Manager and IT - from Foes to Allies
Obsah
It is fairly common that managers do not like the company IT. In their eyes IT is a weird expensive giant who constantly needs something. At least it was the case in the past. Physical infrastructure has taught us to see IT in this way because it requires big investments, the operating costs are high and uncertain and we need to predict future needs because we cannot optimize the system later.
Unfortunately, virtualization has not been able to overcome this stereotype. So we will try again. When deciding about your company IT, would not it be nice to find some reasons why you could like it? We will give you four reasons. They come from the fundamental principle of virtualized infrastructure, i.e. virtual data center´s – flexibility.
No Investment Needed
A cloud, i.e. also a virtual data center, is a service and this very fact means that your company does not have to make any initial or related investments to buy servers and other equipment or to renew them. That investment is made by your cloud provider.
This also means that your IT people do not have to spend time to select the new equipment, look for the best deal or take care of the purchasing and installation of the equipment in your infrastructure.
This is a major relief for you as a manager because this model results in a higher efficiency. Your IT department needs to operate the company infrastructure and thanks to a cloud they will have more time to do that. None of your engineers needs to run around the serves and look what has gone wrong. Instead, they can completely focus on the online environment to operate the key infrastructure – your company IT.
Cloud Saves Money Spent on Operation
Everybody likes discounts and everybody wants to reduce costs. If you are making a transition from physical IT infrastructure a cloud will make you happy. This change means huge savings. For example, the Atos company saved 50 % of its costs spent on administration (more information about their transition to a virtual data center is available at in the Atos case study). Such dramatic changes are possible thanks to complete elimination of certain operating costs that are associated with operation of servers and related facilities.
However, a virtual data center can save you costs even if you are now using several individual virtual servers. The company DIKA servis has moved from a foreign provider of virtual servers to a virtual data center and as early as in the course of the transition it saved 50 % of the costs. The final saving was higher by tens of percents (read more at in the DIKA servis case study). The most costly item in the operating costs of DIKA servis were fees for data transmission between the individual servers – if servers were employees DIKA would have to pay them for every single word they have exchanged.
Sometimes it is very difficult to guess how much you will be paying for your IT infrastructure. Physical infrastructure may surprise you with additional costs of its administration, maintenance and repairs. Virtual infrastructure may astonish you with complicated calculation of fees for individual sources and ancillary services. Nothing like that happens with a virtual data center. You only pay for 3 basic parameters with clearly defined prices and in case of ancillary services you can see the extra costs that are obvious in advance. No payment for data transmission, no financial penalties for a monthly flat fee or Pay-as-you-Go model.
No Need to Predict the Unpredictable
How can you predict when your engine breaks in your new car? How would you guess when a hydrant flies off and the water floods everything? How can you tell how many minutes you will be on the phone next month?
There is no way to do the right math and to answer any of those questions. The same category of questions are those about the lifespan of physical infrastructure, the costs of its operation and maintenance. You cannot calculate something that cannot be calculated. The administration and repairs depend on many factors and most of them cannot be influenced. So you cannot expect even a remotely reasonable estimate for the long term future.
Therefore, rather than buying something with a specific configuration, is not it reasonable to buy some basic things and adjust them later on as needed basis? Rather than buying a server, even a virtual one and use only 20 % of its capacity and four years later maybe 40 % of its capacity, why don’t to get sources you will be using to the maximum extent and adjust their number so that you can use their maximum capacity all the time? This is what differentiates physical infrastructure and virtual servers from a virtual data center which offers the maximum adaptation to your needs at any particular moment.
You Are in IT Control
With a virtual data center you, as a manager, will have the opportunity to easily check whether the requirements for a change in the environment are justified. You can use three diagrams to make decisions and, at the same time, to monitor whether everything is optimized. Meanwhile, by sending a single email to the support center you can adjust the size of the environment. Full control is the basic feature of a virtual data center.
What now?
If you want to find out whether a cloud infrastructure of a virtual data center is the right choice for you contact our colleague Pavel Pábl who will analyze your current IT, help you to optimize it and make it more efficient .
