Posted by Crystal Nichols on Wed, Jan 27, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
Down economy or not, IT managers have never had a blank check with which to meet an organization’s needs. As time goes on, IT managers have to deal with increased demand for computing and information services, all while being asked to cut costs and create grater justification for expenditures.
One of the areas IT departments are asked to cut back in is operational costs for their data centers. There are a few steps involved in reducing data center costs while maintaining the kinds of service levels your organziation has come to know and expect:
1. Look at Energy Management. One of the areas most data centers can reduce costs in is the area of energy management. You can set the temperature of your data center to 24 degrees Celsius, in most cases. Another way to reduce your energy costs is to use outside air to cool the data center, as blowing in outside air is much less expensive than air conditioning. Even implementing a server-based energy management solution will save you significant money in the long run.
2. Rationalize data center hardware. You need to get a clear picture of the equipment you've got in your data center and what each piece does. Doing so can save you as much as ten percent of your hardware costs. You want to make sure that the machines you have are being used effectively, and you want to get rid of those that aren't. In turn, this will lower your support and maintenance costs, and it will also open up new possibilities for virtualization.
3. Consider virtualization. Virtualization will help to control energy costs, but it will also reduce your capital expenditures and maintenance costs. Effective use of existing technology can reduce energy use by 80 percent or more, and it can also reduce floor space requirements.
4. Renegotiate. On a regular basis, you need to renegotiate all of your purchase contracts. This will include lease agreements, hardware contracts, maintenance or support contracts, software agreements and anything else. Get rid of the ones that are too expensive, and talk to vendors about lower payment schedules for the rest.
5. Manage people costs effectively. The largest single cost for most data centers is its people. Review your staffing levels. Take a look at the specific skills that your data center will need for the next 24 months. Make use of outsourcing if it's an option for your business.
6. Be patient. If possible, delay the procurement of new data center assets. Instead of purchasing new equipment, extend the life of existing servers by renegotiating their service contracts and maintenance support.
7. Be ready to justify your expenditures. The days when IT sort of had free reign because executives were dazzled by technology have been gone for over a decade. Still, some things you just have to have. Make sure you're ready to justify every cost, especially during times that are on the rough side economically.
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Posted by Crystal Nichols on Mon, Jan 25, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
Today’s CIO has to be more than just a great administrator. Of all executives, the CIO is in the unique position of needing to keep fluent in a highly technical field while at the same time dealing with the normal business details that all corporate officers have to deal with. On top of that, the IT budget for any given company is often one of the biggest pieces of the pie, particularly for companies that deal primarily in information.
To stay in the game, a CIO needs to be able to handle people as effortlessly as her staff handles technology. At the same time, she needs to avoid some of the most common and most destructive blunders.
Here are three of the biggest blunders a CIO can make:
Allowing corporate culture to conflict with IT structure.
In other words, allowing an environment to be created in which the behavior of people stands at odds with organizational or systemic design. When people butt up against systems or structures that don’t work within their own habits, behaviors and thinking processes, one of two things is going to happen.
One possibility is that they aren’t going to be happy and, eventually, create morale concerns. When people can’t adapt a system to their own view of the world and the way it works, they become intensely dissatisfied. Productivity falls and unrest ensues.
The other outcome isn’t much better. People will, by their very nature, attempt to fit systems to their own preferences, rather than adapting their behavior. Thus, they won’t utilize the full functionality of the system, or they’ll use it in a way that negates the benefits of having the system in the first place.
Failure to analyze and support IT’s business contribution.
IT is a cost center, not a profit center. Accordingly, even in the most progressive organizations, IT rarely gets all of the budget support it asks for.
As CIO, it’s your job to build the case for your organization. You need to be able to explain to the CFO how the new IP telephony system will reduce costs, while at the same time being able to explain to your network director why you’re requiring her to cut her data center operating costs by ten percent.
Weak non-operational functions.
You might have the best team of server engineers and admins in the world, but if your vendor management sucks you’re going to be vulnerable to downtime. Your department needs to excel at architecture, planning, project management, customer relations and the like.
Keep your people involved in key processes, from project initiation to end-user implementation. Even your security admin needs to take an occasional visit to user-land.
Non-tecnhical training and education play a huge role here. Making sure your managers have had project management and financial training will not only make your organziation that much stronger, it’ll make your job that much easier.
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