Six Strategies For Optimizing Your IT Infrastructure

In today’s digital age, it’s essential to have a well-optimized IT infrastructure to ensure business success. Here are six strategies for optimizing your IT infrastructure:

1. THE EFFICIENT USE OF PHYSICAL SPACEThe efficient use of physical space is critical for any organization, and this is particularly true for IT departments. The consolidation of data centres is a key component of an effective IT strategy. By consolidating multiple data center into a single facility, organizations can reduce costs, improve manageability, and increase efficiency through a smart data center design. Consolidation is not just about large, glass-house facilities. It also encompasses small server clusters and wiring closets. These small facilities are often referred to as “vampire” facilities because they consume power unnecessarily and tie up inventory and cash that could be better used elsewhere in the organization.One of the benefits of consolidation is that it allows organizations to centralize their IT resources. This, in turn, makes it easier to manage those resources and reduces the risk of duplication. Consolidation also leads to power efficiencies. By having fewer facilities, organizations can reduce their overall power consumption and save money on energy costs. Additionally, consolidation allows for better utilization of physical space. By having all of their IT resources in one place, organizations can make better use of their facilities and reduce the amount of space that is wasted.Overall, the efficient use of physical space is critical for any organization. Consolidation is a key component of this strategy, and it can have significant benefits in terms of cost savings, manageability, and efficiency.
2. MAXIMUM SERVER EFFICIENCY THROUGH VIRTUALIZATIONVirtualization is a technology that has revolutionized the IT industry in recent years. At its core, virtualization allows multiple virtual servers to run on a single physical server. This has significant benefits in terms of server efficiency. By maximizing the use of physical servers, organizations can reduce their hardware costs, save energy, and improve performance.One of the key benefits of virtualization is that it allows for faster provisioning of new projects, applications, or users. By creating virtual machines, IT departments can quickly set up new resources without having to purchase additional hardware. This makes it easier to scale resources up or down as needed, which is critical in today’s fast-paced business environment.Another benefit of virtualization is that it allows for greater reliability and business continuity. By replicating virtual machines as backups, organizations can ensure that their critical applications and data are always available, even in the event of a hardware failure. This can have significant benefits in terms of customer satisfaction, as well as protecting the organization from financial losses.

   Overall, virtualization is a critical technology for organizations that want to maximize their server efficiency. It can help to reduce costs, improve performance, and increase reliability.

3. UTILIZING EXTERNAL CLOUD COMPUTING (WHERE IT MAKES SENSE)Cloud computing has become an increasingly popular technology in recent years. One of the key benefits of cloud computing is that it allows organizations to outsource some of their IT functions to third-party providers. This can free up staff and infrastructure for more mission-focused work, such as application development.One of the primary uses of external cloud computing is for utilitarian functions, such as e-mail. By moving these functions to the cloud, organizations can reduce their infrastructure costs and make it easier to manage their IT resources. Additionally, cloud providers often offer better scalability and reliability than organizations can achieve on their own.Another benefit of external cloud computing is that it allows organizations to take advantage of the expertise of third-party providers. This can be particularly valuable for organizations that don’t have the resources or expertise to manage certain IT functions on their own.

   Overall, external cloud computing can be a valuable tool for organizations that want to reduce costs, improve manageability, and focus their resources on mission-critical functions.

4. DEPLOYING INTERNAL CLOUDS (WHEN IT CAN PROVIDE FLEXIBILITY)Cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses approach IT infrastructure. With the rise of public cloud services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), organizations can now leverage the power of computing resources on a pay-as-you-go basis. However, with the increasing need for agility and flexibility, many organizations are now moving towards deploying their own internal cloud computing infrastructures.An internal cloud allows an organization to have greater control over its computing resources, while still taking advantage of cloud-based technologies. By consolidating data centers and creating a private cloud infrastructure, organizations can achieve greater efficiency, scalability, and agility.One of the main advantages of an internal cloud is that it provides the organization with more control over its data and applications. With a private cloud, the organization can create custom configurations, policies, and security measures that are tailored to its specific needs. This allows the organization to maintain greater control over its data and applications, while still taking advantage of the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing.

   Another advantage of an internal cloud is that it can provide greater flexibility in terms of resource allocation. By pooling computing resources, the organization can allocate resources as needed, which can help to reduce waste and optimize resource utilization. This can help to reduce costs and improve the overall efficiency of the organization’s IT infrastructure.

   However, deploying an internal cloud is not without its challenges. One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that the infrastructure is properly architected to support the organization’s applications and workloads. This may require significant investments in hardware, software, and networking infrastructure.

   In addition, managing an internal cloud can be complex, requiring specialized skills and expertise. Organizations may need to invest in training and hiring staff to manage the infrastructure or consider working with a managed service provider to help manage the infrastructure.

   Despite these challenges, deploying an internal cloud can provide significant benefits for organizations looking to achieve greater agility and flexibility in their IT infrastructure. By consolidating data centers and creating a private cloud infrastructure, organizations can achieve greater efficiency, scalability, and agility.

5. OPTIMIZED POWER USEAs organizations continue to expand their IT infrastructures, power consumption and cooling costs have become a major concern. Traditional data centers are notorious for their high energy consumption and cooling costs, which can be a significant drain on resources.To address this issue, many organizations are turning to new form factors, such as blade servers and converged infrastructures, which require up-to-date cooling strategies. Rather than simply chilling the interior of an entire facility, the latest cooling technologies now focus on concentrated cooling where and when it is specifically needed within racks and aisles to radically reduce cooling costs.In addition to new cooling technologies, organizations can also optimize power use by implementing more energy-efficient hardware and infrastructure. This includes using energy-efficient servers, storage systems, and networking equipment, as well as implementing virtualization technologies that can help to reduce the number of physical servers needed.

   Another way to optimize power use is by implementing power management policies that can help to reduce power consumption during periods of low demand. This may include turning off non-critical systems during off-hours or using power-saving modes on desktops and laptops.

   By optimizing power use, organizations can reduce their energy consumption and lower their cooling costs, which can help to free up resources for other IT initiatives.

6. MAXIMIZE THE USE OF STORAGE AND NETWORKINGEnd-to-end enterprise data architectures require rethinking the long-held strategy of continuously adding expensive disk storage to take on new loads. Instead, IT organizations now must update networking protocols and architectures to make the most use of bandwidth and capacity. This will more tightly weave together the organization’s data infrastructure.Storage and networking are two critical components of an organization’s IT infrastructure.