In this age of digitalization, having an optimal information technology (IT) infrastructure is crucial. Whether running an SME or a large company, you need a great IT team to boost internal operations, protect your business, and optimize your products and services. But what are the components of IT infrastructure?
Like what you can find in a city, an IT infrastructure has its version of buildings, roads, and transportation systems. They’re usually in the form of hardware (routers, cables, power cords, etc.), software, enterprise, network, and database systems.
To leverage and utilize these systems effectively, company executives and board members must strategically plan, agree upon, and organize an IT department. Their task would include:
- Setting the overall organization model
- Outlining all low and high-level functions
- Detailing a reporting and managerial chain of command
- Creating a pertinent and practical management model
- Aligning the departments with corporate goals
- Ensuring the defined roles are carried out
While these may seem complicated, we have tips to help you. Here are a few:
1. Understand Your Business Needs.
The key to building an optimal IT infrastructure for your business is ensuring you have everything, not just the best of some things. That being said, you must understand your business needs before anything else.
Depending on the situation your company is in, there’s a specific infrastructure solution to address your concerns. Thus, you have to anticipate that whether you’re just starting as a business or expanding, you’ll face different problems.
For instance, a startup company will need a local data center solution. Similarly, it will be necessary to manage these data centers and ensure that the organization’s servers are always online and accessible.
But as a startup, having enough money to invest in servers and the employees needed to manage them can be challenging. Therefore, you must carefully understand your needs and plan to address them before you build your company’s IT infrastructure.
2. Select The Appropriate Team Size.
Most businesses don’t employ enough system administrators and IT personnel. However, it’s understandable, knowing there will be too many jobs to pay attention to when running a business. But if you take the opposite direction, hiring numerous IT employees with an overly enthusiastic attitude, there might be too many cooks in the kitchen.
Therefore, you must select the right size for your IT infrastructure. But how big should it be, then? You may ask.
We suggest you seek assistance from an IT professional or service provider. But generally speaking, you must consider the number of servers you expect to have. In addition, you must acknowledge that there’s a specific IT expert for various issues. Other factors include the size of your entire staff, data communication flow, clientele, growth projections, and more.
3. Choose A Reliable Vendor.
Of course, it doesn’t end with having the right number of staff. You also need to look for reputable suppliers for your hardware, software, and other SaaS tools/equipment. With many scams reported daily, it’s always recommended to have a strong vendor relationship with only the best. It’s a critical stage for your IT infrastructure and the company’s overall performance.
What you would do before signing a long-term contract with a provider is first to try out their product or service. Assess whether it’s appropriate for your business or not. Also, consider how the service provider would react and take action in case of a problem. Will they address it quickly? Can you reach them at any hour of the day or night? Will they impose higher fees for inadequate support? These are some questions you must think of when choosing one.
You could save a lot of money in the long run if you have a supplier that provides high-quality products and IT services.
4. Keep The Processes Simple And Intuitive.
When building your IT infrastructure, always use persistent and traceable fixes and establish defined limits and processes from the start. Also, business owners or managers should avoid overdesigning their systems, creating low-cost temporary repair networks, or accumulating much tacit knowledge. It would help resolve some problems in the IT departments. After all, a business may still be there even if you leave the company.
The system’s complexity could make it difficult to rest or delegate responsibility, and it is frequently burdensome to maintain and recall all temporary utilities. That being said, while adopting structural changes, set structural standards and management procedures for all personnel, including yourself, to retain corporate flexibility.
5. Make Scalability Plans.
Finally, the most important one is considering your business’s potential growth and future plans. A basic file-sharing service might work for your current 20 employees, but after you hire a few hundred more in the coming years, the same system would struggle under the weight of the extra users, soon fall apart, and have an adverse effect on your company.
Buying products with managerial scalability, expansion potential, and the capacity to add capabilities later on, is crucial. Thus, you must always do forward planning to avoid future switching costs like company-wide retraining and retrieving lost data.
Conclusion
Don’t underestimate the value of having a flexible IT infrastructure. The caliber and dependability of a company’s technology determine its ability to innovate, grow, and outperform its competitors. Plus, you might be able to enhance your company strategy and network operations with the aid of the tools, services, and solutions that make up a fail-safe network system.
With our blog, you’ll be able to create an optimal IT infrastructure. Once you have your infrastructure, you can follow these tips for successful work of the IT department.
