Why does your organization need the power of IT lifecycle management?
IT assets are the key to success for any company—whether you’re a small enterprise, a startup, a medium-sized business or a large enterprise. Effective and secure hardware and software will help you boost productivity throughout the organization. IT assets have a finite life. Once these assets reach or surpass their expected lifespan, they become security risks and cease to be the powerful tools they once were. As with other tools, IT assets must be changed or updated in time so that they continue to be enablers and serve your organization for years to come. However, it is essential to know when these IT assets must be updated or changed. This is where IT Lifecycle Management comes in.
What is IT Lifecycle Management?
IT lifecycle management is the timely maintenance, upgrade and replacement of IT hardware and software according to a set schedule and organizational use cases. The serviceable life of any equipment or software depends on various factors. These factors include:
- how your organization uses software and hardware
- the kind of technology in use
- how often you conduct maintenance to improve their lifespan
Essentially an IT activity, lifecycle management goes beyond just computers and software.
What asset types does IT lifecycle management include?
IT lifecycle management encompasses the following IT assets:
Hardware
- Desktop Computers
- Laptops
- Servers
- Mobile and wireline phones
- Routers, switches, hubs and other network equipment
- Intrusion detection hardware and security systems
Software
- Operating systems for computers, servers and mobile phones
- Computer software
- Network management software
- Security software for security systems and intrusion detection
- and many more.
Why is IT lifecycle management important for organizations of all sizes?
IT assets have only one purpose—to be an enabler and help you be more efficient and productive. Additionally, IT hardware must give your organization an advantage over your competition. With secure and reliable hardware and software, your customers trust you as a provider, and your employees work to their maximum potential. Additionally, managed IT assets keep uptime levels and ROI high at all times, ensuring peace of mind and maintaining your competitive edge.
What are the disadvantages of not implementing IT lifecycle management?
With updates coming faster than ever before, it becomes challenging for companies to keep up with the changes. As older software and hardware age, they are no longer patched for vulnerabilities by their manufacturer, exposing you and your customers to security risks and attacks. Without a well-thought-of IT lifecycle management regimen in place, your business can suffer from:
- Reduced performance
Old equipment impacts productivity and performance. Your employees spend more time waiting for processes such as compilation, copying data or renditions to complete, which inhibits productivity. Modern systems and software will complete tasks that take hours in minutes or even seconds, enhancing productivity across the board. - Security risks
Most manufacturers build security safeguards in their devices and software and continuously provide updates that patch vulnerabilities and make these devices secure. However, as software and hardware age, these updates stop—exposing your business and your customers to attacks such as data theft, ransomware, malware, viruses and many others.
- Enhanced downtime
Older hardware can break down more often as components age. These breakdowns can sometimes take several days to fix. Additionally, the replacement of IT systems and software needs to be a well-thought-out process. With no IT lifecycle management practices in place, you are more likely to be caught off-guard when a breakdown occurs—impacting your company’s reputation and negatively impacting performance. - Enhanced maintenance costs
Replacements for older hardware and software licenses are expensive and complicated. As spares become harder to come by, IT teams struggle to keep systems in working order, making it difficult for teams to perform optimally. This also means that your organization will be making purchases at random, reducing the volume advantage you may otherwise have.
What are the benefits of IT lifecycle management?
- Reliable and updated hardware and software
Modern hardware, software and network equipment are more reliable compared to dated machines. Additionally, updated software and hardware is cost-effective, more powerful and provides more significant ROI. A well-thought-out IT lifecycle management regimen will ensure that IT assets are continuously updated and reliable, ensuring that they can be retired or replaced well in time. - Higher productivity levels
As employees work on newer systems patched in time and have faster, more efficient software and components, they can work to their fullest potential. Additionally, networks become quicker and customer-facing services become faster, enhancing satisfaction rates.
- Reduced cost of ownership and higher ROI
Replacing the hardware in time gives organizations a significant cost advantage as their old hardware fetches better value and offsets the cost of new hardware acquisition. Replacing software in time ensures that your organization benefits from the latest features and the best price. - Early detection of risk
With a dedicated IT lifecycle management team, your organization can easily detect, predict and resolve failures and attacks in time. When sensitive data is involved, an IT lifecycle management team can act as a double-edged sword—helping keep data and systems as secure as possible. This substantially reduces the amount of risk your organization and your customers are exposed to at all times.
What is the process of lifecycle management?
IT lifecycle management is an end-to-end activity that involves many stages and processes. The process or the stages of lifecycle management include:
- Procurement
Considered to be the first stage of the IT lifecycle planning and management process, this stage involves planning and creating tech goals, establishing business objectives and potential expansion plans. Once these plans are in place, the IT lifecycle teams will negotiate the cost involved with internal and external stakeholders. Once you settle the costs, the team then proceeds to acquire these assets for the organization. - Maintenance and management
IT lifecycle management teams track the use case of each unit and their performance. They then gather metrics that allow them to predict and diagnose the issue at hand and handle it while avoiding downtime or loss of data. Additionally, these teams also ensure compliance with industry standards for safety and security or other local laws and regulations. These tasks also include hardware and software upgrades and updates, data management and backup, and remote services management.
- Decommissioning and disposal
When the time to remove outdated hardware and software has come, your lifecycle management team will uninstall and remove these from your premises. This step ensures the protection of data, scrubbing disposal units and removal of sensitive information from them. The disposed of systems are returned to the leasing companies or recycled responsibly according to local EPA standards. - Deployment
Once the acquisition of new assets is complete, your IT teams can begin installing and integrating them along with your existing systems. If all goes well during the parallel run, you can then put the new systems into production.
Lifecycle management is not a want—it is a need for organizations worldwide for optimal employee performance and enhanced customer trust. Lifecycle management ensures the utilization of your IT assets to their fullest potential. Your systems are monitored and upgraded as per need.
With the guidance of an efficient IT lifecycle management team from leading providers such as orquidea, you can ensure optimal performance, world-class security and advice that will help your business succeed year upon year.
IT Lifecycle management experts at orquidea will ensure that your network, hardware and software are always ready to help your employees work to their fullest potential. Consultants at orquidea will help you to plan, organize and maintain your IT assets throughout their lifetime. This service will result in enhanced security, a commitment to quality and heightened employee productivity at all times, giving you higher ROI. Additionally, our expert services will ensure that your savings in IT equipment offset the cost involved—further enhancing your ROI year-upon-year.