As all IT managers and CTOs know, technology becomes outdated very quickly. Just consider how often people replace personal mobile devices – whether that’s a smartphone or tablet. You and your employees likely replace those far more frequently than the equipment in your data center. But with the growing number of cloud applications and new mobile devices, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with employee demands without an up-to-date data center as well.
In a recent survey by Softchoice and VMware, findings indicate that nearly 58 percent of organizations take more than a month to deploy new business applications. This is a problem. Employees are always looking for solutions that make their jobs easier (hence why they regularly upgrade their personal devices). So if your data center cannot handle the upgrades necessary to meet those demands, employees are more likely to adopt their own third-party applications that do (i.e. Dropbox, Amazon Cloud, etc.), posing potential security risks and serious business ramifications.
Other survey findings reveal:
- 61 percent of organizations virtualize less than half of their IT environments
- 46 percent of organizations still do not have any hybrid cloud capabilities
- IT departments with sufficient infrastructure are four times more likely to deploy new applications within one week
- IT departments with sufficient infrastructure are more likely to be views as strategic partners by the rest of their organization, giving them a competitive advantage
So how should an organization combat an aging data center, which can be expensive and time-consuming to upgrade? The first step is to consider your current offerings – is there room to leverage new technology, such as cloud and virtualization solutions? These can help you implement new applications faster and continue to deliver on employee demands.
Next, evaluate whether you can make these changes yourself. If cost, space or manpower is deterring you from upgrading your data center, consider other options. Colocation centers (some that boast higher connectivity due to being in close proximity to, or being, a carrier hotel) are designed to minimize cost, while optimizing communications by having numerous service provides share the same facility.
Lastly, it’s important to plan for the future. When making a decision about how to upgrade your data center, make projections about future needs. How much storage and bandwidth do you expect to need in one, five or 10 years? By planning for your future needs instead of just your current ones, you’ll be able to operate for a longer period of time without having to upgrade your data center again.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Markley Group’s colocation offerings, send us an email. We’re happy to help upgrade your IT infrastructure and continue to meet employee demands.
