WHAT IS THE BLOG ABOUT?
- HOW DOES ENGINEERING OPERATION WORK?
- WHY IS ENGINEERING OPERATION BETTER THAN CLASSIC ADMINISTRATION SERVICES?
- HOW CHEAPER IS CONSOLIDATED IT OPERATION THAN TO SUPPORT ISLAND SYSTEMS?
Advanced technology, hardware and application consolidation, operating cost optimization
IT infrastructure is a vomited part of the basic services that serve businesses. This is because it has evolved spectacularly and tremendously over the last 30 years. And although some form of IT solution is used everywhere at a certain level, the largest number and proportion of businesses can’t really find the balance between the opportunities IT offers and their optimal application.
That is why we can find writings, anecdotes and memes criticizing IT professionals and IT itself on countless social surface. Many see IT as a necessary evil, but most do not somehow strive to make the cradle of business, their own infrastructure, livable. They ignore recently essential services or theoretical approach, it is obviously difficult to operate any system successfully with an optimal budget. But that’s why neither IT nor the system administrator is responsible.
HOW DOES ENGINEERING OPERATION WORK?
The ten-year experience of Syswind’s engineers shows that it is not really possible to operate IT cheaply, for pennies, but in an efficient way that produces business results and development. This, of course, requires improvements and investments, which are costly. Yet it does not have to be immediately said, that it is very expensive. Expensive is when something doesn’t work properly, hampers profitability, and burns entrepreneurs ’wallets that way.
Using a bad but easy-to-understand example: if I have an 80-year-old, thin, low-capacity roadway to serve motor vehicle traffic, it’s not enough to asphalt every 5-10 years, or use new traffic displays to inform drivers that the road is bad or the traffic jam is high because a lot of cars are driving on it. Namely, if skyscraper office buildings, residential parks or department stores can be built next to the road, then the roadway can probably be expanded and modernized in some way, even vertically. If road users make money, it is not secondary how they do it, nor why. In such a case, responsible decision-makers can easily solve the problem of widening the bottleneck by taking advantage of the appropriate funding opportunities. And IT isn’t much different from transportation either, it’s just where the bits have to be routed instead of cars.
The engineering operations service perspective is very different from the classic IT service subsidies. It doesn’t tell you to buy one or the other because it’s good for you. Rather, it takes into account your capabilities, opportunities, and business needs, and it gives a complex implementation and operation plan for those. Of course, it also keeps in mind the aspects that best influence implementation and offers an optimal, step-by-step, easy-to-develop infrastructure with the simplest support methods available. All with 100% predestined budgets and a number of implementation options. This is obviously different for every business, so it doesn’t even have a uniform price tag, it can’t be calculated exactly with a web calculator, and it can’t even be ordered online like an average admin support.
What are the cornerstones of engineering operation as a complex infrastructure service?
- One of the most important elements is a thorough “field survey”, an analysis of business needs and paralleling them with optimally exploitable implementation opportunities and financing
- Proposes the creation of the ideal ratio of capex / opex investments according to the needs of the company, their business processes, their expandability and the maintenance of its success.
- It also takes full advantage of the capabilities of the latest technologies to maintain simplicity and by far avoids deploying custom enhancements and non-standard solutions.
- It takes into account the real availability of resources and their long-term costs, for example it does not propose the solution that is considered to be the cheapest or best, but examines the business potential of the technologies, and prioritizes long-term and easy manageability, and forecasts operating and development costs for critical decision making.
- Due to business continuity, it pays special attention to reliability and the preservation of business values, and only recommends a solution for operation that meets all criteria to the maximum.
- In all cases it provides cost-effective operation and tailor-made scaling for development or consolidation of the proposed infrastructure.
What is the most justification for using the service?
- Perhaps most importantly, an efficient, immediately deployable, continuously trained workforce with versatile IT expertise can be contracted for at least 4-5 times the average wage in Hungary after a long and costly bounty hunt.
- On the other hand, once you have the perfect operations professional, the number of human resources for IT support can be minimized if you have the right business and technology infrastructure that is easy and quick to manage, even by one person.
- If our specialist does not exist or leaves, due to the simplicity and standardization of the developed infrastructure, it is possible to use continuous or temporary operating support even under the salary costs of the operating engineer.
- As part of the service, a thematic competency development option is available for the retraining and education of a new or existing IT colleague.
- A variety of financing options are available for the service, making the high availability of the infrastructure fully predictable and free from hidden costs.
What are the components of an engineering operation service?
- It basically starts with a level of internal investigation that sheds light on any point that negatively affects the running of business processes and the economical, flexible operation of the infrastructure. The survey also covers the capabilities and availability of human resources, but does not overlook aspects that may impede the rapid scalability of infrastructure on demand.
- The other essential part of the service is an infrastructure consolidation proposal that, based on studies, aims at an optimal and economical solution to rationalize operating costs. Specifically, this means implementing server devices that are powered by advanced and secure technologies and are more manageable than alternatives to small business island solutions. Of course, optimization of business-critical software applications and processes, as well as management interfaces, is included in the revision proposal, as much as the personal competency development.
- Infrastructure consolidation gives way to simple and secure operation and development capabilities and unlimited scalability requirements. Configuration proposals that drastically reduce HR and payroll costs, which greatly affect operating costs, are complemented by various financing alternatives. This allows the investment and operation to start as a fully predictable project.
- We practically recommend the use of our own specialist to operate the consolidated infrastructure. Although we cannot influence the development of the labor market, our consolidation proposal includes the training of adequate operating specialists in all justified cases. Otherwise, the service is also available with the engineering support we provide.
WHY IS ENGINEERING OPERATION BETTER THAN CLASSIC ADMINISTRATION SERVICES?
Engineering operation is essentially an investment that adapts the infrastructure of a given business to the business needs of the company. It doesn’t just look for the answer to “how to operate your infrastructure in the most optimal way?” amongst the market opportunities, but examines the company’s capabilities, analyzing business or operational processes from a perspective that focuses on growth and sustainability. The service offers a complex infrastructure management solution that can be used to operate the business economically and develop it to meet market needs.
What are the advantages of engineering operation over classic system administrator services and using island systems?
- The need for human resources is lower, ie even one operating specialist is enough instead of several system administrators.
- In addition to performing operational tasks, the IT operator can help increase business results by developing workflows and deploying new technologies.
- The uniformity and standardization of the infrastructure eliminates many operational difficulties, there is no need for your own team of specialists requiring special knowledge. As a service, it can be operated at a significantly lower cost.
- The implemented, centralized infrastructure is faster and easier to manage, the access is more secure, and systems are more scalable and provide higher availability. Troubleshooting can be done in a short time without any problems.
- The financing of the investment and the operation of the infrastructure do not consist of a multitude of ad-hoc elements, but of pre-defined elements.
- Reduction of capex costs with predictability of opex spending increase business continuity and prevents cash-flow problems. Unexpected, larger-volume sub-investments or exponential growth expenditures can be eliminated.
Perhaps the most important factors for business investment are projected returns, maximizing revenue, and reducing expenses. Engineering operation provides an effective answer to both aspects. Plannability and predictability are the foundation of providing the most optimal solution for cost consolidation. We’re not saying it’s cheap, because that’s not true. On the other hand, it can be said that it takes into account all the aspects necessary for business, and this gives you the benefits. It is not possible to reduce costs through the means, but to reduce costs compared to the costs of island solutions through operations and human resources, as well as process optimization. With the service, unexpected costs can be virtually reset, and the number of professionals supporting different island technologies can be minimized. Thanks to the financing and planning models, the updating of technologies is fast and automatic, and the periodic replacement of devices can be carried out without disruption, so it does not interrupt business operations or cause downtime.
Opex-based operating expenditures greatly reduce infrastructure TCO in the long run and also protect against a number of threats that are difficult to quantify in money. Easy-to-review, tightly regulated process and access management methods and fast-to-analyze but complex reports improve infrastructure security and minimize vulnerabilities.
What elements can be used to reduce expenses if engineering operations are applied?
- Technological uniformity, a high degree of technical designability, and easy manageability minimize ad-hoc capex spending.
- It does not require expensive and at the same time hard-to-reach specialists capable of operating island solutions, in case of fluctuation it is easier to replace one specialist or to use outsourced IT service.
- The costs of technological change caused by a shortage of professionals can be avoided by using standardized solutions.
- With monthly paid subscription, unused licenses can be suspended and the business pays only for what it uses.
- Subscription solutions provide more flexible, cost-effective ways to upgrade technologies to prevent one-time, high-load upgrade investments.
- Instead of specialists supporting island solutions, it is enough to fund the competence development of only one professional within the framework of the service.
- Purchasing unified tools and applications results in greater manufacturer discounts due to higher volume and continuity.
The concept of an engineering operation service meets the needs of almost every medium and large business. The in-depth consultations at the very beginning will quickly shed light on even if this way is not suitable. In our experience, companies applying this concept report rapid returns in the first two years and confirm significant business development. In most cases, our users apply newer needs for development to increase their business results due to cost optimization and the rethought application of technologies. The method is, of course, neither unique nor novel in the sense that the majority of large enterprises in developed regions use racionalized infrastructure solutions. In Hungary, too, more and more people are thinking about the modernization and consolidation of IT infrastructure. Many IT partners are available for the implementation, as well as Syswind Kft.
