Don`t expand your IT infrastructure: manage it

IT spending is on the rise after a long period in the doldrums; but, as companies begin investing in their infrastructure again, they should bear in mind the previous mistakes that created chaotic, uncontrolled infrastructure which cost the business great sums of money while adding little real value.

While spending is on the up, organisations should use the opportunity to implement asset and infrastructure management solutions and methodologies to help them improve their control over their IT assets and infrastructure, bringing them in line with business needs. Infrastructure management philosophies and solutions will allow organisations to learn from the past.

Organisations need to realise that there is an optimal capacity for IT infrastructure: only a certain amount of equipment and technology is needed for the infrastructure to operate efficiently and to the benefit of the business.

If the infrastructure is not managed properly, it is easy to acquire more equipment and technology than is actually needed, and spend more than is budgeted for, because the organisation has little way of monitoring acquisitions, duplications and licence compliance, or tracking asset lifecycles, and maintenance or service level agreements.

In many organizations, infrastructure has passed its optimum levels of operation due to the widely distributed nature of today`s technologies, and excessive infrastructure can consume a considerable portion of the budget while not providing any real business value.

This uncontrolled environment has led to the problem of diminishing returns - the more organisations buy, the less value they enjoy from their assets.

Organisations can avoid this trap of diminishing returns by introducing processes and policies that control the acquisition of equipment or technology, thereby limiting redundancies, duplications, and excessive equipment and technology.

Different business units within organisations have business initiatives that require different IT solutions. Often solutions acquisitions for these initiatives are made without the knowledge of the IT managers, who only become aware of the acquisition when the solution is handed to them to manage.

This has led to the introduction of maintenance, support and service costs that have not been budgeted for, and a resultant increase in the cost of maintaining the infrastructure in general.

Without proper procurement policies and solutions in place it is very difficult to centralise purchasing and be able to manage all the IT assets in an organisation.

Tracking the lifecycle of assets can reduce the total cost of ownership and improve the return on investment of those assets by enabling appropriate management as the assets age and depreciate.

Asset lifecycle tracking starts with the asset`s acquisition and follows the asset in the organisation, from where it is used to what the service level agreements are for that asset, what its expected lifespan is, how it can potentially be redeployed, when it needs to be disposed of, and its most effective means of disposal.

To accurately understand the cost of an asset over its lifecycle, it is important to have a system in place that manages the cost of that asset. Without this, one can never fully understand the cost that IT has on the business and subsequently the value it provides. Lack of asset lifecycle tracking is one of the largest cost accelerators in IT.

The Meta Group says it is nearly impossible to calculate return on investment accurately because there are always variables at the organisational level that vendors cannot take into account, such as rogue spending and disparate buying.

Although the ROI factors suggested by vendors are correctly calculated from a financial perspective, many organisations decline to use them because they are not aligned to the business`s realities.

IT is not a revenue generator; it is a custodian of the applications that generate revenue. To view a company`s assets from a ROI perspective can create distortions about the real value of the assets.

There is more to managing assets and the infrastructure than implementing technology that enables an organisation to apply the lessons it has learnt from past mistakes.

Establishing infrastructure management methodologies and creating processes that everyone within the organisation must adhere to will go a long way in helping organisations benefit from a well organised, business-aligned infrastructure.

Purchasing and acquisitions must first go through an approval process and then be tracked to ensure that duplication doesn`t occur. Asset lifecycles must be tracked to ensure that assets are providing the most value they can and that there are no unnecessary costs associated with maintenance and support.

Any infrastructure needs to have clearly defined business outcomes that must be delivered. These are supported by policies and procedures that codify the way things are done. Once the strategic intent and the tactical procedures are defined, systems can be chosen to support these processes and deliver on the strategic business requirement.