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What affects the cost of IT?
Capital costs and ongoing running costs need to be considered as
a whole. After all the money is coming out of your businesses pocket.
Software and Hardware - Capital & depreciation costs
Obviously, what you require in hardware, software,
communications will add to the bottom IT line. Many people are
unwilling to change habits, for example instead of using Microsoft
Office, one could use the equally capable OpenOffice suite. However,
for desktops these personal preferences are difficult to address,
however behind the scenes in your servers and facilities, your staff
cannot see what is delivering services such as file, printer and
Internet sharing, they cannot "see" applications such a customer
resource management, they cannot 'see" databases. In these situations
one can save significant fees for licenses and long term maintenance
and support by choosing wisely, and thankfully unimpeded by prejudices.
One can choose on the basis of business needs only.
For example, approximately 70% of servers on the Internet are
powered by Unix based servers, not Windows. The reasons are many, but
the key reasons include:
- cost of licensing - many Unix based servers are free and others at a fraction of the cost of Microsoft solutions.
- stability - not only does a more stable platform deliver
better up time, but generally maintenance is simpler and support is
less costly, simply because the systems, being more stable require less
support.
- security - a major reason why people choose Unix based
servers - Unix is renowned for it's extremely secure architecture and
this shows through all the Unix flavours - BSD, Linux, Sun, Mac etc.
- breadth of choice - the old saying "If the only tool you have
is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail". - Abraham Maslow
(1908-1970) is scarily applicable. The ability to use all the
technologies available, mix and match to deliver the facilities your
business needs will set your business above the rest who are stuck with
one almost monopolistic and well know software vendor.
The same is true of hardware - lets face it, there are only a
handful of component manufacturers in the world, mainly situated in
Asia. All computers are made of standard components - all! A well
designed "white box" server will deliver the same performance,
reliability and compatibility that a much more expensive 'branded'
server will. Again, the choice is yours, but be aware, buying "IBM"
costs you as will a poorly designed white box.
As for depreciation, IT hardware and software changes so fast,
the most optimistic estimates of resale value is the TAX man! Try and
sell a server or desktop that is only few months old - software is
virtually worthless and hardware drops faster in value than the law of
gravity allows. The ultimate example of the worthlessness of hardware
is the printers and computers left out for collection along with other
household rubbish - bits of old tin roof will be taken by the vultures,
but the printer will not be touched.
Running Costs
Maintenance is a key driver of IT cost. Less maintenance
means more repairs and support, it means more downtime and lost staff
time. It means delays to your clients. The cost of failures is well
beyond just the repairs.
Unfortunately, many businesses (including large corporates)
misinterpret the age old saying "leave well enough alone". The
misinterpretation occurs when defining "well enough". Many interpret a
working function computer as "well enough" and so tend to leave it
alone, however this is an illusion. Computers rarely fail abruptly. The
'blue screen of death" rarely happens without precursory events - many
small incidents occur that build up to it. As evidence, check your own
events log, you will find many errors, warnings and information
messages, yet, your computer will appear to be working fine. So
although on the surface a server or a desktop is running "well enough"
a quick look under the bonnet will expose a miriad of errors, some of
which could start the avalanche that we experience as computer failure.
Maintenance is important because it detects and corrects these
precursory errors that are likely to cause such an avalanche.
Maintenance will involve applying patches (which are segments of
software that was buggy and has been corrected), they will do disk and
file scans looking for tell tale signs of wear and software errors.
Finally a good maintenance procedure will involve checking and
correcting errors that experience tells us lead to major failures.
The key is getting the balance of maintenance right, and this
balance depends on the cost and effectiveness of the maintenance
procedure. Automation of maintenance is thus a key driver of both the
effectiveness and the reduction in the cost of maintenance. So more
effective, less costly maintenance will deliver higher levels of
reliability and therefore lower levels of catastrophic failures and
will therefore cost your business less.
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