Company IT - 6 Myths about Physical Infrastructure
Content
Phones, computers, tablets and other mobile devices. Some will then add those that ensure the operation of the aforementioned, so the list grows with a router and a swtich. And if we are talking about the operation of IT in a company, then we have to go even further.
The general physical infrastrukture companies use includes servers, network elements and drives (storage). That is the invisible part of IT you do not see and which you do not know about when it works. Maybe you are reminded of it when you receive an invoice.
Physical infrastructure was here first and so it is no surprise that companies got used to using it. And even though the virtualization revolution came, there are still companies that adhere to the standards of the physical infrastructure and operate their own server room. But is it really a standard? If your company is using physical servers, let´s look at the potential myths that might repeatedly lead you to your IT guzzling more that is necessary.
Procurement Costs
The thing that will strike us at first are the high procurement cost sof the physical infrastructure. Purchasing physical servers with procesors, RAM and drives is a very volatile business in these pandemic times. Hardware prices sky rocketed. Besides, new activities are emerging – such as cryptocurrencies – that have the potential to influence the future prices of devices that are needed for it. And it is not only about special RAMs anymore but also about regular drives.
If we would like to examine the myth that sticks to the procuerment of physical infrastructure, here it comes – by purchasing physical infrastructure, I ensure that our company will not have to deal with anything about it for some time. Yes, you will not have to deal with the initial investment, because that one has already been made.
But physical infrastructure is like a banana plant, very demanding. It needs specific conditions and the right approach to be happy. And despite the perfect conditions, it requires constant technician care and a lot of attention in case something goes wrong.
Operational Costs
As we have mentioned in the previous paragraph, physical servers are very, very demanding. It might seem that you just put them in the server room and they run. So just stop for a second and look at the list of items you regularly see on the invoices:
- Elektricity
- Internet
- Cooling
- Management and Maintenance
- Repairs
- Updates
- Upgrades
- Security
- Back ups
- Licences
These are just the regular operational costs. You have to add to them the outages of systems and solving of all the problems that arise during operation. And once in three years you need to physicaly update the devices and elements (that is the ideal situation, but many companies use the time span of five years, which pushes the servers to their limits).
And if you would like to fox example skip back-up, which only a few companies know how to handle, then it is also possible that the physical infrastructure that was supposed to last several years with no issues, just ceases to function and with wrong back-ups, you have nothing to restore. After all these investments and care, you are back to zero.
Dictionary
Disaster Recovery – the right solution for backing up the IT of your company and includes a full analyses. Technicians use this project to analyze the functioning of your IT, they propose the right way of back-up, they will help you to set everything up and they will ensure the environment that will serve as the safety spot in case something happens at your primary infrastructure.
Stability
Electricity and Internet are today something that is counted as an obvious part of our lives. But the stability of being connected to the source is not always that obvious. Especially in cases when pfysical servers are operated ourside of a Data Center. If your company IT is operation in an internal server room, you are either used to being face to face with outages or you are constantly in an unconscious state of expecting, when it happens.
To prevent the majority of issues with outages, it is necessary to have IT elements backed up. A diesel aggregate hidden somewhere that has not been started since you bought it is not suficient.
Data centers are fully equipped for the operation of physical infrastructure. They are built to be dedicated to operation of IT. Our data center, for example, is built in accordance with TIER III. maybe you have already heard of this concept, but it is not really a topic of choice. Well, just in short, every system that runs in our data center, has its own back- up.
Electrical system is backed up by a battery system (batteries can be hot swapped during operation) and by a ship diesel engine that also has it sown back-up. The Internet connection is drawn from two active optical routes directly from the Prague backbone newtork. And one more is in store just in case. These are just electricity and Internet back-ups. how equipped is your server room?
Efficiency
Which one do you thing is predesposed for a high quality operation – a server that has been with you for so long you have no idea when you bought it, or a server that is updated in all aspects accroding to a right schedule? Company IT is not just some secondary department anymore, but if your IT infrastructure doe snot operate well, trhen you company will not operate well. Imagine what kind of a problem it is when email servers go down. We are done.
Data center can afford to upgrade hardware, so that the systems always run on the most modern and up to date devices when it comes to quality. Would you be able to set aside hundreds of thousands to upgrade hardware? Besides, some devices would just be out of reach because you are a regular user.
Flexibility
It might seem that when you purchase a server and you run everything you need on it, then everything is as it should be. What is we told you that you never use your physical server to its full potential? Generally, a server that is not virtualized, uses its procesor only from 10% – virtualized server can get up to 50% in a regular company. What do you thing, is that not a really bad bargain?
Security
“Our server are locked up in a cabinet in the office so we are good.” Did you know that if someone gets into your office and finds the servers, they only have to get the drives from the server? Data that are written on that drive can then be fairly easily copied on another device quite effortlessly. And security is gone in a minute. In addition, secured cyber operations nees more than just correct set-up of cbyer elements. There also have to processes that the employees need to adhere to.
Myths about Physical IT Lead to High Costs
Did the physical infrastructure get you also by its looks? Low efficiency is sometimes visible at the first glance but when looking at the physical infrastructure, you have to dig really deep to understand, what takes part on the fact that you pay for the company IT more than you need to.
So what should you do with it? If your company needs to operate physical servers, you should ensure housing in a high quality data center. And if you thing that you have had enough of the physical servers, then let´s talk with our colleague Pavel on how to ensure for you cloud tailored to the needs of your company.
