- It could offer organisations considerable costs savings, efficiency improvement, as well as better service delivery, which can be achieved through consolidating the hardware, software, and data centers into the simpler, unified IT operation.
IT consolidation is one of the methods used by most organisations to improve on their operational efficiencies in a very tight business environment.
IT consolidation involves optimising and integrating all resources, systems, and processes. Here are the eight ways IT consolidation can enhance operational efficiency within an organisation.
- Reduced Redundancy: IT consolidation reduces duplication within systems and resources. The businesses then preserve services, applications, and data storage centrally, eliminating operations leading to lower costs and less complexity for maintenance. It allows the IT Teams to shift focus to the more strategic initiatives rather than maintain multiple platforms.
- Improved Resource Management: Organisations are in a position to manage resources in an efficient manner. This includes optimisation using all available hardware and all software licenses because of a consolidated IT infrastructure. Thus, with the clear picture of IT assets, companies can allocate resources in line with demand, decrease waste, and increase productivity.
- Enhanced Data Security: IT consolidation usually result with better security protocols through centralised control. A unified security policy allows for better consistency in policy enforcement and easier monitoring of compliance and timescale in response to incident threats. It also keeps the sensitive information safe and diminishes the probability of an expensive breach of data.
- Streamlined Operations: Usually, consolidation ends in disparate systems being integrated and creating a streamlined workflow. Unified processes and systems will enable employees to work together more productively, allow seamless sharing of information, and spend less time switching between different applications or platforms.
- Cost Savings: IT consolidation brings immediate benefits of cost and more. By bringing together hardware, software, and support services into one package, one organisation is sure to save costs, which it can invest again in innovation or other strategic initiatives that enhance further operational efficiency.
- Scalability: Consolidated IT infrastructure brings forth an increased level of scalability. Businesses should easily cope with changing market conditions or growth demands without undergoing massive transformation of existing systems. With such flexibility, no IT resource would then need to go through the reactive process of gearing up for possible changes in corporate business objectives.
- Streamlined Management of Vendors: It reduces the number of IT vendors involved in the consolidation and that means simplification of vendor management. Organisations will likely have fewer deals to negotiate with suppliers while having the opportunity to develop stronger relationships with them. It reduces the overhead of administration and increases accountability and response from the vendors.
- Focused IT Strategy: Lastly, it allows them to develop a focused IT strategy that is in line with the business objectives of the entire organisation. By reducing the number of systems and processes to manage, IT leadership can focus on innovation and transformational initiatives that add value and give an edge against competitors.
IT consolidation strategy: An example
For example, XYZ Manufacturing, which has multiple production sites and a decentralised IT infrastructure, has been confronting rising overhead cost, data silos, and inefficient resource allocation.
Each production facility operated its own IT systems and applications, leading to redundancy and non-uniform data management. For them, the need for a more integrated framework was identified and hence, the company started its journey towards its IT consolidation strategy.
Steps under the consolidation strategy
- Assessment of Existing Infrastructure: Â The first step will be a comprehensive audit of the condition of the IT installation. All hardware and software assets, usage patterns, and performance metrics are identified and analysed. Interviews with stakeholders help surface specific pain points felt across different departments of the organisation.
- Planning and Design: On the basis of the assessment, the company designed a unified IT architecture. Central storage of data, cloud services will be adopted to bring flexibility and scalability, and standard applications will be available in all locations ensuring that all of them minimise redundancy and ensure compatibility and convenience in accessing data.
- Â Implementation: Had there not been phased implementations, there would have been more disruptions. The phased approach started with a few services that were not critical for teams to test the new infrastructure while adjusting their plan. At the same time, the transition continues with the presence of the IT team’s training and support for everyone on the new way.
- Monitoring and Optimisation: Now, XYZ Manufacturing has set up some metrics to monitor the performance of the merged IT systems on an ongoing basis after implementation. To address this, a mechanism for staff feedback has also been put in place for this agile methodology, involving the reporting of issues by staff and suggestions for improvement. This made it flexible enough to change to business requirements.
Results
The IT consolidation strategy led to some very good benefits for XYZ Manufacturing. Operating costs were about 30 per cent lower due to less maintenance and licensing fees for hardware. Data centralisation also allowed better decision-making, through improved access to up-to-the-minute information, while the enhanced security protocols-in particular, the unified IT infrastructure-allow protecting sensitive company data.
IT consolidation strategy tools
The proposed IT consolidation strategies could offer organisations considerable costs savings, efficiency improvement, as well as better service delivery, which can be achieved through consolidating the hardware, software, and data centers into the simpler, unified IT operation. The organisations would require different tools designed for the focus of adopting IT consolidation strategy.
Virtualisation software is key among them. With virtualisation, a number of systems run on a single server, thus providing a huge reduction in hardware costs and reducing energy consumption in an organisation. Examples of such tools are VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V.
These help companies create the means of having virtual environments for testing and development, which makes it easier to allocate resources as compared to physical limitations of dedicated hardware.
Another tool is the cloud computing platform. The on-demand computing resources provided by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform can now enable organisation to consolidate their server capacity, and also manage workload differently. Having migrated applications and data into clouds, organisations can now eliminate on-premises data centers, thereby making operation less complex and more flexible.
The last prime tool would be ITAM (IT asset management) tools that play a key role in consolidation strategy. ITAM tools let the organisations know all the IT assets they own all through their lifetime.
ITAM solutions such as ServiceNow and SolarWinds give an insight into how usage and resource allocation occur, to the identification of underutilised assets and the optimisation of IT infrastructure.
In addition, there are tools available for the management of networks resourcefully. It helps to monitor and manage the network performance, security, and configuration.
Cisco is a good example of the available management software of the network for a possible serving network operation of organisations in maximising resource allocation and improving overall performance.
Last but not least, management software like Trello and Asana will help coordinate all the aspects of an IT consolidation project. These systems provide a way of managing tasks, collaboration, and tracking of advances to keep teams aligned and the consolidation process seamless.