Should you overhaul your Business IT infrastructure? This is what you need to know
There comes a time in business when you know change is necessary, either to move up to the next level of success and prosperity or just to stay in the same place. As the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland would say, in life, you have to run as fast as you can to stay in the same place and run even faster than that to make progress.
This is an apt metaphor for the world of entrepreneurship because you need to regularly examine your business to find ways to establish an advantage over your competitors, increase your efficiency, and reduce your operating costs.
There’s no dignity in standing still or an award for staying stubborn in the face of change, so you must constantly uncover new ways to evolve your enterprise and make your business more agile. In the modern world, a large portion of this change will involve IT, thanks to the global economy’s increasing reliance on the internet and e-commerce.
As technology evolves, so must you. Finding new ways to improve your business’s IT infrastructure is a fantastic way to stay ahead of the game and keep your company safe from cyber-attacks. Should you overhaul your IT infrastructure? This is what you need to know:
Is your productivity waning?
One of the clearest signs that it might be time to take a closer look at the current state of your IT infrastructure is if your team’s productivity is waning.
It’s easy and logical to keep your IT infrastructure the same when your company is efficient, reaching its targets, and turning a profit, but when these margins start to narrow, it’s time to take action. This drop in productivity could be due to any number of factors, and it’s your job to pick the processes apart and find out which part of your IT estate is causing the issue.
If you’re not up to speed with the latest solutions, then you need to spend your time doing some research or consulting with IT professionals inside or outside of your firm. For example, what is API gateway? Do you fully understand how this can benefit your backend microservices architecture or how it will help your security policies?
Do you have any security weak points?
Another clear indication that it might be time to shake up and improve your business IT infrastructure is if there are any security weak points within your estate. Leaving yourself open to potential cyberattacks is obviously a dangerous game to play and could lead to serious damage being inflicted on your organization further along the road.
If you feel that there are weaknesses that need to be addressed, waste no time in patching them up or completely changing your IT infrastructure. Of course, you might have to do this bit by bit to prevent becoming momentarily more vulnerable to attacks.
Is it going to disrupt the normal functioning of your business?
Finally, you need to work out whether your IT infrastructure is starting to negatively impact the day-to-day functioning of your business. If you’re struggling to send emails, have constant spam running through your communication channels, or can’t store private data properly, then it’s time to make a change.