Minimizing Risks when Upgrading IT Infrastructure
Obsah
How do you minimize risks and achieve expected outcomes when upgrading IT infrastructure?
Imagine that the IT infrastructure where you work is nearing its expiration date and it will be necessary to plan implejment its upgrade. Which scenarios may arise?
- The IT department is getting the management ready for infrastructure modernization – the decision-makers do not plan a significant change when it comes to the upcoming costs and the infrastructure is renewed in th same manner it has been working since that point.
- The project is only talked about and the money is only available when something breaks – then there is a race with time to purchase anything that is available.
- Enough time is dedicated to the preparation, rersearch and planning with the assumption the project will take several months not only due to the preparations but also the data migration and new solution implementation.
- Finances have their limits so the decision is to purchase second-hand servers.
Perhaps you have also find yourself in one of these situations. Maybe not. Regardless, let’s look at several steps that will help you minimize risks and negative consequences in the form of unnecesarily high costs, low efficiency or wrongly chosen IT resouces.
Current State Analysis
A good foundation for IT renewal is to clarify what kind of infrastructure you are actually using.
- How many servers do you have?
- Do you utilize all of them to their max efficiency?
- Where do your servers run?
- Is there a better way to run them?
- Is it possible to upgrade the infrastructure for it to provide higher utility?
There are many questions that should be asked and answered. One of the groups is focused on what you need now and if you are using it. The other group is focused on the outlook and changes you are expecing.
It is rucial to find a balance between these two groups because otherwise you are facing high costs for no reason. These can be related to the purchase of “new” used hardware that has a lower price tag but does not serve you as long as you might expect.
Find Out What the Market Has to Offer
Technologies are one of the main areas that keeps on constantly and rapidly changing. Some people would swear that the best choice for IT infrastructure are physical servers. That is not necessarily true and used servers are not the only thing you can find for a good bargain.
Physical infrastructure can be combined with virtualization platforms in the form of a hybrid solution or you can opt in for a full virtualization of your servers or any other cloud services. You can select among public clouds that significantly lower your costs or a private cloud you have for your own use but still with a better use than regular physical servers. You can also combine multiple cloud solutions from serveral providers including backups and disaster recovery.
It is clear that you can choose from a wide variate of solutions and their combinations. But how do you find the right choice? You can use professional consultations that are focused on the topic of renewal and optimization of IT infrastructure. The professionals will go with you through the IT analysis or will help you to gain insight from it. That way you can arrive at a well-informed decision.
Provider’s Tech State
If you run servers on your own premises, you should ask yourself questions regarding the security, resource efficiency, management and monitoring, maintenance and whole solution costs.
Your service provider should be able to answer these to your full satisfaction:
- How and where are data stored?
- How secure is the data center? Which data center hosts our data?
- Are your data fragmented and moved among data center to optimize the provider’s load?
- Does your provider give you the option to know at every single second where your data truly are?
Learn also about who will take care of you when you have the need ro resolve something, if the support is provided in your language and if he is reachable at any point in time.
Consider if it wil be more beneficial for you to partner up with a local or global provider or perhaps if you should search for a partner that can ensure both of these versions with a sufficient level or flexibility and support. Scan thoroughly if the provider is a provider or just a reseller without any support and clarify the expectations and responsibilities.
Finances
Regardless of the age of your infrastructure, it is good to remind yourself that the development in the few years we have just passed has enabled us to get rid of some items when purchasing IT infrastructure – for example investments into an overconfigured hardware. IT renewal is no longer equal to exagerated CAPEX and long years of depreciation, hardware can be at lest rented to avoid ownership. This means you don’t have to save on used servers but thanks to a change of mindset – which infrastructure you truly need?
Cloud has brough about great options to decrease costs and make work more efficient. This holds true not only during the provider selection but also during payment model selection. Depending on your needs, you may favor a monthly static fee or Pay-as-You-Go model for the resources you really use – this one is good for dynamically changing companies when it comes to IT.
Do not be taken aback by “good” bargains that have a condition of a payment in advance. Be aware also regarding the fees for “additional” services and not transparent invoices that will take away from you the option to have IT costs under control.
Chance Only Favours the Mind which Is Prepared
Renewal and modernization of IT infrastructure may not look as time consuming as it really is. It is not wise to let the new IT infrastructure selection for the very last minute but take your time – weeks or months – to make the right decision because it will influence the opertions of your company for the years to come.
If you don’t underestimate the preparation, everything will go well and you will reach true cost optimization which includes a more efficient work on the part of your technicians.
