02 Jun 5 Priorities For Management Of Your IT Infrastructure
1. New Technologies
Emerging trends, including a move to virtualised servers, cloud based systems, web-based interfaces and mobile infrastructure with hybrid operating systems, are more popular than ever. Adopting new technologies, while still maintaining a high level of data security and reliability, is not a simple task. It is important to anticipate the growth of your business when investing in new technology, and the possibility of the need for technology upgrades – you don’t want to be investing in technology that will become obsolete any time soon. It is advisable for companies to invest time and the necessary money associated with implementing new technologies and training.
2. Scalability
Creating a flexible, optimized IT infrastructure is an important challenge. In the IT world, scalability is defined as “having IT costs rise linearly with increases in IT capacity“. The ability to modify data-processing capacity quickly in response to demand is the ultimate reflection of a scalable data center. When properly scoped, infrastructure on demand protects against under or over-estimated investment in IT infrastructure.
3. Capacity Planning
Predicting future computational capacity requirements is difficult, especially during infrastructure modifications when you need to take into consideration the importance of maintaining continuity of service, privacy, fault tolerance, data integrity, and transaction monitoring for regulatory compliance. Leveraging IT for strategic business outcomes is important.
4. Data Center Growth
Sufficient space for expansion of the data centers is important when planning options for growth. Data centers are often constrained by limitations of physical conditions – such as availability of space, electrical infrastructure, cooling and heating capacity etc. Often modernization requires one of three basic choices: building a new facility, retrofitting the existing facility, or contracting with a co-location provider. Costs and downtime associated with new construction and rebuilding are complex and not reliably predictable.
5. Energy and Environmental Challenges
In a time when there is global pressure and expectation for technology to go green – power & cooling is an important priority. About 25% to 50% of data center costs are attributed to power consumption. Equipment recycling is becoming more and more important as re-recycling laws get tighter. While keeping an eye on the budget, it is a good idea for companies to allocate time and resources in order to be up-to-speed with environmentally friendly expectations.