In the context of modern industry, there is a growing dependency on infrastructure and applications. With rising overhead and other operational costs, there is a potential for lack of cohesion between workers and business objectives that can create inefficiencies within a business. Managing IT infrastructure efficiently is critical for businesses to continue to be profitable and grow within their field.
According to Mindtree, businesses are demanding a robust IT infrastructure setup that delivers high performance, keeps real-time inventory of IT hardware and software, streamlines workflows and eliminates avoidable expenditure.
Reduce Unplanned Downtime
The reality is that, on average, the cost of an hour of downtime averages $8,000 meaning unplanned downtime can lead to loss of revenue, productivity, essential data, and associated recovery costs. By having efficient IT infrastructure in place, clients can avoid these costs, maximise uptime and be well-equipped to resolve any issues that may arise.
The Solution
One key initiative of businesses to improve the efficiencies of IT services by adopting a more commercial-style model of working with business partners and support services through their own infrastructure.
Some businesses find it difficult to justify their expenditure in this area. As a result, some organisations struggle to manage demand for IT infrastructure, which includes all the hardware, software, and operational support required to provide application hosting, network, and end-user services.
Commercial models enable IT to shift to more efficient multi-year investment planning and to adopt lower-cost technology platforms. It is essential that business leaders are on board and see a link between business growth and required increases in IT capacity and efficiency.
There are several other ways to create an efficient IT infrastructure:
Optimise Server Engagement
It is not uncommon for businesses to have numerous old servers. These are unnecessary and can be retired by using virtualisation, allowing you to transfer workloads onto fewer and more powerful servers. The improvements that follow include flexibility, scalability and data centre automation.
Reduce Associated Costs
The underuse and over purchasing of software is expensive. Identifying why and where the underuse is occurring can help in eradicating underused or the unnecessary purchase of software within firms.
Maintenance costs associated with the upkeep of software are costly to a business, particularly considering the lifecycle of an IT asset is short due to continuous improvements and product releases. The implementation of an IT asset lifecycle management process will reduce relevant spending by 30% through useful workload analysis, negotiations, and contracts in place.
Reduce Inventory Costs
As content date grows so too do the storage space requirements. The process of storage consolidation within a virtual storage location gives businesses the opportunity to expand from holding a solely-served attached storage unit.
The advantages of storage virtualisation are increased speed in backup, retrieval and storage of this data and saves resources as the resource is centrally managed. Therefore less time and labour are involved.
The data compression technique of deduplication eliminates unrequited data and reduces the need for storage. Th clear advantage of this process is the improved efficiency of crisis recovery due to reduced duplicated data taking place in the transfer.
Future Planning
The introduction of technology within the workplace can be debilitating to the productivity of the workforce, which is particularly dependent upon the age and user capability found within the team.
Planning to align business objectives to technology will aid in streamlining tech requirements and improve business efficiency.
Outsourcing IT
The functional role of an IT can seem abundant. Tasks such as security and communications can be outsourced to a managed service provider, freeing up more time for the internal IT department.
These providers have the capability to take on crucial tasks that the business cannot do independently. Outsourcing work increases efficiency within the in-house team and allows employees to focus on achieving the company’s core competencies and overall mission.
Measuring Success
McKinsey&Co emphasise that success means not only an improved balance sheet for the company; with cost transparency in place, IT infrastructure leaders benefit as well. Instead of an annual struggle to fund technology refreshes and add capacity in the near term, leaders can shift to a multiyear investment plan for infrastructure and build a technology-delivery platform for the future.
By analysing and measuring how employees are using technology within a business, an appropriate plan can be implemented to make sure that all technology that is being paid for is being utilised and that there are efficient systems in place to maximise the potential of the workers and therefore profits.
What’s Next
At Leap Consulting we understand that it can be challenging for many businesses in Perth to deploy, maintain and protect their technology. Covering many crucial aspects of IT, Leap can create a manageable and sustainable IT plan providing purpose and direction for businesses including business continuity and disaster recovery to cloud computing services.
To see how Leap Consulting can assist you in reducing costs and increasing your IT productivity contact us on 1300 532 748 today.
