Imagine having an assistant that does all the heavy lifting for you. Can you imagine how much time you would save if you were able to get rid of all those annoying and repetitive daily tasks? Well, with IT infrastructure management this is possible!
Dive into the basics of IT infrastructure management and discover the wide number of benefits waiting for your organization. From the essential duties of every IT manager to the game-changing impact of cloud technology, we're exploring it all.
Get ready to navigate the future of IT management and discover the reality of how IT infrastructure managers work and how IT affects your business!
Keep reading to propel your organization to new heights!
Table of Contents:
The Basics of IT Infrastructure Management
What is IT Infrastructure Management?
IT Infrastructure management is the process of continuously optimizing and maintaining your IT infrastructure to ensure smooth IT operations.
For your IT infrastructure to be in peak condition, your infrastructure manager needs to ensure that your hardware, data storage, operating system, network, and communication solutions (to name a few) are in the best health.
The 3 Types of IT Infrastructure Management
IT Infrastructure management is divided into 3 main categories:
Storage Management
System Management
Network Management
Storage Management
Storage management is the process of monitoring, organizing, and keeping storage resources within your IT environment. Processes like managing your storage resources, backup and disaster recovery strategies, and perfecting storage performance are just some of the tasks involved in storage management.
But why is it important for your business?
Because effective storage management strategies will allow you to:
Streamline your resources
Have more efficient and reliable systems
Ensure data reliability
System Management
System management ensures your organization's technology runs smoothly and efficiently. This field covers everything from monitoring system performance and configuring hardware and software to deploying updates and managing user access.
When done correctly, system management will help you maintain a secure, optimized, and responsive system that swiftly responds to your organization's IT needs.
Network Management
Network management is the backbone of modern IT. From overseeing network performance and optimizing bandwidth usage to ensuring cybersecurity and resolving connectivity issues, network management is key to maintaining a well-performing IT infrastructure.
Not only will network management allow you to keep your infrastructure safe, but it will streamline and perfect your network processes to support a robust, secure, and reliable IT infrastructure.
What are The Benefits of IT Infrastructure Management?
The Benefits of IT Infrastructure Management
Infrastructure management offers many advantages to your organization, including:
Minimizing downtime
Streamlining IT operations and workflows
Better response times
Reducing your operational risks
Enhancing integration across all systems
Cost reduction through automation, improved efficiencies, and capacity planning
Aid in ensuring data security and compliance
Minimizing downtime
When all your gears are synchronized, the chances of experiencing downtime or unexpected data breaches are drastically reduced. An IT infrastructure management system forces you to adopt a proactive approach towards IT infrastructure management allowing you to identify and respond to potential performance issues before downtime arrives!
Streamlining IT operations and workflows
Having standardized and well-defined roles and processes is the key to maximum efficiency. IT infrastructure management allows you to automate routine tasks and centralize your network control to smoothen your operations.
The process of automating your operations can be complex, but in our experience, once our clients experience the smoothness and response of their networks they never want to go back.
Better response times
According to a recent study done by Robert Half Technology, the average worker loses approximately 22 minutes a day dealing with unexpected IT issues. This may not sound like much, but 22 minutes a day equals to 91 hours annually, or two weeks of downtime by employee in your organization.
Optimizing your network through IT infrastructure management systems will ensure that your systems are running at peak efficiency while enabling you to have access to all your IT resources with just a click.
Reducing your operational risks
One of the greatest advantages of IT infrastructure management is its significant reduction in operational downtime. A well-managed network ensures the best performance, preventing slowdowns and disruptions.
Neglecting updates and not meeting evolving network needs can leave vulnerabilities exposed, inviting potential cyber threats. By staying up-to-date with technological advancements and security measures, you not only minimize risks but also prevent vulnerabilities from escalating in size, cost, and complexity.
Enhancing integration across all systems
Now more than ever, having an integrated and compatible system is crucial to ensure success, streamline your operations, and keep a comprehensive security strategy. Integration ensures that your IT environment runs like a well-oiled machine.
By breaking down barriers between departments and systems, integration promotes smoother data flow, boosts collaboration, and maximizes resource utilization while facilitating the management and maintenance of your solutions.
This agility not only keeps you ahead of the curve but also empowers your organization to swiftly adapt to evolving business requirements and technological advancements.
Cost reduction through automation, improved efficiencies, and capacity planning
A recent Forbes investigation showed that 78% of business leaders believe that automation can save up to 3 hours a day. That’s 240 hours (30 business days) per year.
By using AI and optimizing your workflows and resource allocation, infrastructure management improves operational efficiencies, allowing for more effective use of existing resources and minimizing waste.
Collectively, these strategies help lower operational costs, maximize the return on investment, and support long-term financial sustainability.
Aid in ensuring data security and compliance
Infrastructure management conducts routine audits and assessments to meet industry regulations, reducing the chance of facing penalties for non-compliance.
Additionally, it centralizes data management and enforces secure backup and recovery processes, protecting against data loss and ensuring business continuity during security breaches or disasters.
The Key Duties of Every Supervisor When Managing an IT Infrastructure
The Role of Infrastructure Managers
No matter the scale or intricacy of your enterprise, as an infrastructure manager, you'll engage with 4 core responsibilities when managing an IT infrastructure:
Documentation and Reporting
IT Security
Performance Monitoring
System Development
Documentation and Reporting
As an infrastructure manager, keeping comprehensive documentation is essential for tracking system configurations, network layouts, hardware specifications, software versions, and operational procedures.
Having detailed documentation of your processes ensures transparency, eases troubleshooting, and allows you to transfer your knowledge among team members. Additionally, generating insightful reports on key performance metrics, such as uptime, resource utilization, and incident response times, offers valuable insights for strategic decision-making.
IT Security
As an infrastructure manager, you'll handle implementing and maintaining robust cybersecurity measures, including firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion detection systems, and encryption protocols.
Regular security audits, vulnerability assessments, and penetration testing help find and remediate potential weaknesses in the IT infrastructure.
Don’t forget to promote cybersecurity best practices among your teams to strengthen the overall security culture of your organization!
Performance Monitoring
Proactive monitoring enables early detection of performance bottlenecks, security breaches, and hardware failures, allowing you to quickly intervene and resolve any future problems.
Continuously monitoring your IT performance also facilitates capacity planning, enabling your organization to scale its infrastructure to meet growing demands and future business requirements with ease.
System Development
System development plays a vital role in keeping pace with changing business needs and emerging technologies. As an infrastructure manager, one of your tasks will be evaluating new technologies, designing scalable architectures, implementing software upgrades, and integrating third-party solutions.
Collaboration with development teams, stakeholders, and vendors is essential to ensure that system development initiatives align with organizational goals, budget constraints, and timelines.
By embracing innovation and adopting agile development methodologies, infrastructure managers can drive continuous improvement and deliver value-added solutions that enhance business agility and competitiveness.
The Cloud & The Future of IT Management
Cloud Services & IT Infrastructure Management
The rise of cloud-based models has revolutionized how IT infrastructure management works. Back in the day, when IT management was tied to physical locations and in-house teams, effectively managing an infrastructure was not only difficult but expensive. Making infrastructure management a luxury that only a few companies could afford.
However, with the rise of cloud computing, organizations of all sizes can now access advanced infrastructure management tools and services for a fraction of the cost, enabling all kinds of businesses to experience the benefits of IT infrastructure management.
The Reality of IT Infrastructure Management
What Does IT Infrastructure Management Actually Entail?
A proficient IT manager must have a comprehensive understanding of various technologies, systems, frameworks, and standards to be efficient at their job. In practice, finding an IT manager that excels in the specific technologies your business needs it’s almost impossible.
In our experience, even when our clients have found a candidate with specific needs their company needs, their performance is not as good as expected and not because their IT professional is not good at their job.
IT infrastructure management is a full-time job. Keeping up with the latest advancements without neglecting other IT areas is almost impossible for almost every IT manager.
That’s why it’s not uncommon to hear that IT managers suffer from high levels of stress, anxiety, an almost inexistent work-life balance, and other issues. Let’s be real, no company benefits from having overworked employees, especially in key areas like IT.
That’s why BTI created RMM as a Service, designed to keep your IT infrastructure performing in peak conditions while you and your IT team focus on other important business tasks.
With RMM as a Service, your team will have 24/7/365 access to expert engineers in every aspect of your network taking care of your companies' specific needs. The best part? Our services can be tailored to your specific needs and budget! Contact BTI today for your business solutions in IT support.
You are one step away from achieving IT excellence!