consider the summer IT challenges and how to implement the strategies to address them. As mentioned earlier, ask IT infrastructure consultants (such as the professionals at JMA Consulting) to join this planning session; their experience with these challenges and their ability to evaluate the current infrastructure will keep IT cool and prepared throughout the season.