As IT spending is in turmoil, the customers of our channel partners do strange things – sometimes including stopping IT spending altogether. So when I read this article in Dell’s Power Solutions Magazine, it really resonated. What channel partners should tell their customers is that the wrong decisions today will plague their IT costs for years to come. So here are the five big ideas
1. Not making the most of what you already have. Transitioning to a virtualized environment using existing systems can be significantly less expensive and more flexible than scaling your hardware infrastructure.
2. Leaving inefficient equipment in place. A major part of most IT budgets goes toward simply keeping the data center running. That’s why energy-efficient features are designed directly into Dell PowerEdge server and blade solutions. Dell channel partners can also help companies optimize the office IT environment through desktop and mobile client power management and efficient desktop computing.
3. Skimping on security and disaster recovery. Safeguarding your systems and preparing for the worst isn’t a big deal—until it is. Don’t get caught rolling the dice: calculate your potential downtime losses, define your recovery objectives, pinpoint your primary risks, and then design and size your disaster recovery systems accordingly.
4. Investing in new projects rather than existing ones. It’s tempting to look at a difficult business climate as a good time to try out completely new strategies. However, continuing to invest in existing projects is more likely to produce long-term gains.
5. Not establishing a social media strategy. Social media is poised to transform marketing and change how employees relate to each other within your company. Making a small investment now can position your company for benefits down the road.
These guys are certainly smarter than me, but I would add a couple more:
6. Maintaining multiple versions of applications, rather than standardizing on just a few.
7. Adding still more storage on to an already tortured & dispersed & non-standardized storage infrastructure, rather than consolidating.
What are your ideas? We’d like to hear them.
Read the full article here.