IT Infrastructure Documentation 101

Keeping track of IT infrastructure was never the easiest thing in the world, but remote work has only increased the degree of difficulty. Yet, COVID-19 and the shift to remote work has seen an increase in cyberattacks on small and medium-sized businesses. As you can well imagine, it’s easier to secure IT infrastructure when you know what your people are using. The combination of greater difficulty keeping track of infrastructure and increased security risk if you don’t know what infrastructure your clients are using is a perfect storm. That’s where a robust IT documentation system comes into play.

IT infrastructure documentation can be broken down into three key elements:

1. Documenting the infrastructure

2. Contextualizing the documentation

3. Using the documentation to achieve business goals

That’s right, folks. It’s not as simple as just manually transcribing lists of assets into a spreadsheet or SharePoint. That’s doing it the hard way, because it takes forever and then adds no additional value to your business. In other words, a net loss in terms of ROI.

IT infrastructure documentation should always be an investment in your business. Here’s how. Start with the first step, documenting the infrastructure.  Automate as much of this as possible, using your PSA, your RMM, network discovery tools like Network Glue, and being creative in terms of leverage APIs to pull in information from other key sources, like Active Directory.

IT infrastructure isn’t flat, so your IT infrastructure documentation shouldn’t be flat either. Contextualized documentation creates links – users connected to endpoints, connected to infrastructure. Then connect your documentation to process tools like checklists, flags, knowledge base articles and notifications. Get your documentation linked to your workflows to streamline your team’s work, cutting out inefficiencies wherever possible.

When you can see how everything is connected, working tickets becomes that much easier.  Projects flow more easily. Onboarding time is reduced dramatically, and your techs are able to perform at a higher level much faster than they used to.  The best IT teams think strategically about how to use documentation to achieve their business goals. Whether your goal is to grow a business rapidly, or if your goal is to do as little work as possible, having automated, structured documentation can get you there.

If you’re ready to take the next step and get a better sense of what to look for in an IT documentation system, why not use the IT documentation buyer’s guide.

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