IT Infrastructure Strategies for Agile Companies

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In today's information age, the barriers that once held small and mid-sized companies at bay against their colossal competitors have crumbled. In an age where information is power and possessing the agility to grow is essential, it is the company that manages its information intelligently and focuses on innovation that wins.

The manner in which a company's everyday data and sensitive information is stored is a vital part of efficient operation and business continuity. Having the correct IT infrastructure for your needs not only allows your business to grow as fast as it needs to, but can stop the hemorrhage of inefficient spending common to many data center colocations and in-house server rooms. Smart system architecture and cutting edge IT infrastructure are essential to achieving cost-efficient and reliable storage and retrieval for both daily business operations as well as disaster recovery.

The Intricacies of Optimal Data Design

The type of data you are storing greatly influences the design of your IT infrastructure. Storing every bit of data in such a way that it is immediately accessible is the most expensive way to store data. A more cost-effective solution is to keep mission critical data immediately accessible while backing up and storing archival data for the purpose of reducing data loss. But even this economical method can be expensive.

Backup equipment can be pricey, not to mention the cost of installation, operation, and maintenance. The most cost effective solution for data management is through data center colocation in combination with Consonus' outsourced IT managed services. With this model, even the smallest of companies not only have access to high performance equipment, but also the expertise of an IT infrastructure expert to design smart data storage solutions.

Our IT infrastructure experts prioritize your data so that it is stored on equipment based on its value. By using this "tier approach" files that are critical to your business operations are easily accessible and regularly backed up. Remaining information is then sorted and prioritized, and assigned a level of access and duplication frequency.

IT Infrastructure That Adapts With Your Load

Smart IT infrastructure design means that you're paying for performance, not downtime. Nearly all businesses have peak hours when equipment needs to perform at top level, but what happens during the downtime?

Are you paying for peak performance while your systems are sitting idle? If you're managing your own data center, you're probably paying for the max level of performance round the clock ― even when you don't need to.

The cost effective solution to this expensive dilemma is solved through Consonus' managed hosting services and through virtualization. Businesses only use what they pay for because resources are allocated on an as needed basis. And because by design the virtualization model cannot be overtaxed, the threat of data corruption and crashes is dramatically reduced.

Reducing Wasteful Spending On Power

One of the big operating expenses in maintaining IT infrastructure is energy costs. Paying the electric bill can be an eye-opening experience after running a data server 365 days a year. Therefore, efficient architecture plays an essential part in keeping energy costs low, whether for an in-house server or data center colocation.

Many green initiatives are centered on power management, and IT infrastructure that consumes less energy is indeed a green solution. Legacy systems tend to consume far more power than today's Energy Star® rated equipment. While upgrading the local server can do wonders for reducing energy usage in general, offloading energy costs to a data center provider by using data center colocation yield the most cost effective way for a business to reduce the cost spent on energy.

Achieving optimal efficiency of IT infrastructure means creating dynamic systems that scale resources to meet needs. For example, a virtual system can be optimized to serve countries around the globe, operating at full capacity during their respective peak hours. In a non-optimized environment, the server sits idle for a large percentage of time while the operating costs continue to add up round the clock.