Infrastructure Development and Deployment – 6 Vital Rules
Many companies are trying to organize infrastructure in extreme conditions when neither budget nor time was planned. However, some companies successfully cope with this task. So, how to create a reliable infrastructure, and what is a deployment platform? Here is a checklist of 6 crucial rules.
The importance of reliable infrastructure deployment
The business has been developing and scaling for years. For example, a company that started with a few branches may now have several hundred. Still, the corporate network remains at the same level as when the organization began its journey. As a result, network services that worked effectively can now hinder company goals achievement. In addition, the demand for high-quality Internet is growing as businesses switch to such online services as Office 365, Microsoft Azure, etc. In this case, a reliable Internet is crucial for the company’s productivity. So how do you organize your ideal corporate infrastructure for quality work?
Analysts claim that in a typical situation, more than 70% of the IT budget is spent on infrastructure maintenance – servers, networks, operating systems, and drives. Organizations, realizing how necessary the optimization of the IT infrastructure is and how important it is for being efficient from the economic side, come to the point that it is required to rationalize the infrastructure of their enterprise with the help of standardization of desktop computers, consolidation of data processing centers, and the implementation of experience in the operation of information technologies. However, if these initiatives are taken separately, they do not have a lasting effect. Therefore, it is necessary to imagine the maturity levels of your IT infrastructure, and its connection with the overall business strategy.
6 Common rules for infrastructure deployment
Creating an effective IT infrastructure is a rather complex process that requires a high level of competencies in various IT areas. In addition, it is necessary to analyze a large amount of information to ultimately obtain an effective IT infrastructure that meets the needs of the business.
The organization of IT infrastructure requires compliance with 6 standard rules:
1. Security
The more complex the infrastructure, the more vulnerable it is to virus attacks, data leakage through users’ faults, and unauthorized access by third parties. Antivirus software is used to protect data.
2. Scalability
IT infrastructure should be easy to scale up as business needs change. For example, the continuous growth of data or company staff expansion pushes for changes. Unified solutions are used – both software and hardware to improve scalability at the design stage. Adding one module or applying the same template/image for the nth time will take fewer resources than swapping one hardware for another or multiple configurations.
3. Continuous work
Business processes must be performed stably, without or with a minimum amount of downtime – they can lead to material or reputational losses. For uninterrupted work, the following tools are used: creating backups and restoring data, antivirus protection, moving data to the cloud, and using a cluster structure.
4. The rate of change
Following changes in business processes, the IT infrastructure must quickly change. It helps the company maintain a high level of service and adapt to the processes that take place in the economy. In addition, the speed of change ensures the introduction of new technologies, services, and services.
5. Economic justification
The company should spend most of the money not on upgrading hardware and software but on maintaining existing hardware and software.
6. Controllability
The creation of an IT infrastructure should be carried out in the direction of simplifying its manageability. The simpler the management, the fewer errors occur and the faster their cause is found. Monitoring and analytics systems can be used for such operations.