Can you remember how your IT infrastructure looked a decade ago? IT staff busy plugging cables into network switches by day and pulling all-nighters to upgrade systems and swap over hard-drives while their colleagues slept blissfully unaware. If, for example, you have migrated any part of your operation to the cloud - how different is your IT infrastructure now?Can you remember how your IT infrastructure looked a decade ago? IT staff busy plugging cables into network switches by day and pulling all-nighters to upgrade systems and swap over hard-drives while their colleagues slept blissfully unaware. If, for example, you have migrated any part of your operation to the cloud - how different is your IT infrastructure now?Can you remember how your IT infrastructure looked a decade ago? IT staff busy plugging cables into network switches by day and pulling all-nighters to upgrade systems and swap over hard-drives while their colleagues slept blissfully unaware. If, for example, you have migrated any part of your operation to the cloud - how different is your IT infrastructure now?

1. COULD A FRESH PAIR OF EYES PROVIDE A CLEAR VIEW OF YOUR FUTURE IT BUSINESS
NEEDS?
CREATED BY: DAVID GILMORE
Can you remember how your IT infrastructure looked a
decade ago?
IT staff busy plugging cables into network switches by
day and pulling all-nighters to upgrade systems and
swap over hard-drives while their colleagues slept
blissfully unaware. If, for example, you have migrated
any part of your operation to the cloud - how different is
your IT infrastructure now?
Almost unrecognisable?
Now try to imagine what it will be like ten years in the
future. All the while commercial pressures and business
requirements are evolving - do you think your IT will
keep up?
The results of The Register's 'Infrastructure Readiness' temperature check shows that many IT
professionals believe their IT infrastructures to be 'coping pretty well with current business
requirements.' However, as perhaps you are too, they are also increasingly mindful that needs are
changing and new business demands can very quickly make IT obsolete and no longer fit for
purpose.
BUT being mindful of something and acting upon it are two different things - you’d be surprised how
many organisations’ strategy goes no further than getting through the next server or storage
upgrade - just keeping the lights on is no way to plan for your future.
So why are so many companies and organisations sleepwalking into an IT capability gap?
Often it's a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees.
Usually, the clients we engage with know what they need to do.
The difficulty for them is seeing beyond the very real obstacles they face (resource, budget,
priorities, difficult stakeholders) and the trials they’ll need to go through to reach the end state
(large scale change, infrastructure upgrades, user re-training). Quite often they are paralysed by
future challenges: “We can’t migrate ‘system A’ to the cloud because it integrates with ‘legacy
system B’ which is 6 versions behind, is unsupported, needs to run 24x7x365 and contains key
operational data we can’t do without”. Being able to see beyond a specific organisation’s challenges,
while having a high-level view of them can be liberating.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out that what you want to achieve is easier than you think.
If we’ve got to upgrade that ‘legacy system B’ in order to migrate ‘system A’, then that’s what we’ll
do.
There is always a way, and once we accept that we can plan around any obstacle and mitigate any
risk, well - that's REALLY liberating.

2. This is also where the power of multisourcing comes in.
You need an expert in ‘Software XYZ’ that’s 10 years out of date? No problem.
You need 3 days Oracle resource, 2 days SharePoint, 1 day IBM Mainframe? No problem. And all
through one supplier. With governance thrown in? You got it!
In other operations, IT staff are too embedded in the day to day mire of support that they simply
don’t have the time or energy to sit down and plan an infrastructure strategy. Sticking plasters,
short-term workarounds and tactical decisions can be an unfortunate necessity and an accepted way
of life in some organisations. However, having a clear target architecture for your IT infrastructure
can help you make better decisions for tactical requirements. As a minimum, it will help you select
the “least worst” option!
Being on the periphery and looking in, I get the freedom, time and space to really understand how a
business would be BEST served by its own unique, ideal infrastructure architecture, and how to
achieve it - whether it’s on-premise, cloud, in-house, managed service or any combination of
possible solutions.
As business-aligned technology consultants, we often find ourselves consulting for clients from the
outside, looking in. We work 'client-side', starting with an understanding of business drivers and
constraints and then, because we haven’t lived and breathed every aspect of our client’s
organisation (their historic IT challenges, the compromises they’ve had to make, their budgetary
constraints or lack of stakeholder buy-in) we take time to understand the individual back-story and
future mission.
Every organisation is different. Business requirements and commercial pressures can vary hugely
from business to business, but they will have had an impact on the way your IT infrastructure has
evolved. Subsequently your IT estate will be in a different place to your competitors, as unique as a
snowflake or a fingerprint and probably ‘working just fine'. BUT that is no longer adequate.
Sometimes an external pair of eyes, someone who has taken time to truly understand what your
business needs from its IT is the only way to ensure that your IT is ready to serve your business in
the future.
Further details of how Stoneseed’s services can help, can be found on our website
http://www.stoneseed.co.uk/services/it-advisory
SOURCES
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/10/infrastructure_readiness_temperature_check/