Member Article

Make the Most of External IT Expertise

CIOs need to continually audit their IT set-up and understand the myriad of skills required in a modern IT team.

Every CIO has an idea of how they think their organisation’s IT systems should develop. Most are too busy managing the daily tasks of their department to stand back and map out where they are and how to get to where they want to be. CIOs are also unlikely to invest the time in switching out of their existing infrastructure, minimising the possibility to develop and improve.

Mapping out a change in infrastructure

Given the time, a CIO would be able to analyse their business and create the ideal infrastructure for their organisation. This infrastructure will be agile, flexible and scalable, meeting the organisation’s needs now and in the foreseeable future. However, it takes a long time and a lot of research into new technologies and trends, as well as alot of business analysis to understand what is likely to be needed now and in the future.

Once present and future needs have been defined, you need to work out how to meet them. While the CIO is working on that roadmap, someone has to keep the show on the road. You can reduce the maintenance of this task and speed up the process by discussing your business’s IT requirements with specialist partners who can give you best practice advice.

Maintaining security

IT systems tend to start secure then slowly develop security holes as new components, sub-systems and software are added. New technologies bring new headaches and when you’re busy, it’s easy to overlook potential threats. A specialist partner brings a fresh pair of eyes, and a set of best practice tools and techniques to analyse your system’s security and test it thoroughly.

DevOps doesn’t suit every organisation, but where it is appropriate, integrating Development and Operations can improve both security and efficiency. Specialist partners can help you devise the right DevOps strategy for your organisation, then work alongside your staff to implement it, all whilst maintaining your level of service.

Using external sources

When an organisation sets out to adopt new IT, whether it is an architectural change, new hardware, operating system, Cloud implementation, virtualisation or changes to management practices and procedures, it often highlight a skills gap. Sometimes formal re-training is needed.vExternal sources of technical expertise can play a critical role in helping organisations bridge a knowledge/skills gap.

Systems Management specialists provide a variety of services including analysing your organisation’s IT requirements, assessing in-house resources and skills and offering you detailed knowledge of the right products for your business. Most importantly, they will help you with the deployment of best practice systems management tools - something that only external IT expertise can offer.

Takeaways:

External expertise can bolster levels of in-house computer skills and knowledge that contribute to the success of an organisation. It’s important that you should:

Map out where your business currently is and where you expect new technology to take it. Analyse the security of your current systems and the gaps that may occur through an update. Use external sources that can offer expertise and help you to achieve success

Now that you know the importance of external sources, discover how to improve your managed services with: Managed Services - Agility vs Rigidity. Copy and paste this link into your browser: http://bit.ly/linuxeguide

This article first appeared on LinuxIT blog.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Mitchell .