What does a CIO want from their technology audits?

Technology audits are designed to evaluate an organisation’s entire estate of technology: IT infrastructure and management, applications, storage of company and client data, servers etc. All of these features are measured against industry standards and regulations to ensure they are in their best health, most secure, and are keeping up to date with the latest requirements. The purpose of a technology audit is not only to check compliance but to keep the company’s systems running efficiently and securely.

The importance of running audits

Performing regular audits allows a company to determine areas within their technology that are under strain and fix any issues before a problem arises. By keeping systems up to date, in line with regulations and running efficiently, a reliable foundation is created, increasing security. In turn, this will protect the business from potential cyber-attacks and allow day-to-day operations to run smoothly if something, unfortunately, goes wrong.

Auditing allows organisations to mitigate potential threats/risks to current and future systems while ensuring they are not unknowingly violating any new or updated compliances. Through carrying out regular checks, businesses can identify which compliances have changed and adjust accordingly.

A CIOs perspective

Managing the entirety of a company’s technology is a large responsibility, and technology audits are carried out to make it simpler for CIOs – allowing them to review all systems at once. Some key aspects CIOs will look out for are:

– Compliance – as previously mentioned, it is of high importance to meet industry compliances. Not only does it help to avoid legal issues, but it keeps technology secure. 

– An audit trail – this will determine what has gone and the source of the issue: for example, faults in specific systems or departments. The CIO can then plan around these challenges and avoid the continuation of problems. 

– New procedures – as new regulations adapt, the company may need to amend their procedures or systems. Technology audits can help determine these changes and the CIO can plan for any necessary training for employees.

– Costs – by understanding the scope of technology that requires updates of training they can effectively budget. 

– Confidence – a CIO wants to be confident in the result of the technology audit. So that if there are any issues, they are reassured of fixability or can build an appropriate plan – overall reducing the timeliness and cost of updates. To improve the effectiveness of audits, it is important to run them regularly, ensuring the business is aware of updates as and when they are required – improving the efficiency of systems while reducing security patches and costs. 

Tips for technology audits

As stated above, the most beneficial way to audit is to perform them regularly. However, generating regular audits can be time-consuming and sometimes forgotten – Cloudhouse has a solution. 

Guardian continuously and effectively monitors an organisation’s systems for outdated and non-compliant software and automatically updates them where necessary. It also detects problems before they arise, allowing the team to act on them before they escalate. By Guardian constantly monitoring an organisation’s system, this frees up the team from manually monitoring systems and can increase efficiencies and reduce human error as well. 

To find out how Cloudhouse can help your team, head to our contact page and send us a message.