Computer networks are central to almost everything nowadays, and as the owner or controller of a small or medium-sized business, you need to know the best solutions for keeping your networks safe.

Malware, ransomware, and computer viruses are everywhere and can infect your systems easily.

Once they are in your network, these programs can cause significant damage to your electronic infrastructure and can be difficult to remove. In these cases, you need a network security solutions company you can trust. 

How do you know if a network security solution company is right for you? There are five criteria to follow. 

5 Criteria When Considering a Network Solution Company

1. The first thing to consider is the rate of growth of your company.

If your business currently has a smaller computer network, but you expect to grow rapidly in the near term, recognize that you will need a network security solutions company that can keep up with your growth needs. 

Speak with the representatives from your current security provider and inform them of your estimated growth requirements. Forward-thinking will help you, and them, assess if they can continue to provide the services you require.

• Will they be able to add memory to your current servers if needed?
• Will they be able to add more servers?
• Do they possess the capability to add more software seats to critical applications when needed?

2. The second area to consider is the ability to manage and customize your network.

IT is not a stagnant industry, meaning your network security company needs to be able to adapt to the inevitable changes. The most common adaptations are adding devices, updating software, and reconfiguration of current hardware and software.

These changes can be daunting, and if done incorrectly can cause havoc with your business operations.

You need to trust that your current IT solutions provider can handle these changes with ease. If not, your business can face inefficiency at the least or a vulnerable network system in the worst case.

The more manageable your solutions company can make your systems, the easier they will be able to adapt to advances in the industry. 

The best way to ensure you and your solutions provider are on the same page is communication. Tell them what you need and ask if they can meet your requirements. Stating your specific wants and needs is essential to keeping your network running smoothly.

3. The third criterion to consider when evaluating network security solution companies is if they offer complete network security application options.

Why use a company that insists on running several different types of security applications, when you can choose a network security company that uses one?

What is the difference? With multiple anti-virus and anti-phishing programs, you run the risk of missing vulnerabilities in your system. If you have a single program running throughout your network, you can increase your efficiency and better detect and resolve threats to the system.

Additionally, relying on one software package to protect your system helps to reduce the number of false positives you encounter it can log all potential threats in one location for convenient review and action.

A single and more comprehensive point of defense is clearly more effective and efficient than having to look for records in a multitude of file locations.

Accuracy is of the utmost importance because you do not want to spend time resolving a non-issue with your network that first appeared to be a problem.

4. The fourth element to consider when assessing the efficiency of a network solutions company is their response time.

Time is of the essence as network problems can result in damaged systems, loss of data, and information breaches. 

When choosing a company to address attacks on your system, you want to choose one that can meet the issue head-on and quickly. Do your research on any network security company you are considering, focusing on how fast they respond to emergencies.

5. The fifth and final area of consideration when choosing a network security company is if they can design and implement security solutions.

You may not know what you need to keep your network safe, but they should. Additionally, the right network security solutions company should be able to cater to your specific needs.

Every company has the same basic needs, but each company also has areas they need help in which are specific to their industry. 

If you need payroll protection or multiple authentication programs, your network security provider should be able to handle those needs.

If you want your employees’ email accounts to be safe from breaches, your security company should have such options available.

Getting Network Security Locally

You cannot overstate the importance of network security, and you need a company that can keep your network secure at all times.

By using the above five criteria to evaluate potential companies to provide you with network security, you will be able to identify the one that will best suit your needs.

Be thorough in your evaluation, and ask challenging questions as this will help ensure you make the right choice.

Contact us today at 707.523.2222 or fill out our online contact form to see how we can help you.