How to Zero-in on the Right IT Infrastructure Management Solution?

Satish Kumar V is Country Head at DMX India

By Satish Kumar V

For a long time, IT setup was as simple as a couple of mainframes connected to a few peripherals. There were fewer IT resources to be handled and managing them was simple relatively. As time progressed, the technology kept evolving and the use cases of IT in businesses continued to spread across a wider range.

Nowadays, with every step taken towards business growth, both complexity and diversity of the IT infrastructure are increasing automatically. The involvement of additional resources and their management makes things chaotic resulting in businesses looking for automation in order to decrease effort whilst maximizing output. Thus, there is a vital requirement to integrate an IT Infrastructure Management Solution to company IT concept. The infrastructure management solution, not just looks after the possible infrastructure in an organization, but also reduces the technicians’ effort. This in return helps the IT staff to focus on innovations, improving service levels and ensuring crowning performance delivery. Additionally, it also plays a vital role for a better functioning IT system as it constantly monitors processes in the network, performs analysis, instantly alerts the IT personnel on error occurrence and saves enormous time.

While the decision makers are looking for a suitable infrastructure management solution, they must certainly opt for an efficient, all inclusive software solution to facilitate smooth services, high availability and scalability. They would also want all the associates involved, right from the CXO to the operator to have control over everything taking place around the IT infrastructure. While considering these benefits, today’s decision makers can come across certain key challenges, namely –

• Business specific applications
• Device mesh
• Insecure networks
• Mobility in end points
• Round-the-clock operations
• Private/ public/ hybrid cloud

Overlooking and customizing the functionality, integrating the available heterogeneous functional elements and secured networks for communication are some of the basic factors to be considered in effective infrastructure management.

IT for businesses means different solution for different entities. Be it based on goals, needs, budget and inherent teams’ capabilities, every business specification varies with the operational needs of the company. But one thing is in common– they all require best infrastructure management solution. The following are some characteristics/features one must look for in an ideal IT Infrastructure management solution –

• Functional Coverage: Coverage checklist including all features required for your operational needs
• Customization Options: Option for custom extensions/implementation to suit your specific needs
• Vendor Agnostic: Not to be tied down to specific vendors/ technologies
• Open Source Platform: Based on your corporate policy, existing/ future IT infrastructure approach
• Integrated Solution: Can the solution fit in to the existing set-up seamlessly from both operational and process?
• Hybrid Cloud Support: What will be your set-up in the near future?
• Self-Manageable: Will your internal team be able to handle day-to-day operations and finetuning?
• Local Technical Support: For direct access and comfort in interaction
• Flexible Licensing & Pricing: Is it suitable from your business objectives in terms of growth and specific needs?
• Preferred Partner Tie-up: Based on your comfort zone, know your current IT solution vendor

(The author is of this article, Satish Kumar V is Country Head at DMX India)