We’re approaching the calendar year-end, a common time for teams to evaluate budgets.
In a recent survey from Auvik, more than half of IT professionals said that they were measured and evaluated on the total cost of IT. (We’ll be publishing the full results of the survey in the new year.
Since budget is a topic that matters I reach out to John O’Shaughnessy, an infrastructure architect and senior consultant at Insight, to talk about ways you can pare back your IT budget.
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5 Painless Ways to Trim IT Costs: Interview With John O’Shaughnessy
[02:55] We are going to talk about areas that can be trimmed for both short and long-term savings with a minimum of pain.
[03:46] One of the first things IT leaders can do is application rationalization or getting rid of technology bloat. Take the time to decommission old systems. Look at what you’re using and rate how much they are needed. Eliminate duplicate systems.
[06:03] Keep an eye out for billing errors. Take the time to get involved in the billing process and cut off billing for services you may not even be using anymore.
[07:24] An extra benefit of reducing the number of tools you use is that it allows for more proficiency on your team and more value from the tools you do use.
[07:48] Data management is another area where savings can happen. Have a process in place to control the amount of storage. For example, you might compress images or delete data after a certain amount of time.
[10:10] Find out what the legal requirements actually are. How long are you required to save certain data? Many IT departments will see they need to keep things forever when really it’s not that long. You can put better policies in place moving forward.
[11:47] Cloud cost optimization is a third area to target for cost-savings. Many cloud services charge by the hour or the minute. Design your system to match your workloads, perhaps shutting down in off hours, or increasing during peak times, then decreasing when those peaks are over.
[14:05] Monitor your cloud provider bills and make sure you aren’t paying for unneeded services.
[14:22] Automation can save a lot of time, which saves money. Find where the biggest opportunities are and automate things you do multiple times a day. Don’t waste time automating something you only do monthly.
[16:06] Another cost-saving technique, and one that people often overlook, is updating governance. Taking the time to build policies around how you operate, your security practices, and how to offer really good services creates a more efficient organization, which in turn saves money.
[17:20] These tips apply to both large and small organizations. In fact, the impact of dollars saved can be even greater in a small organization.
[18:13] For the quickest wins, start by focusing on application rationalization and billing.
Links from this episode
- John O’Shaughnessy on LinkedIn
- Insight
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