In my role as CIO at several Global 1000 companies, what often kept me awake at night wasn't as much the strategic or growth agendas, but rather the never-ending importance of operational continuity, systems stability, security and reliability. Having confidence that what individuals in my organization -- as well as those who were outsourced partners -- were doing, would not negatively impact business operations, systems availability, user productivity, project delivery or the credibility of the department was a "7 x 24 x 365" reality.

Regardless of the size of your company, establishing control and governance over the IT environment is a critical part of establishing confidence both inside and out of the organization. Small businesses and midsize businesses (SMBs) can apply the same fundamental best practices that are used by IT managers at larger companies.

Most IT leaders aspire to be viewed as a partner to the business, and a contributor to the process of establishing strategy and operations of the company. IT provides the essentials to running today's businesses -- from the foundations of networking, communications, voice and email, up through the application processing, ecommerce, mobility, and the analytical capabilities of your company.

Operating outages can impact the customer experience, user satisfaction or organizational productivity -- easily creating organizational chaos and skepticism of IT. If you struggle to master basic IT blocking and tackling, how do you achieve the strategic platform you seek?

Many business leaders assume that you've got security, control, redundancy, continuity and recovery handled. This is your "entry fee" -- that's what they are paying you for. The fact that one small, uncontrolled change, or one untested release can destroy this confidence is a sobering reality for any CIO.

Practicing five simple, but critical guidelines can make the difference.