Cutting the Costs of IT
     
Information Technology (IT) has provided significant benefits to business and few businesses could survive without it.  However, for most businesses the cost of IT, including the costs of equipment, software, maintenance services, communications services, IT support services and IT staff, is a major expense.
Finding ways to reduce this expense can be of great benefit to a business, particularly if the performance and reliability of the IT systems can be improved at the same time.
 
Kadec can help you to cut IT costs
Kadec's IT specialists have the expertise and experience in integrated IT Infrastructure to help your business to reduce the costs of IT, and there are many ways to do this.
Interestingly, many of the initiatives that bring IT costs down also increase the performance and reliability of the IT systems and / or improve the ability to manage and control IT.

Some of the initiatives that have the potential to cut into the costs of IT in your business include:

  • Standardizing computer Operating Systems, applications software, hardware and system configurations across the business reduces support costs.  This also increases user productivity.
  • Automating repetitive, routine IT tasks (those that need to be done) reduces support costs.  It also improves system reliability and security by maintaining IT systems in a more consistent and up to date condition.
  • Regularly reviewing communications costs
    Competition in the communications industry is continually bringing down the costs of communications services.  Kadec can help you to re-assess your communications requirements then help you to find services that better meet those requirements for less cost.
  • Implementing Server Virtualization
    Server virtualization enables businesses to consolidate servers onto fewer physical servers, which reduces IT costs in several ways:
    • Less capital expenditure on hardware
    • Reduced hardware maintenance costs because there is less hardware to maintain
    • Reduced power costs as there are fewer servers consuming power
    • Potential reductions in software costs
  • Implementing 64 bit computing where possible
    Like Server Virtualization, 64 bit computing allows servers to run more applications faster and support more users per server than 32 bit systems, thereby reducing the amount of hardware (number of servers) required to serve the business
  • Updating IT hardware that has high maintenance costs
    Hardware maintenance costs on old equipment can be more costly than purchasing newer, faster equipment.
  • Purchasing very high quality hardware (and software) from leading vendors costs a bit more up front but reduces ongoing support and problem resolution costs.
    In IT prevention is better and cheaper than cure and cheapest to buy often turns out to be most expensive to own.
  • Prevention is better - and cheaper - than cure in IT!
    Repeated studies by reputable market research firms confirm that maintenance, support and Systems Administration tasks constitute about 70% to 80% of the total costs of owning IT systems. 
    Therefore, initiatives that reduce these costs will have the biggest effect on reducing the Total Cost of Ownership of IT.
    1. Implementing measures that reduce the incidence of breakdowns and failures
      1. Implement tools to regularly Defrag server drives
      2. Protect all key servers and network equipment with an intelligent UPS
      3. Implement IT Automation to managed patching and anti-malware updates
    2. Implement redundancy of key network components to avoid costly downtime and reduce support
  • Reducing the incidence of failed projects
    Businesses regularly invest in IT projects and purchases that fail to deliver required and expected outcomes.  This is a surprisingly common occurrence in IT that can be addressed by more diligent and more expert IT Planning.  IT Planning will also save money by better control of general IT purchasing.
  • Implement hardware and software inventory reporting with full details on hardware configuration.
    Knowing exactly what you have, right down to what applications and how much memory and disk is installed on all computers, helps to ensure that you don't spend money buying things you already own! Implementing software asset management also helps to ensure that the business is compliant with software licensing.
  • Automating routine, repetitive systems maintenance and administration tasks reduces labour costs. It also:
    1. does a better job than manual methods resulting in more consistent functionality, improved performance, better reliability and stronger security [see Managed Services for more]
    2. allows staff to be redeployed on more productive tasks
  • Reviewing policies and practices can also save money.
    For example: Many smaller businesses purchase MS OEM software as a policy because it is cheaper to buy. However, OEM software carries a very restrictive license agreement that complicates and hinders IT support efforts and severely restricts the ability to move and redeploy software. OEM software may be cheap to buy but it is a lot more expensive to own!
These are just some of the possible ways to reduce the costs of IT.
 
 
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