UIU Blog

Do more with less is the mantra being touted across the IT realm. IT Labor and costs are being cut and spending on new hardware and software is being frozen. Department managers and CIOs are forced to justify the cost of operation and ROI for a department that is typically a cost center.

This economic cutback is not limited to one sector. Government, Education, Healthcare, Finance and Corporate; all are restructuring or implementing cost saving measures. It isn't just the small public school or the mid-size private corporation, or even the Healthcare conglomerate that are taking steps to analyze every step of their IT foundations to determine areas of improvement, but all the way to the top of the government.

In October 2008, Clay Johnson III, Deputy Director of Management and Budget for the President of the United States, put Agency CIOs and Department Heads across the country to task requiring them to review the current status of their IT systems development lifecycle management, projects and policy, and return a framework with their proposed methods of compliance¹. And the recession hasn't ended.

A closer look at the fundamentals of IT infrastructure is being carried out across the globe, but are there still cracks in the IT foundation? If the inspection isn't comprehensive, problems with cost management and efficiency will persist and prohibit growth. Everything breaks down to the fundamentals; not only is the foundation itself critical, but the means by which the foundation is laid, maintained and supported are equally as significant.

What is the foundation of any Windows-based environment? The maintenance and deployment of a quality Windows PC image. Even though the means of creating an efficient system of Windows Image maintenance and deployment can be difficult, there is a solution.

You don't need to be told that the current economic climate has caused IT departments to struggle with decreased budgets and adjustments to their existing environments. And you don't need to be told that attention previously given to growth, development, and new technology is, out of necessity, being reverted to the core systems essential for day to day operation to maximize cost-effectiveness.

Interestingly enough though, for every article or blog addressing IT departmental efficiency, cost-savings/cutting approaches or capital purchasing strategies, countless more are still touting the latest and greatest in new technology. Whether Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Enterprise Solutions or the latest mobile applications, the majority of tech news, blogs and forums distract IT departments from focusing on streamlining the efficiency of their existing environments.

Regardless of the media focus, the current economic situation is forcing companies to take a step back to analyze the foundation and fundamentals of their existing technology and systems management. Infrastructure analysis is not essential merely for the sake of quantifying cost-cutting, rather, it is crucial for qualifying the cost effectiveness and ROI of your departmental initiatives. Successfully managing your environment with a reduced budget is only possible if proper organization and restructuring of your systems management is efficient and effective.

If your environment isn't operating as effectively as possible, how is it going to weather the current economic storm, let alone be able to support such elaborate and complex systems/programs as cloud computing and virtualization in the future? It is a back to the basics approach that will be the marker of the successful IT department in the future. It is the IT fundamentals and a solid foundation in that will allow growth in challenging economic times.

Make sure to come back next week and read Part 2 of Windows PC Imaging - The ONE Fundamental of Systems Management.