If you’re not using managed infrastructure services this article is for you. The idea behind a service of this kind is to take what you have and optimise it, and or, replace it with something different. Outsourcing via a managed infrastructure service frees up your team to work on projects and as the better ones operate 24/7 you’ll have all round cover for mission critical systems.
With this in mind, let’s look at how you can leverage your IT infrastructure.
Align Infrastructure with Goals
Often, managed infrastructure services discover that current assets have not shifted to meet current goals. There has been no proper repurposing and as such the assets are not performing as well as they should. This is a valuable lesson as shifting what is already in place will at the very least bring efficiency and productivity benefits.
Once goals are established you’ll have the direction for a more purposed IT infrastructure.
Assess Your Current Assets
The first thing to do is look at what you have. This requires a thorough assessment of coding, hardware, databases, everything. Once you know what you have, you’ll be in a better position to streamline and optimise.
It is important not to lose sight of your goal and that is to look at what your present arrangement achieves working together. It isn’t about individual strengths but the sum of the infrastructure parts.
Once you know what you have, see how it aligns with your goals. It will soon become apparent what can be changed, what can be eliminated, and where the gaps are.
Align Infrastructure with Goals
Now you have goals and a good understanding of what you have, you can start leveraging your existing infrastructure to make both your IT resources and your goals meet. This alignment may not be possible with your existing hardware and personnel and change will need to come.
Nonetheless, you’ll find you have a sense of purpose, and this is invaluable where making improvements are concerned.
Bringing in the Change for Better IT Services
Once you know what you have to do inevitably there will be cuts. This will take the form of reducing redundant personnel and equipment. This is a sad thing to do but necessary if you want to see efficiency gains and productivity increases.
A question that you should be able to answer is what results do you want to see? Often, it may look something like this:
- Increased and improved workflow – Requests, repairs, everything is completed faster. An efficient IT infrastructure should prevent issues from becoming concerns and every team will feel more confident about using the system.
- Downtime – Your IT infrastructure should be an efficient machine after the changes, and this is reflected by the fact that downtime is reduced.
- Updates – Updating various parts of the system should now be faster, letting all the teams that rely on the service be able to use it.
- Security – Improved and up to a recognized standard.
Once your IT infrastructure is up to speed you’ll find it will be better managed, optimised, and the departments it supports will run more efficiently.