Seven essential steps to optimizing virtual infrastructure costs
We live in a world full of many types of disruption. Companies are buffeted by evolving technologies, pricing pressures and government-imposed regulations that require constant adaptation to overcome. On the technology front, virtual infrastructure once provided a way to reduce complexity and increase flexibility, but what happens when that approach itself is disrupted?
In this environment, it can seem like a constant struggle to keep your head above water, or to maintain the SLAs that keep your organization running. If so, it’s probably time to reassess your IT infrastructure and find new ways to optimize costs and reduce complexity.
Technology consulting plays a crucial role in helping organizations optimize virtual infrastructure costs, With the right guidance, strategic insights and tailored solutions, you can implement more efficient and resilient infrastructures at a cost structure tailored to your organizational requirements.
When it comes to conducting this kind of infrastructure optimization initiative, it’s important to take a holistic view. If you are considering engaging a consultant to optimize virtual infrastructure costs, make sure they are taking everything into consideration. In our experience, there are seven important strategies that can make the difference between success and failure.
In a world full of disruption, it can be a constant struggle to maintain the SLAs that keep your business running — but expert guidance can help you streamline operations, improve efficiency and maximize the value of virtual infrastructure.
The right approach to virtual infrastructure optimization
1. Assessment and analysis
First, you need to conduct a comprehensive assessment of your virtual infrastructure to identify areas of inefficiency, overprovisioning and resource waste. Once you have a detailed analysis of your virtual infrastructure configurations, resource utilization metrics and performance data, you can pinpoint opportunities for cost optimization.
2. Rightsizing and resource optimization
Next, it’s critical to right-size your virtual infrastructure and optimize resource allocations. Your infrastructure configurations must be aligned with actual workload demands in order to adjust resource allocations accordingly. As a result, you can eliminate resource overprovisioning and reduce unnecessary costs.
3. Storage efficiency improvement
Virtual infrastructure storage features like thin provisioning, deduplication and compression can help optimize storage utilization and enhance storage efficiency — reducing costs while maintaining performance and reliability.
4. Automation and orchestration
Automation and orchestration solutions help streamline operations, improve efficiency and reduce manual effort within virtual infrastructure by automating routine tasks such as provisioning, resource allocation and workload management. In turn, this leads to lower operational costs and increased productivity across your enterprise.
5. Hybrid cloud integration
When it comes to hybrid cloud, there’s no one-size-fits all solution. Integrating your virtual infrastructure with public cloud platforms will help optimize cost, but it requires going the extra mile. Your hybrid cloud architecture must be designed to enable seamless workload migration, dynamic resource scaling and cost-effective utilization of cloud resources, while maintaining compatibility.
6. License optimization
Although many of the strategies mentioned above can deliver more significant savings, you can still benefit by optimizing your licensing agreements. By analyzing these licensing requirements, you can optimize license allocations and leverage license management tools to maximize the value of your investments, minimize unnecessary expenditures and ensure compliance.
7. Performance monitoring and optimization
Once you have squeezed the maximum “bang for the buck” from your virtual infrastructure, ongoing performance monitoring and optimization is key. Through continuous performance metrics monitoring and proactive resource allocation, you can identify and fix performance bottlenecks, optimize resource utilization and keep your virtual infrastructure operating at peak efficiency and minimum cost.
As with any technology undertaking, these steps seem simple on the surface, but the implementation is not always so straightforward. Relying on a partner for expert guidance and strategic insights can help any organization streamline operations, improve efficiency and maximize the value of their virtual infrastructure investments.
You can learn more about Atos’s virtual infrastructure consulting services here.
Posted on: June 6, 2024
Edwin Brok
Global Head of Integration & VAR Services and Partner Management in Technology Services
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