The modern business landscape faces numerous challenges on a daily basis. Global events and local policies dictate the rising costs of various materials and goods. On the other hand, supply chains are experiencing difficulties, and the cost of human resources is also increasing. It is evident that we are entering a time when a business’s priority is to maintain or optimize its profitability, but is that an easy task?

A company’s software needs, though an essential part of productivity and efficient operations, can still be a significant expense. Many modern businesses find themselves in a difficult situation, uncertain about how to best balance their need for a functional IT infrastructure with the necessity of controlling all costs associated with its maintenance.

According to a recent Gartner study, global IT spending reached a new peak last year, amounting to $5 trillion in a single year – an increase of nearly 7% compared to previous years. Experts predict that IT service expenditures will continue to rise this year, for the first time taking the leading position among all segments. The primary reason for this increase is the growing willingness of companies to invest in operational efficiency and innovative projects aimed at optimizing systems and costs.

But are we seeing real results from these significant investments? For many companies, the reality is different, as they find themselves stuck in a plateau of outdated technologies, lacking process automation, dealing with poorly integrated solutions, frequent security breaches and workflow disruptions, rigid and non-scalable architecture, and more.

If your business’s IT infrastructure is also struggling to keep pace with the rapid development of industries and the constant emergence of innovations, this checklist of reducing operational cost ideas is just for you.

1. Infrastructure Optimization

The IT infrastructure of a business is one of the fundamental pillars ensuring its successful operation in today’s world. At the heart of this infrastructure are servers and workstations. They provide all the necessary resources for data-related tasks – processing, storage, access to essential information, and analysis. To ensure the continuous and efficient operation of the infrastructure, reduce costs, and optimize the business and its functions overall, professional support for infrastructure management is essential. How can this be achieved? Here are some key approaches:

2. Switching to the Cloud

According to a study by Colorlib, 94% of companies worldwide use some form of cloud platform or service to some extent. What drives so many businesses to adopt cloud solutions? Outdated and inefficient data centers can create scalability issues for your company, leading to increased costs. As maintenance costs rise, workflow disruptions also become more frequent, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and loss of trust. Cloud platforms can resolve these issues by offering greater flexibility and infrastructure that can more easily adapt to changing business requirements and needs. Essentially, cloud services eliminate the need for upfront investments, provide scalability and flexibility, enhance resource efficiency, and reduce maintenance requirements.

3. Cloud Cost Management

According to a report by Anodot from the previous year, nearly half of companies worldwide struggle with controlling their cloud usage. Regardless of the cloud service your business chooses, if you also face difficulties in effectively managing your usage, it might be time to seek professional assistance. When looking for such help, the goal should be optimized allocation and more efficient management of resources within the cloud infrastructure. A proper approach includes an initial cost analysis of the infrastructure, identifying underutilized resources, and discovering opportunities for cost savings. Only after this can an appropriate solution be integrated to reduce cloud expenses and simplify infrastructure management through autoscaling.

4. Adjusting Server Capacity to Workload Demand

Scalability and flexibility are two of the core characteristics of any effective IT infrastructure optimization strategy. When infrastructure is professionally maintained, it can be expanded and adapted to meet the needs of a business. This may involve adding new servers and workstations, optimizing IT equipment costs, or strategically reallocating resources based on project priorities.

5. Consolidating Systems and Workloads

This process involves optimizing and integrating an organization’s IT infrastructure, resources, and systems to minimize complexity, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. Typically, this means merging data centers, software platforms, and servers into a more manageable and scalable IT environment. Centralizing IT operations and eliminating redundant or inefficient systems enables businesses to operate significantly better while reducing expenses. At the same time, it enhances security and improves resource allocation. With this approach, IT teams can focus more on strategic initiatives rather than constantly troubleshooting system issues.

6. Optimizing SaaS Subscriptions

This strategy includes a set of best practices aimed at identifying and reducing redundant subscriptions, consolidating security risks, and improving cost control for software maintenance. By doing so, businesses can maximize the potential and value of their SaaS subscriptions while simultaneously reducing expenses. The process involves analyzing and reviewing SaaS subscriptions, identifying more cost-effective alternatives for expensive services, merging duplicate subscriptions, and eliminating unnecessary ones.

7. Data Storage Optimization

This approach focuses on improving data storage processes to enhance efficiency, performance, and cost reduction. It involves not only minimizing physical data storage but also implementing more advanced optimization strategies. Effective data storage optimization can be achieved by deleting duplicate data from backup systems, email, and cloud platforms, compressing data to reduce storage size, categorizing data storage based on importance and frequency of use, and archiving older, less frequently accessed data.

8. Evaluating Open Source Alternatives

Finding sustainable open-source alternatives to popular software solutions is not always an easy task. However, open-source software provides access to source code, allowing free use, modification, adaptation, and distribution. This not only leads to continuous improvement of the software due to contributions from various experts but also offers greater flexibility, transparency, collaboration opportunities, and, most importantly, cost reduction. Open-source alternatives are an excellent choice for projects that need to stay within specific budget constraints.

9. Strategic Planning for Upgrades

IT infrastructure is not static, it evolves continuously to meet changing needs, opportunities, and trends. Naturally, these changes must eventually become part of your strategic planning. But how can you plan infrastructure upgrades strategically so that they align with your business goals, resources, and budget? The process consists of several steps, including assessing the current state of the infrastructure, defining the desired future state, considering possible alternatives, selecting the right strategy, implementing it, and analyzing the results of the upgrade.

10. Partnering with Experts

Collaborating with experienced IT experts for infrastructure optimization is a critical strategic step. This provides access to specialized knowledge and skills, as well as customized solutions, making it significantly easier and more efficient to overcome complex challenges.

11. Prioritizing Security

Data protection is of critical importance to any business. Optimizing this aspect of a company’s IT infrastructure involves multiple approaches, including regular security system assessments, implementing cutting-edge protective measures, effectively responding to potential security threats, and analyzing past security incidents to prevent future breaches.

IT Operations and Support

1. Outsourcing Non-Core IT Functions

Outsourcing is often considered a Plan B for many companies or businesses, a backup plan that is resorted to when other options or resources are exhausted. However, outsourcing non-core IT functions and processes or delegating certain tasks to external specialists is a great way to improve overall efficiency and productivity, as it allows your focus to remain on activities that generate profit or bring you closer to your business goals. This approach can also significantly reduce costs by eliminating or minimizing expenses related to hiring in-house employees and the additional resources required to perform tasks, including employee benefits.

2. Automating Repetitive Tasks and Processes

The automation of IT infrastructure serves several important purposes, one of which is simplifying complex processes and tasks while eliminating the need for constant upskilling of employees, ultimately saving time and resources. By implementing optimization methods, you can significantly increase efficiency, enhance operational speed, simplify management processes, avoid skill gaps, and accelerate the implementation of new and more complex IT infrastructures, updates, and functionalities.

3. Optimized IT Service Desk

The IT service desk can rightfully be called the epicenter of customer support and issue resolution in the IT sector. This department and its employees play a key role in ensuring a seamless experience for clients. There are several ways to optimize the IT service desk, each focusing not only on improving service quality but also on reducing costs. Optimizing customer support is a long journey that requires strategic planning, technological integrations, and a strong focus on human capital.

4. Focus on Employee Training

Ensuring that your employees have sufficient knowledge, skills, expertise, and training to stay up to date with innovations plays a crucial role in increasing overall efficiency and productivity. It is also essential for achieving optimal results when optimizing IT infrastructure. Providing appropriate training will turn employees into specialists who can guarantee comprehensive support and offer personalized solutions tailored to current business needs and goals.

5. Aligning IT Solutions with Business Goals

Aligning IT solutions with business goals involves developing a detailed plan that defines how the company envisions the integration of IT investments, strategies, and operations with its core business objectives. This process consists of multiple steps and, although extensive, can provide numerous advantages for the business, including increased efficiency, improved decision-making processes, and better utilization of all available IT resources.

6. Implementing Predictive Analysis and Metrics

Predictive analysis is based on data obtained from past events, issues, decisions, statistical models, or machine learning algorithms. This information is used to analyze and identify trends and potential scenarios to predict possible future outcomes of IT operations. Such analysis aids in making more informed decisions, forecasting and mitigating risks, and optimizing IT operations. Predictive analysis plays a vital role in IT by offering opportunities for increased efficiency, risk mitigation, and business growth stimulation.

7. Identifying KPIs

Monitoring performance and identifying appropriate indicators to measure it is a crucial element that can be used not only for cost optimization but also for maximizing the utilization of available resources.

Network and Security

1. Choosing the Right Monitoring Tools

Software applications and IT infrastructures require regular checks, monitoring, and evaluation. IT infrastructure monitoring is the continuous and systematic observation of its components. The goal of this process is to collect and analyze data to ensure the efficiency and security of all operations. The process includes tracking key metrics and indicators related to the performance of infrastructure elements. To make this process as effective as possible, it is necessary to use the right monitoring tools. By collecting and analyzing data, you can ensure the optimal operation and security of networks, servers, applications, and databases.

2. Monitoring the Right Metrics

Infrastructure metrics are used to measure and analyze the performance of various IT infrastructure components, including operating systems, disk activity, servers, virtual machines, and more. There are several key reasons to track infrastructure metrics, all of which aim to ensure effective management and optimization of all IT resources. Choosing the right metrics and monitoring them properly helps businesses maintain stability, correctly identify and address issues, optimize resource allocation, plan capacity, better control of user experience, and reduce costs.

3. Reviewing Network Usage

Networks are extremely important for businesses, and improving their performance is more crucial than ever. Network optimization is the process of enhancing network performance in terms of speed, reliability, capacity, and security. Optimizing networks and their usage is essential for several reasons related to connectivity, speed, productivity, and cost reduction. Essentially, a well-optimized network ensures seamless and reliable connectivity.

4. Consolidating Security Solutions

A business may be at risk when relying on multiple IT security providers, as this approach can create gaps that malicious actors might exploit. Combining all security tools and consolidating them into a single platform can significantly eliminate various risks, unify threat detection methods, ensure an appropriate and secure response to threats, and provide stronger protection.

5. Documenting Processes and Procedures

Before making any changes to network configurations, it is crucial to have a solid plan. Therefore, detailed documentation of all processes and procedures related to the current network settings and setup is necessary, including all devices, IP addresses, and network topology. This documentation can later be useful for troubleshooting, simplifying future network configuration processes, and saving potential costs in case of serious issues requiring resolution.

6. Adopting the Zero Trust Security Model

The Zero Trust model is a detailed and proactive security strategy, distinct from traditional methods that aim to enhance security. This model treats all network traffic as potentially hostile. It requires strict verification and authentication of every person or device attempting to access network resources. By implementing this model, businesses can significantly reduce risks and the impact of potential attacks, as well as eliminate the threat of unauthorized access.

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