Gartner: Cutting IT costs by 25 per cent can be done in 10 steps

outsourcing is an important tool in IT cost cutting

Interesting article, but what jumped out at me, was how little importance was given to outsourcing in the list of steps.
It is true that cost cutting is not always the main driver for outsourcing, particularly in second and third generation projects where in-house skills have been lost. However, while there are a range of factors behind why our customers choose to outsource and in particular choose to offshore, I can honestly say that cost savings are one of the most important reasons. Asian and Eastern European destinations generally represent a 50% cost saving on in-house development. Surely this is an effective way to reduce overall IT costs?
What’s more – outsourcing can also optimise your IT department. By freeing up time and resource, it allows staff to concentrate on more strategic work, opening up new opportunities for junior team members. Also whereas in-house teams often have wide skill sets, IT outsourcers often have much deeper expertise.
Many companies do choose to outsource and in particular to offshore, as a way to reduce costs. I’m surprised Gartner didn’t emphasise it more.

Posted by: Jaroslaw Czaja CEO Future Processing  17 Oct 2011

OUTDATED COOLING TECHNIQUES ARE KEY CONTRIBUTOR TO SOARING ENERGY COSTS IN THE DATA CENTRE

With energy costs now a major concern for businesses across the UK, attention has to be turned to one of the primary areas of energy consumption: the data centre. Yet with cooling technology typically representing 45% of overall data centre day-to-day running costs, today’s expensive air conditioning techniques are becoming unsustainable.

By replacing the outdated cooling technologies and methodologies that have been in use for the past 15 years, organisations could actually reduce data centre cooling costs by 90%.

The ideal set up for any data centre would be to use the most up to date technology, combining Direct Free Cooling with aisle containment and optimised air flow management. However, in today’s economic environment capital expenditure is constrained. There are considerable benefits to be gained from considering any one of these options in isolation – and the cost can be minimal, especially when looking at just using air flow management techniques.

For example if the organisation is using a raised access floor in the data centre, how is the air being distributed within the floor void? Is there an option to use different types of floor grill, introduce baffles within the floor void to move the air in different directions or remove hot spots, or simply relocate cabinets within the room? Simple air management techniques can be inexpensive to implement and deliver clear reduction in energy consumption.

There is simply no way any data centre can continue operating with air cooling models that have been in place over a decade; it is not sustainable, either environmentally or economically. It is time to reconsider the way data centre cooling is delivered and explore opportunities for reducing the primary source of energy consumption within the business.

Jason Preston
Director
2bm
www.2bm.co.uk

Posted by: Jason Preston  03 Oct 2011

Software License Optimization Yields Savings

Unfortunately, the pressure to cut costs continues unabated and from all reports this is likely to persist for a while yet. Drilling down into the point made on IT asset management, software should be paid particular attention. Software is strategic to organizations, as it practically runs businesses today and typically accounts for around 35% of a company’s IT budget. The issue with software is that it is inherently difficult to manage, without built-in mechanisms to track deployment, usage or entitlements. And the evolving IT landscape is further exacerbating the problem – including new platforms and infrastructure options such as virtualisation and private cloud computing, and new software licensing models, such as subscriptions and bursts-of-use. All these have software licensing implications and if not properly monitored, managed and optimised, can result in millions of pounds of wasted software spend. But on the other hand, by optimising enterprise software licensing, IT organisations can typically reduce software spend by almost 20% annually. Defining a process, and then utilising enterprise licence optimisation tools to automate that software asset management process is recommended. Using ad hoc approaches and manually undertaking the exercise will not yield the desired savings.

Posted by: Steve Schmidt  30 Sep 2011