Due for a Hardware Refresh?
A couple of new variables need to be considered when thinking about a hardware refresh at this particular moment in time.
One is the market changes and market factors that are putting most organizations in the position of requiring a hardware refresh. Most hardware refreshes that are occurring now have been delayed and a number of things are different this time around. We’re finding that the organizations doing hardware refreshes right now are typically growing organizations. How do you factor in that level of growth to a fixed asset that you’re trying to provision at this particular moment in time?
If this is a delayed infrastructure upgrade, we’re seeing new requirements that weren’t on the radar several years ago during the last hardware refresh cycle: How do we provision remote or mobile users? How do we support people that are actually working from home, working remotely, or working on a mobile device?
A lot of organizations are not taking advantage of technologies that are available at this particular moment because they are still caught up in replacing existing hardware that had certain design specifications. Too many people are being short-sighted by just focusing on replacing hardware to match outdated functional specs and not looking at alternatives that can very easily meet those original specs and at the same time address new remote and mobile requirements.
The need to support remote workers and mobile devices lead to more new requirements. The positive side of being able to work anywhere, anytime means that your employees can be far more productive and can respond to clients better and faster. But now your data is available on devices not necessarily under your control and opens up your agency to a number of security concerns such as a lost laptop, an unsecured mobile device, and lack of central control over these devices.
Disaster recovery and business continuity requirements are also rapidly evolving. In the old days, you could lose 24 hours of data – but that’s just not acceptable anymore. Disaster recovery and business continuity in an ever connected world are far more important than they were when you designed your original IT infrastructure.
By Steven Finch
Reposted on Insurance Journal