Wouldn't it be wonderful if your car could send you an email to let you know that early last week, one of its wheels was out of alignment, so the manufacturer sent someone out to repair it while you left it parked at work? The email would also report that this intervention has preserved the life of your tires and suspension, while reducing the chance of an accident by 5%.

Now stop imagining this kind of service, because while it's not on offer for your car you can already enjoy similar service for your IT infrastructure.

Companies including IBM will happily monitor and maintain your servers, PCs and other infrastructure and intervene to repair any glitches before they disrupt your business. Automated maintenance of this kind can be enormously beneficial, because by intervening before something goes wrong, you can continue doing business without interruptions instead of suffering through a breakdown.

To understand those hassles, consider your car again. When you buy a car, you probably give considerable thought to the warranty on offer and the service and repair capabilities of the car yard from which you are making your purchase. You weigh these issues carefully because the last thing you want is for a car to spend countless days off the road while you are forced to ride the bus.

It's the same with servers, personal computers and other computing infrastructure: it's nice to know that the warranty that comes with a computer means a trained technician will arrive on your doorstep within hours to fix a problem. But it's even nicer to know that a potential problem was averted and your business continued without interruption, saving you the hassle of an actual breakdown.

For over a decade, most common PCs, servers and other pieces of hardware have offered remote access that can be securely configured to allow administration from afar.

A remote systems maintenance program also saves money.
Importantly, many devices can also create a constant stream of information about their status, a useful facility as it allows administrators to monitor infrastructure and conduct preventative maintenance instead of the more complex and costly work required to deal with a breakdown.

This kind of early intervention removes the need for productivity-draining downtime and reduces the likelihood of unplanned outages disrupting a business' operations. These early warning systems can also improve security by notifying administrators of activity that could signal the early stage of a hacker attack.

These remote services are, of course, complementary to on-site service, because when physical breakages occur they cannot be fixed without a visit. But rather than assuming on-site maintenance is the be-all and end-all, businesses of all size will do well to also consider how remote maintenance of their IT infrastructure can keep them on the road.