Fault diagnosis and repair
The complexity of IT infrastructure and the cost of support staff mean that detecting, diagnosing and resolving failures and intermittent faults in IT infrastructures can be expensive in time, service disruption and money.
At times, the pragmatic approach can be to upgrade to the latest software level, rather than tracing and resolving the problem. But this in itself can present a whole new range of issues as upgrades should be managed in a controlled manner, starting from a known good state that can be restored should the upgrade be unsuccessful. But, if you are starting from a problem state, the stakes are inevitably raised and the risk of upgrading can become unacceptable to the business.
DIY IT infrastructure
Although technologies have progressed at a rapid rate, IT infrastructure is still at an early stage of maturity. The fact is you cannot buy IT Infrastructure off the shelf. Instead, you have to build it yourself and integrate any new additions into existing systems.
Until it becomes a utility that can be sold as a product – like water, gas, electricity and motor fuel – IT will require specialist nurturing and management. For large enterprises who can justify in-house IT organisations with specialist skills and experience, this approach is acceptable. Indeed in some industries, it is the IT department that creates competitive edge for the business.
For example, in Financial Services and Telco industries, IT has become an intrinsic part of both the customer experience and the end product. For these industries, the innovative use of IT can bring major competitive edge. Therefore, it makes sense for these companies to invest in IT in order to differentiate themselves in the way they build, sell and deliver new products and services.
The cost dynamics
The reduction in the cost of technology means operational costs now form the major proportion of the overall IT overhead. However, IT budgets frequently exclude power and facilities elements.
In fact, for the first time, the cost of powering an IT server over its average lifecycle is greater than the initial purchase price. Clearly, any serious attempt to reduce IT cost should start with an appreciation of the total cost of ownership and operations – hosting and management – rather than on the purchase price of the servers, networking and storage components. When viewed this way, it is clear than any serious attempt to manage down the cost of IT should not be focussed on the price of the servers, networking and storage components, but instead on hosting and management costs. more...
