Why do companies need to understand IT infrastructure aggregates?
What if we divide corporate IT not by technology but by logical units? Wouldn’t that make life easier for everyone?
This is really needed. IT in companies is no longer just a tool or a support area for operations. It is one of the main pillars of it. But… Therefore, it is necessary for CXOs and company management in general to be able to understand technologies. Otherwise, they cannot make appropriate decisions that relate to the business side of things. Or can they?
What company management should do is evaluate the impact on costs, risks and performance. And this does not only relate to IT. That is why it is appropriate for many companies to move from an overview of technologies to aggregates of IT infrastructure.
It sounds even more technical, but the opposite is true. Aggregates help translate specialist technologies into the language of non-tech people using logical units based on functionality. Let’s take a closer look at them.
What is meant by an IT infrastructure aggregate?
Let’s start with etymology. The word aggregate comes from Latin and means to cluster something. So it is not a new technology but how we combine current ones into categories in a way that tells us what specific function each category has and what part of the responsibility it bears in company operations.
So instead of turning CXOs and non-technical company management into IT guys, we will create the concept of aggregates – management domains that managers already know very well, such as finance or HR.
This concept allows you to measure the performance of specific areas of operation, delegate responsibility and also plan individual investments. So it is a really practical thing.
What does such an IT infrastructure aggregate look like in practice?
You’ve probably heard of many of these before. In general, they’re considered more of buzzwords by the non-tech crowd, even though they’re legitimate IT tools that play a key role in the functioning of companies.
- Compute (computing aggregate) – the environment where applications run.
- Storage (storage aggregate) – the environment where data is stored.
- Networking (network aggregate) – the way data flows through the company.
- Backup & Recovery (backup and recovery aggregate) – technologies that serve as a business insurance in the event of an outage.
- Security (security aggregate) – measures and tools that serve as protection against threats.
- Monitoring & Observability (oversight aggregate) – tools that monitor the health of IT and respond to non-standard conditions.
- Orchestration & Governance (management aggregate) – technologies that ensure the management and automation of the IT environment.
From this list, you can see that it does not matter what technologies a given aggregate consists of. As a manager, you have an overview of what activities a given group provides and can also plan the allocation of budget and human capital to ensure their functioning accordingly.
Why should CXOs care?
Simply? Because the law requires it. With the advent of the adaptation of NIS2 to the EU legal system, the perception of the position of management towards corporate IT has shifted. Even if it were not mandated by law, though, we will look at the reasons that should still lead you to do so.
Without a doubt, we can all agree that corporate IT has a direct impact on the most important areas of operation of every company – costs, risks, productivity and compliance.
None of these areas has anything to do with specific technologies at all. They are purely business areas that management must control and manage.
How can it do this efficiently? Let’s say, for example, using an approach that turns technologies into measurable categories of business processes. If technologies are made into aggregates, then management has a completely clear and specific overview of the pain points and areas in which technological debt arises.
Thanks to this division, managers can very accurately monitor the effectiveness of the functioning of individual IT areas in the same way as they do for individual departments of the company. Corporate IT is not a taboo, but a very clearly defined business unit that management has under control.
How aggregates affect the health of a company?
If we take the areas of operation that we have already mentioned – costs, risks, productivity and compliance – we can use them to show specific benefits that aggregates of IT infrastructure can have.
We will compare these benefits to the situation where a company has a monolithic IT environment (one large block that is not divided into functional units, but ensures the operation of IT as a single whole).
Costs
First, let’s look at cost transparency. Since each aggregate provides information about its consumption, the cost ratio between CAPEX and OPEX, and its life cycle, management has a clear overview of how well individual resources are being used. Thanks to this clarity, it is possible to plan IT technology renewal more effectively and also to detect resources that are „slacking“ (so-called idle resources).
It is also possible to better predict the development of costs and to modernize gradually. Since aggregates are independent units, it is not necessary to renew the entire environment at once. This is necessary, for example, in a monolithic environment because it is so closely intertwined that it is impossible to separate one part from the other.
Aggregates also allow you to optimize costs by using various technological approaches to individual categories. Thanks to the use of aggregates, it is possible to use, for example, a hybrid or multi-cloud environment to optimize costs without sacrificing operational efficiency or security.
Risks
Since the aggregates are relatively independent of each other (although they do form one corporate IT environment), it is also possible to individually secure them so that any attack remains confined within one aggregate.
Each aggregate has its own security features, audits and permissions that exactly match their purpose. This setup also contributes to faster problem detection, because the architecture of individual aggregates is not as complicated as in a single monolithic environment.
Productivity
Let’s start with the internal one. Thanks to the fact that each aggregate has a clear definition, processes and goals, it is possible to delegate rights and responsibilities very well. These are often lost in a monolith because the internal environment setup is complicated.
These features also mean that technicians can focus on their specialization and do not have to waste time with someone else’s expertise to solve a problem in their own domain. This also makes it easier for new team members, who are faced with a well-organized ecosystem and not a pile of technologies.
And if colleagues need to form cross-functional teams and set up communication and collaboration between aggregates, standardized communication environments for individual areas simplify their work.
As soon as the company needs to innovate, the IT infrastructure does not sabotage it, but effectively enables the promotion of new processes and technologies thanks to the relative independence of individual aggregates compared to the complete dependence of individual components of the monolith.
Compliance
Compliance with laws and regulations does not have to come at the expense of cost or operational efficiency. Aggregates allow the use of diverse technologies to create a balance between operations and responsibilities.
For example, it is possible to use different cloud environments so that GDPR and NIS2 are not violated (perhaps using a private cloud) while at the same time allowing certain activities to be operated as efficiently as possible (perhaps using Infrastructure as a Service).
| Position | Aggregate | Monolith |
|---|---|---|
| CFO | Transparent ownership and operating costs with predictable investments and the ability to invest and renew in parts. | Cost fog accompanied by expensive interventions into a strongly interconnected whole, and a higher risk of vendor dependency (vendor lock-in). |
| COO | Operations enabling quick reactions to change, smaller impacts of outages and failures, and better isolation of internal and external incidents. | Corporate single-point-of-failure due to strong interdependence of IT components, making recovery more difficult. |
| CEO | Fast adaptability to required changes and innovations that do not burden day-to-day operations. | When changes or innovation are required, the entire environment must be modified. |
| CISO | Each aggregate has its own security policy, permissions, and responsibilities, controlled by individual audits. This makes it easier to comply with GDPR and NIS2. | The complex environment makes it difficult to clearly define boundaries, responsibilities, and rights, complicating compliance with legislation and incident response. |
| CIO | Simplifies management, governance, and the future infrastructure roadmap because each aggregate can be handled separately. | Environmental complexity constantly creates problems because any change impacts all of its components. |
When do aggregates make sense?
But so that it doesn’t sound like IT infrastructure aggregates are always the right choice, we’ll look at areas where they are truly beneficial. But also those where they would unnecessarily complicate the lives of people in the company.
As with every topic in IT, there is no universal answer. There are reviews and recommendations, but each company must apply them in accordance with its needs and plans.
Aggregates make the most sense if the company meets any of these points or even a combination of them:
- Large teams and an ecosystem of several internal systems
- Company IT infrastructure is part of a competitive advantage
- Business in a regulated environment or work with sensitive data
- Need for 24/7 high availability
- Company that is growing rapidly, expanding, innovating or creating an ecosystem of companies through acquisitions.
- Environment with the need to keep potential technology debt under control.
Not every one of these areas automatically suggests that a company should go the infrastructure aggregate route. But they are good guidelines for thinking about this principle and evaluating its benefits.
The most common mistakes made by companies
IT is still a source of frustration and misunderstanding for companies. That’s why it’s a good idea to take a look at the common mistakes that companies make with their IT. You might then realize that there’s no need to get involved in the aggregate, you just need to clean up and put things in order in your company’s IT.
The main problem is lack of transparency. Although every company’s management wants this principle, they often don’t ensure that the IT environment itself adheres to it. Infrastructure is simply purchased and glued together until no one really knows what runs where and how much it costs.
Moreover, investments are fundamentally made in technology and not in the value that technology should bring. Just because someone wants a tool does not mean that it is the best solution for the company as a whole.
The main pain point in this area is the purchase of proprietary technologies that lock the company into disadvantageous contracts. Yes, in some cases this relationship is beneficial, but only if it is built on the right reasons.
And then there is the problem of underestimating problems. Many companies still consider backups as something unnecessary that only costs money. Then it is not surprising when, with the current increase in IT complexity, even large systems go down for several hours.
All these problems result from underestimating planning and analysis. Their contribution is invaluable, so it should not be a problem that they swallow some of the finances.
Conclusion
IT infrastructure aggregates improve the management of not only the technological environment but also corporate finances. When they have a place in a company, they contribute to its overall health. In addition, they simplify the path to compliance – who wouldn’t want that these days? But the basis is again one single piece of information – is an aggregate the right choice for you? We will advise you with the answer, we are experts in choosing the right type of IT infrastructure.
