Let's face it, your IT budget is forever growing. Servers and workstations need to be replaced all the time and software is expensive, but to maintain an edge on your competitors, you need to keep up to date with the latest software and smooth running computer hardware. The better your employees tools are, the more productive they can be. Investing in and improving your IT infrastructure is a must. To get the most out of your IT budget, consider some of the following options
Open Source Software
Over the past 20 years, small business computing has been dominated by Microsoft and their expensive and frequently unstable software. The benefits of using the Microsoft family of products are many. Chances are your users have been using Microsoft products at home for years and just about every job they have had since college involved them sitting down in front of a MS Windows computer. They are familiar with it, they understand how to use it and are proficient at it. Why switch. Thats a perfectly logical and frankly intelligent choice. It eliminates a learning curve for new software and platforms and it provides a steady user experience. What about your servers? For a Windows 2008 Small business edition, the license will run you about $900, plus $250 per incident when your Administrators have an issue they cont seem to get under control... It can get very costly.
The many flavors of the Linux operating system offer the same services with extra bonuses like added security, increased stability and uptime. On top of that, the cost of the license is $0. Now some enterprise level versions of Linux like RedHat come with support contracts for yearly subscriptions to their updates and versions of the the operating system.
Most of the largest tech companies like Facebook,Google, and Amazon use Linux as the framework for their infrastructure. It provides a much more customizable, stable and inherently secure operating environment. With more user friendly flavors of Linux like Ubuntu, and Linux Mint with large support organizations backing their progress, Linux has quickly become a viable and exceptionally useful tool for the small and medium sized business.
Responsible Energy and Resource Usage
Power usage is a huge portion of your IT budget. Most desktop workstations are left on all day, and all night. Whether running your computer at maximum capacity, or letting it sit idle, there is virtually no difference in power consumption. This means that roughly 2/3 of the time your employees desktop computers are on, they are wasting power and mony. It is estimated that the energy cost of running a computer over its entire life span is equal to the initial cost of purchase. This means that $1200 worksation, if left on, will cost you another $1200 to run it for the next 3-5 years. There are power management policies that can be put into place at a server level to prevent employees from disabling them. Responsible energy usage policies can effectively reduce your power consumption by 50%. or more per computer or server in your infrastructure.
The average employee wastes about $85 per year in paper, and toner by needlessly printing emails, funny pictures for their cubicles and personal documents. A responsible printing policy can be a good step to save a big portion of your IT budget. To enforce the policy there are a number of software options available to assist with managing e-waste related to printing. Preventing internal documents from being printed in color or logging print jobs sent to networked printers for reporting and review, there is a software option.
Hardware Life-cycling.
John in accounting is in need of a new computer. It's older than your office and you don't remember where you got it and the once white case is now yellowed from age. The engineers just requested 3 new machines to meet the requirements of the new design software. Chances are, the old machines the design team bought 3 years ago are more than up to the task of running Johns accounting software, office applications and email client without breaking a sweat. Instead of buying John a new low end machine, its time to do some repositioning. John may not need all the power that the old engineering departments machines have, but someone else could. Shuffle around your workstations on a planned, as needed basis. If you make all of your IT purchased with a focus on longevity, you'll maximize the usefulness and lifespan of your IT infrastructure.
Cloud Solutions
Cloud computing is the new rage in sustainable, low cost IT solutions. Its on-demand scalability and decreased operational cost make it a great solution for businesses worldwide. For the average Mom & Pop operation, a couple of servers on-site with active support and maintenance agreements, with a remote cloud hosted daily backup of their data isn't all that expensive and will probably serve them well. It doesn't pay for them to host their servers and run thin clients, but a cloud based service that acts as their accounting software and inventory system could save them a lot of money on support and maintenance costs as well as the energy cost of running the server or servers necessary to host an internal range of solutions.
Sometimes software is just too expensive. Nowadays you can find a cloud based solution for just about everything. From CRM software, incident and trouble ticket systems like SugarCRM, to hosted email and collaborative workspaces like Google Apps, the selection low cost, stable and secure cloud based solutions is expanding rapidly. As most of these services charge by the seat, they are easily scalable to meet our user demands. A cloud based solution is likely going to be a better bet than that pricey software package that needs a server to host the application databases. These services are typically available through a web browser and can be accessed from anywhere. This gives you the opportunity for a mobile workforce that can expand your prospective client base and talent pool for new employment opportunities.
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