Is your Infrastructure Future Proof?

With data volumes growing exponentially, more demand being placed on IT services, and applications proliferating across the enterprise, it has never been more important to future-proof your infrastructure. Question is, where do you start?



Here, we take a look at some of the key issues we think are critical to the future of infrastructure. From the instantaneous delivery of services to ‘always on’ technology, these issues all share a common theme – in that they promote business and IT agility.

This agility is at the heart of the future-proofed infrastructure. If there is one lesson to take from the incredible pace of change within the IT space, it is that you need agility to keep up. It gives you the ability to extract maximum value from your technology investments while delivering real business benefit – even while the goal posts shift.

But agility is a broad term. What does it mean when it comes to your IT infrastructure? How can you create a more agile IT environment that delivers benefits far into the future?

Of course, there is no definitive list. But we have identified three areas where most businesses will reap tangible benefits.

Transforming IT for instant delivery

The first key area for future-proofing your infrastructure lies with transforming your IT for instant delivery. This is particularly true in today’s mobile, connected, interactive and immediate world – and gives technology a new role in serving the enterprise, by creating new business and market opportunities.

There are a number of services and strategies that you can implement now to prepare for the future – think cloud computing, virtualisation and so on.

Converging IT for improved performance

Next in line is convergence. Whether it is on an internal cloud or a shared solution, in new or retrofitted facilities, convergence is a viable path for many businesses looking to future-proof their IT investments.

The convergence of servers, storage, networks and management software into shared pools of interoperable resources – all managed through a common management platform and based on standards and customer choice – delivers tangible performance gains including:

Faster time to revenue
Lower costs of acquisition and implementation
Faster and more flexible response to business changes
Lower risk
‘Always on’ IT for a better business

Our third recommendation for your future-proofing regime is around building ‘Always on’ technology. Consider strategies like building fail-over between your branches and instigating alternative pathing to ensure that you can always meet customer needs.

‘Always on’ is about maximising system availability while ensuring minimal service disruption to your business, customers and constituents.

What matters to you?

We’ve identified three areas for future-proofing your infrastructure. Do these resonate with your business? Of these areas, what’s most important? We’d like to hear from you about how you would go about future-proofing your infrastructure.