Most organisations today are pursuing the quest to reduce the cost of IT spend in an ever changing technology environment that is driven by perpetual development. However, new technologies have an expensive price tag and this has propelled companies to scrutinise the issue of total cost of ownership.
It is generally understood that the initial outlay of a product whether it be hardware or software is probably between 20 and 35 percent of the total cost of ownership. The one factor that inevitably contributes highly to the ongoing costs is maintenance, and is usually regarded as unavoidable. Or so one thinks.
Christopher Bray, McAfee country manager in South Africa, looks at the various issues that can reduce the cost of managing a network and how to make this feasible in an enterprise environment.
When analysing TCO, direct costs are compared with indirect costs and when totalled, these figures can either obscure or conclude the decision to purchase.
Maintenance becomes a major contributor to the indirect costs as employing a skilled IT person or outsourcing this function takes its toll on the payroll bill at the end of the day. To add to this increasing cost, as skilled IT staff are becoming a rarity in South Africa, higher salaries are commanded for these specific areas of expertise.
Take for example a network that requires a tight security policy with the necessary products to enforce this. It is generally understood that network security is a given in any environment and when ignored, can cripple and sometimes cause a company to close. Therefore ensuring that anti-virus software is installed on each computer is essential yet guaranteeing that the software is kept up to date and controlling the configuration of all desktops and servers is another story.
The manpower involved with establishing which version of anti-virus software is installed on what machine becomes a mammoth task and updating the outdated versions exacerbates this. What has emerged as a viable solution is managing these processes centrally, minimising time and resources.
The movement towards central management reduces headcount and is often coupled with the functionality of enforcing security policies and being alerted when a violation has taken place. Companies that engage in mobile working run the risk of the configuration or anti-virus software being tampered with when a laptop is taken home. A central management of policies and software ensures that modifications are rectified and if anti-virus software is removed, it is immediately replaced with the correct product and version.
Accompanying central management are the reporting tools which provide a comprehensive and accurate indication of the status of the network. Analysing the vulnerabilities or Achilles heel within a network means malicious damage caused by a virus can be avoided. When considering the cost incurred by loss of business, can one not afford to invest in such technology? What do the TCO calculations represent now?
The emergence of central management is spawning another trend that has filtered down to the Small Medium Enterprise market, further driving down costs and improving efficiencies within a networking environment. A web managed service is becoming an attractive option to many organisations that cannot justify the cost of a team of IT staff dedicated to maintaining the network.
The Internet has become an indispensable tool enabling 24 x 7 business and providing a means of transacting the paperless way. It now also provides the instrumentality for a management tool. Web-based managed services will offload the burden of managing anti-virus software, which reduces overhead costs significantly and allows you to focus on your core businesses.
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