Downtime at a single facility is unwanted. Downtime across multiple facilities is unacceptable. It brings your business, profitability, and brand’s reputation to a screeching halt. Every second you’re not functioning, you’re falling behind competitors, sales goals, and customer expectations.
The importance of uptime and reliable IT infrastructure cannot be overstated for large organizations. That said, even the most well-managed organizations can be running disparate or outdated hardware across their IT network. It happens, but it also comes with a cost.
These IT infrastructure outliers create a compounding financial and operational drag that companies underestimate.
Let’s explore the economic and operational burden of managing disparate IT hardware and software across locations. When you see how IT mismanagement impacts costs and business productivity, the case for a robust IT management plan becomes clear.
The Cost of Downtime Multiplies at Scale
IT outages are a business crusher. They happen more quickly and innocently than many C-suite executives realize, especially in large-scale organizations with interconnected IT systems across many locations.
For example, an outdated firmware in a switch causes intermittent packet loss. To overcome the issue, the impacted facilities revert to manual processes until the problem is identified and resolved. In the meantime, workflow slows to a crawl, while metrics like pick accuracy drop, and others flatline, threatening service-level agreements (SLAs) with customers.
You can see how quickly and easily the domino effect takes over. One issue tumbles into another. The losses grow exponentially as the disruption prolongs from seconds to minutes to hours and spreads across multiple locations.
Hardware Sprawl Makes IT Costly
It’s nearly impossible to have a perfectly identical IT infrastructure across all facilities. Yes, it would be nice, but it would also be costly and wasteful.
The primary reason is that technology and hardware companies update devices yearly. So a distribution facility that opens today will probably have some different hardware than one that opened a couple of years ago. Typically, the differences are found in router models, switches, and different firewall generations. Storage servers are also common examples of “legacy tech” because they still work and are costly to replace.
Of course, not every item needs to be updated at the same time. But there are crucial components and services that need to be performed to ensure each network device interacts as needed with the others. Otherwise, costs rise quickly.
Not Replacing IT Hardware Comes with a Cost
- Repair parts are becoming more costly and more challenging to find.
- IT technicians need a broader skillset to identify and resolve issues.
- Vendor support contacts overlap
- IT Lifecycle planning is hampered by guesswork and inconsistent policy
All of those factors, plus many others, create a costly IT death by a thousand cuts. They also justify why maintaining IT software and hardware standards is so important.
Software Fragmentation Leaves IT Techs In the Dark
Just as it does with hardware, software fragmentation can also bring down an IT network. Any lack of IT consistency creates the opportunity for outages. Software-related issues can manifest as unexplained latency, security alerts, and power issues. All of which are ambiguous and difficult to track down. That leads to arguments, finger-pointing, long resolution times, and a decline in leadership confidence.
IT Inconsistency Creates Security Threats
Operational downtime and system outages aren’t the only threats presented by poorly managed IT equipment. The most serious issue for companies in highly regulated industries is information security threats.
Legacy hardware and software are always lagging in security updates. The specific issues include:
- Expired certificates
- Unsupported operating systems
- Inconsistent firewall rules
- Late or skipped software patches
Those factors, along with others, result in uneven risk exposure. Any missed step, update, patch, or process creates a potential security breach point.
Rising IT Labor Costs
The more things differ from an IT standpoint across your locations, the more costly IT becomes. Why? It’s because disparate systems demand more human intervention.
Misaligned IT Environments Lead To:
- Manual instead of automated configuration changes
- On-site rather than tech dispatches, rather than remote repairs
- Extended onboarding/training for new IT staff
- Critical knowledge is held by a very few senior-level people.
The Costs of Maintaining a Disparate IT Infrastructure:
- Higher IT staff headcount
- Burnout/frustration among skilled IT staff
- Slower execution on repairs
- Slower deployment of strategic projects
Ultimately, companies end up paying a premium to support inconsistent IT hardware and software.
Reactive Instead of Intentional Capital Planning
Without a well-managed IT infrastructure, facility upgrades occur in an emergency response rather than as planned improvements. In essence, you’re in a constant state of crisis mode or waiting for the next crisis to arise. Failures such as hardware failures, software crashes, or security audit failures.
Businesses Making Rushed IT Purchases Face:
- Premium or full retail costs
- Rush shipping charges
- Rush install/IT time.
- No volume discount pricing
- No ability to future plan or access options
Organizations in this situation don’t have a plan for successful scalability. Instead, they live day to day with costly emergency protocols.
The Hidden Cost of Unmanaged IT — Lost Agility
When the IT infrastructure varies across locations, businesses lose the ability to move quickly and with certainty. The delays and costs can take many forms, including challenges with:
- Delivering new enterprise applications
- Expanding facilities
- Moving to the cloud
- Adopting edge technologies
Across the board, business operations slow down and become impacted. It’s not because the strategy is wrong. The mo is a result of an IT foundation that can’t securely and reliably support large initiatives.
Fast, Agile Companies Rely on Information Technology Asset Management
We’ve covered the many costs, as well as the disruption to business goals and operations, caused by misaligned IT infrastructure.
Disparate IT, including hardware and software, prevents network scalability, visibility, and resilience. The result is lost revenue, bloated operating costs, and security vulnerabilities. Slow growth, frustrated IT teams.
The better option is to plan for, invest in, and continue investing in a standardized IT infrastructure with unified monitoring that supports current and future business operations. Doing so optimizes uptime, eases scalability, and makes IT costs predictable.
Ready to Future-Proof by Managing IT Equipment Across Your Facilities?
Creating IT infrastructure consistency is a must-have for future-proofing a facility’s scalability and controlling costs. Identifying and deploying the best way to achieve it comes from working with an expert. Matrix-NDI solves the challenges of your business operations by unlocking the full ROI of your technology investments. We design and install networks built for maximum speed and perfectly matched to bandwidth demands.
Why work with Matrix-NDI?
With on-staff Registered Communications Distribution Designers (RCDDs), coast-to-coast service coverage, and partnerships with leading data networking providers—including Extreme Networks, Nile, and others—Matrix-NDI delivers the expertise and reach to support your technology goals. We invite you to connect with us to see how our expertise, partnerships, and national reach can help solve your challenges.
Contact Matrix-NDI to get started. Let’s build smarter, safer, more connected spaces — together.
