The current IT challenge - do a lot more with a lot less( 4 of 7)

Recently I heard from a family member that her company’s IT organization was ordered to cut costs by 20% across the board.  The organization was still expected to support a new, important initiative and meet the business’s requirements, though. The company’s motto appears to be “do a lot more with a lot less.”

There’s no doubt that today’s business environment is challenging.  Money is tight and everyone in IT is being asked to do more with less.  Sounds easy, right?  After all, computing and IT began as a labor-saving (and cost-saving) activity.

In practice, however, it’s hard to save money in a world where technology is constantly evolving – new technology and services requiring more powerful hardware, greater overall spending on software, and investment in people and skills that constantly need updating.

As these costs continue to increase, budgets have shrunk, making it very difficult to meet the needs of a more demanding group of customers.  How can one expect to stay current, stay within a shrinking budget, and still meet required service levels?

Proper Capacity Management is the key to ensuring that you are utilizing your IT resources in the most cost-effective way possible.  Many of you reading this blog will be nodding along and will feel quite certain that you have this area well under control.  It’s likely that many of you have plenty of tools at your disposal and performance and capacity data is available across the enterprise.

It’s a complex world now, though.  A transaction can span many layers, including the Internet, along with dozens of servers, databases, networks, and data warehouses.  This is common in the age of virtualization and cloud computing.  Are you sure you have every necessary view into a service so that you can continue to provide outstanding service while controlling costs?

A broader perspective on Capacity Management is needed -- 360° Capacity Management, where the capacity manager looks at service quality from all possible angles, making sure everything is looked at and nothing is missed.  In the final two installments, we’ll talk about how 360° Capacity Management can provide one window on capacity and how bringing all those disparate pieces together can help control costs while providing continued outstanding service to your customers.

On Friday I'll talk a bit about what kinds of data and information are needed to provide these views from every angle. We'll be running our next webinar 'Telling the Capacity Management Story' this month, be sure and sign up http://www.metron-athene.com/services/training/webinars/index.html

Rich Fronheiser

Chief Marketing Officer