Maintaining computing infrastructure is one of the most important parts of owning and operating a company. Without technology, organizations wouldn’t be as productive and wouldn’t be able to conduct business in the same way – so in order to utilize your IT infrastructure to its fullest potential, you have to make sure it’s optimized and ready for whatever you throw at it.
Let’s take a look at some of the best benefits of prioritizing your IT portfolio and giving your organization the best tools possible:
1. Provide better client service
Investing in technology solutions that will help your company provide better service and create better products should always be at the top of any “to-do” list for the IT department. Incorporating tools like client relations management software and enterprise resource planning into your cloud environments can offer your company a chance at higher revenue and better client engagement, according to Demand Media’s Alexis Writing. Your IT infrastructure needs to be at peak performance if you’re going to get everything you can out of your CRM solutions.
“Businesses need to maintain clear visibility into their entire IT environments.”
2. Boost agility
Virtualized and cloud infrastructure tools both offer benefits that would allow a business to practice better data management and, in the long run, more effectively and efficiently meet client needs. Together, they add complexity to your computing environment, which can sometimes equal slowdowns. According to eWeek contributor Chris Preimesberger, businesses need to maintain clear visibility into their entire environments if optimization is to occur – meaning it’s crucial for the IT infrastructure to be as transparent as possible. When IT managers can have a holistic view of their computing equipment, it becomes easier to practice business agility.
3. Increase productivity
Making sure your technology solutions are all on the same page also contributes to hefty increases in productivity. There are several kinds of solutions tailored to this kind of function, and one of them would be unified communications technology. UC incorporates multiple forms of communications – unified messaging, email, phone, etc. – into one solution, making it easier to disseminate information across an entire organization.
Recent projections from the researchers at MarketsandMarkets indicated that the unified-communications-as-a-service market will be worth a total of $24.88 billion by 2020, demonstrating the clear demand for these types of solutions. Implementing UC across your company not only helps you stay abreast of what’s going on – it can also boost productivity across the board as employees have the ability to work from home or on the go.
4. Get more out of your servers
When it comes to physical infrastructure within the data center, making sure it works for you is crucial. That includes giving your servers a tuneup every once in a while and investing in data center technologies like cooling and monitoring solutions that keep an eye on your equipment so you don’t have to.
Part of optimizing server functionalities also includes investing time and money to make sure you’re energy efficient. A recent Anthesis Group study found that nearly 30 percent of servers worldwide are comatose – in other words, they are sitting in data centers around the globe, sucking up energy but not doing any real computing. Taking those servers and consolidating them in order to get more out of virtualization and the cloud is one way to optimize and strategize in the IT department, according to Data Center Knowledge. When less energy is taken up by servers, your business can be more efficient and save money in the long run.
Consolidating servers can lead to energy efficiency and distinct cost savings.5. Strengthen networks
Investing in networking solutions can increase the functionality of your data center and enhance computing power – an important step to take when you want to more quickly complete tasks and balance workloads. TechTarget noted that network function virtualization, for instance, has the ability to decrease the amount of necessary network hardware and thus decrease complexity across the board. This contributes to improved business processes and, eventually, better bottom lines.
When it comes to investing in and maintaining an efficient, effective computing portfolio, it helps to have a team of experts on hand. Contact the managed services professionals at ISG Technology today for more information about how having an optimized IT infrastructure can improve your business functions and make sure you’re keeping up with – and exceeding – the competition.