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Infrastructure and Operations: Pressured by Fewer Dollars and Rapidly Changing Business Process Requirements
Business IT Infrastructure and Operations are being pressured by two, often competing, forces:
- Business groups pushing IT to help drive and support changing business processes
- Shrinking Budgets have IT organizations looking at ways to save I&O dollars
Keeping Pace with Change. Gartner is warning that over the next two years that only 10 percent of I&O organizations will be capable of keeping up with the speed of change that new business processes require.
George Spafford, research director at Gartner, said that “Over the years, I&O has become risk-averse, and with the introduction of new and changed IT services viewed as critical, the risk aversion of I&O has become problematic. At the same time, business and IT leadership continue to pressure I&O to ensure high availability and integrity, which lead I&O to implement controls that take additional time to ensure production is protected. These opposed pressures are creating an organizational schizophrenia wherein parts of IT, notably development, want to go faster than I&O can support.” Spafford advised companies to work on their change management processes as a means for improving their responsiveness to changes in the business.
Shrinking Budgets. It is no wonder that I&O is often the target of cost reduction efforts. Gartner estimates that as much as 60 percent of IT budgets goes toward infrastructure and operations (I&O).
Michele Caminos, Gartner managing vice-president, shared the following tips for achieving I&O savings:
- Examine Networking Costs – 18 percent of IT budget goes towards networking, and 45 percent of that is spent on telecom services. Targeting telecom costs is a good way to reduce expenses.
- Server Consolidation – By consolidating servers and increasing utilization rates, businesses see on average reductions in 15 to 20 percent on server spending and maintenance.
- Virtualization – Gartner found that while businesses have strongly adopted virtualization that virtual machines still only run at 25 percent utilization. Improving on that can lead to cost savings.
- Streamline IT Operations – Process automation can improve efficiencies, reduce errors, and save money
- Reduce Power and Cooling – Modular data center design, increased rack density and energy monitoring tools can help cut costs in this area
