MGT303A | Effectiveness of Optimization of IT Infrastructure

Effective optimization of the IT infrastructure has never been is as important as it is today, in the era of a rapid change in the business environment, fierce competition and the development of a service-oriented economy. The ability to optimize the IT infrastructure, including systems management of IT resources, while ensuring an optimal balance between the need to reduce costs and expand opportunities for the development of business, can become a determining factor in the success of any business (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The goal of optimization of corporate IT environments is the formation of a di-flexible, flexible infrastructure that can support changing business needs. The change in the functions of IT services poses new challenges their managers: the management of companies requires effective use of technology to stimulate business innovation and strengthening the integration of business and technology to achieve before the organization of goals. In addition, business leaders are now considering innovation as the lifeblood of successful companies.

Research Objectives

The research objectives or the aim of the research is to see the effectiveness of optimization of IT infrastructure and innovations in the rapidly changing business environments. Increased competition causes companies to change continuously. Sustainability of business in significant depends on the improvement of financial indicators, which top management sees as a direct result of the introduction of innovation (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2015). Since the IT service has become an important resource for stimulating business-innovation optimization of IT infrastructure is necessary for output of innovations to the level required by management of companies, IT-rectors are now more responsible than ever before, for the movement of their organizations in the direction of expanding technological innovations.

This document discusses the current initiatives of managers IT services aimed at optimizing IT services, There is a change in the factors that stimulate this optimization, and recommendations are offered to organizations on how to proceed create a dynamic infrastructure and use it to the maximum in order effectively support a business. Corporate IT environments as a business - what does this mean and implications of the research.

Research Approach

The research is conducted through a series of surveys and questionnaires. Based on the results of a survey conducted last year, 500 managers IT services, reducing costs and providing opportunities for business in-Innovations are seen by CIOs as two of the most important methods, which they can use to support their businesses (Fleisher, 2017). In addition, it is important for them to solve the difficult task of ensuring a balance between the efficiency and innovation, in other words, between costs and quality. Forming a dynamic IT infrastructure - a simpler and less expensive in management, modernization and operation - IT management drivers can concentrate on using this more flexible infrastructure to support business strategies and innovation. Undoubtedly, IT service managers must ensure uninterrupted the activities of their organizations, but today, like never before they need to ensure continuity of operations, even when they are develop and implement new strategies that support business goals, including profit growth (Fuller, Atinc, Atinc & Babin, 2016). When modernizing or optimization of IT infrastructures and functions, they should provide continuity of operations and exclude significant costs associated with downtime and development.

Details of the Research Design and Methodology to be applied

The research design is centered on surveys, questionnaires and observational check list that aims at getting the information needed for the right conclusion. The research was conducted to about 500 ICT experts in a population of 2400 staffers. Thus, the goal of IT optimization should be to improve the internal operations of the IT department, so that the resources could be directed towards the introduction of innovations within the IT services or in other structural units of the company. Decreasing costs for infrastructure and reinvesting savings (Veal, 2017).

IT managers can simultaneously help reduce the cost of and support business and innovation.

At present, the head of whether IT departments should support business innovations and closer integration of business and technology to achieve the organization of goals. It is necessary to solve the difficult balance sheet between efficiency and innovation- costs, and quality (Takhar-Lail, & Ghorbani, 2015)..

By reducing the cost of infra- structure and reinvesting savings, IT managers can contribute to the reduction of and support business and innovation.

Implementation plan

The plan as put in the research has the following process flow;

Optimizing IT infrastructure with business goals in mind, understanding the trends and problems of IT optimization, experiencing the urgent need to improve the efficiency of operations, IT services must cooperate with internal customers and provide support business development in a proactive mode, while simultaneously seeking new opportunities to reduce costs. Currently, about 60% of IT budgets are allocated to support operations, system management, technical support and minor improvements. And although the level of availability of systems has grown significantly compared to the indicators of ten years ago, the expectations of users and organizations are evolving even faster (Hair, Samouel & Page, 2015). . (Although the server load is usually not more than 20%, during peak-on-load periods, there are problems with system response time, which is due, inter alia, to the unpredictability of resource requirements.) In addition, IT organizations need to simplify the existing infrastructure and the formation of a flexible set of services that can be quickly adapted to the changing business environment. Below are specific problems that today's IT departments must address: • Cost control • Integration times of redundant systems for simplifying infrastructure-many enterprises still have unoptimized, complex inherited environments that impede the implementation of new initiatives; implementation of new applications may be constrained by the complexity of technical support and testing of existing disparate systems • Appropriate allocation of resources to meet long-term corporate needs • Performing the same - or large - scope of work with less resources (O'Brien & Saldanha, 2014).

Automating IT management processes. Automation allows you to increase efficiency and effectiveness of work, as well as provide more reliable services. • Standardization of operating systems, applications and systems. The necessary conditions for the productive activity of the organization are technological compatibility based on open standards and the optimization of interactions • Automation of the implementation of agreements on the level of service for compliance with established business policies. To keep pace with the rapid pace of changes in business needs, it is necessary to automate the management of infrastructure resources (Sinkovics, Jean & Kim, 2016). Choosing a model that meets the needs of business The first step towards optimizing IT environments is to identify the needs and characteristics that determine the principles for using technology across the enterprise. Based on these characteristics, it is possible to identify four typical organization profiles - consumer, service, partner or technology organization. Regardless of which profile best describes the organization, the management of its IT department must clearly understand the business objectives of each of its client segments, internal or external. This understanding allows the IT service to design an efficient infrastructure that provides a directory supported by the information technology business services necessary to help each of these segments achieve their goal. For example, the profiles of the accounting and financial department will differ from the profiles of production units or sales departments (McNely, Spinuzzi, & Teston, 2015). The development of balancing and prioritization skills in such a diverse environment is a critical step on the road to optimization. The IT service should examine its client segments in the same way that the company does with its customers, and then effectively use its resources to create or maintain technologies that meet the needs of each client segment.

Recommendation

Developing an IT strategy to support the solution of business tasks. It is almost impossible to make changes in one area of ??business, without affecting others, since they are all interrelated. The organizations should consider a set of tasks in all difficulties. For example, server consolidation can provide costs, but excessive consolidation can adversely affect the productivity and availability of business services or to form fragile and difficult for technical support infrastructure. This can lead to a decrease in the company's revenues, and as a result, losses can exceed the savings achieved as a result of consolidation.

Consolidating servers can also affect other components and infrastructure functions, such as the application and architecture tour network. Undoubtedly, when developing appropriate optimization strategies It is extremely important to weigh competing demands. It is necessary to constantly ensure a complex balance between costs and benefits, and organizations should do this systematically - within the framework of implementation of the strategy.

The next stage is develop a strategy IT optimization in accordance with client segment profiles to help them in solving business problems.

Having determined the needs and functions of the organization, it is important to also estimate the functions of the IT department. Practically in any IT infrastructure can be divided into seven areas, and a glorious representation takes into account such a division. Each area belongs to one of two groups: management or technical. Together, these areas determine the potential areas of analysis and expert research, which are necessary for optimization IT services in a modern competitive environment. Below are the descriptions of these seven areas, as well as the actions that IT can take to carry out the optimization process

Bibliography

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Eriksson, P., & Kovalainen, A. (2015). Qualitative methods in business research: A practical guide to social research. Sage.

Fleisher, M. (2017). Prison Gangs, Street Gangs: A Critique of Theories of Prison Violence and Prison Research Methodologies: Very Rough Draft.

Fuller, C. M., Simmering, M. J., Atinc, G., Atinc, Y., & Babin, B. J. (2016). Common methods variance detection in business research. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), 3192-3198.

Hair Jr, J. F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A. H., Samouel, P., & Page, M. J. (2015). Essentials of business research methods. Routledge.

O'Brien, S., & Saldanha, G. (2014). Research methodologies in translation studies. Routledge.

McNely, B., Spinuzzi, C., & Teston, C. (2015). Contemporary research methodologies in technical communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 24(1), 1-13.

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Sinkovics, R. R., Jean, R. J. B., & Kim, D. (Eds.). (2016). Advancing the International Marketing Research Agenda with Innovative Methodologies. Emerald.

Takhar-Lail, A., & Ghorbani, A. (2015). Market Research Methodologies: Multi-Method and Qualitative.

Veal, A. J. (2017). Research methods for leisure and tourism. Pearson UK.