A practical, vendor‑neutral baseline for UK SMEs: VLANs and zones, firewall segmentation, guest Wi‑Fi isolation, and DoS preparedness—grounded in NCSC’s 10 Steps and UK B5 Resilient Networks.
Understand RPO/RTO for UK SMEs, set realistic continuity targets, choose test frequencies and define a “minimum viable continuity” plan that protects critical operations without over‑engineering.
This checklist assists UK SMEs in validating backup and disaster recovery setups to ensure effective data recovery. It outlines practical tests to confirm the restoration of critical data within acceptable timeframes. The guidance spans micro to medium-sized businesses, aligning with best practices for backups and ransomware resilience, emphasizing the importance of regular testing and proper separation from live systems.
A national boiler‑maintenance company in France had acquired 40+ independent firms. The country CEO (non‑technical) needed control over fast‑growing servers, networks, providers and services—serving ~300 concurrent users out of 1,200 employees, including field technicians. I was hired to take end‑to‑end responsibility for IT coordination and integration, excluding budget ownership and group reporting. I coordinated vendors, unified systems, migrated data, maintained operations, recruited a Level‑1 technician and supervised his monitoring project. Outcome: a unified, governable IT landscape, smooth migrations with operational continuity, and a platform ready for the parent group’s later datacentre move.
Many SMEs (solicitors, real‑estate, creative studios, factories) need ongoing IT oversight yet do not justify a full‑time internal role. A delegated IT cadence delivers quiet reliability: routine monitoring (backups, logs, core health), minor ticket handling, and pragmatic advisory for projects (office moves, upgrades, new software). The result: fewer disruptions, peace of mind for management, and access to senior competence without permanent staffing.
A Swiss design and architecture school — administratively attached to a French group — needed a structured migration and harmonisation into the group’s environment. This was not a crisis, nor a hardware refresh. It was competence‑led: assessment, standardisation, VPN integration, centralised apps (TSE/Citrix), and secure, accountable printing—delivered with no hardware sales. The cutover was smooth; users (faculty, students, admin) experienced a consistent workspace and management gained visibility without disruption.
A regional real‑estate network faced an unexpected Microsoft licensing audit. Daily use of Microsoft products had grown over time without full visibility of licensing models, historical purchases and rights of use. I provided end‑to‑end support: discovery across offices, reconciliation of deployments vs. entitlements, review of legacy contracts/OEM keys/renewals, a clear compliance report for management, liaison with the audit representatives, and a practical remediation plan with a simplified, cost‑effective licensing approach. Outcome: avoided unnecessary penalties, restored clarity and reduced future admin overhead.
Following the audit, the organisation chose delegated IT instead of hiring full‑time. With two on‑site visits per month, I handled user support, migration follow‑ups, backup verification, ticket triage and decision support for leadership (new site visits, supplier interviews, concise cost/benefit notes). Result: predictable operations, fewer complaints and confident decisions — coverage matched to workload, no unnecessary headcount.
A regional occupational health organisation operating several medical sites struggled with slow systems, unclear costs and minimal visibility. A newly appointed director requested an independent audit with a clear mandate: restore transparency, modernise core services and simplify the daily experience for non‑technical medical staff. The audit exposed systemic issues (heterogeneous workstations, weak processes, legacy infrastructure, under‑optimised inter‑site links, and wasteful contracts). We delivered a structured, phased modernisation plan that improved login times from 10–15 minutes to a few seconds, reduced unnecessary spend, and re‑established governance.
A mid-sized printing company faced recurring network issues and slow interventions due to years of unmanaged cabling: inconsistent labelling, mixed patch standards, and cluttered server racks. Brought in as hands‑on technical reinforcement, I did not replace hardware. I restored order: reorganised racks, re‑labelled core links, standardised patching, removed unsafe/abandoned cables, and documented everything. In one day, engineers (telecoms and systems) could troubleshoot confidently, reduce accidental outage risk, and the management team regained control—without major capital spend, just method, structure, and attention to detail.
