In the last blog about IT infrastructure, we talked about how to manage it correctly to achieve business objectives and ensure compliance according to security, flexibility and sustainability requirements by identifying incidents, emergencies, and crises. If you haven’t read it yet, click here to do it.
In this opportunity, we will highlight periods that have influenced its evolution and the importance of ensuring that an IT infrastructure guarantees business scalability, otherwise, it would be inefficient to have one.
Technology is moving fast. Companies must evolve the way they design, develop and operate technology infrastructure. It is a fact that without a responsive and adaptable IT infrastructure, it is difficult to run a modern company. When the technology that forms part of it is properly configured and well networked, it can increase efficiency, significantly improving many processes, but when it is not, it becomes a barrier to business expansion and progress.
IT infrastructure in today’s organizations is the result of 50 years of evolution and development of data processing, storage, and transmission systems. Before knowing what it is supposed to look like, it is important to understand how it has evolved over the years.
Below we highlight seven important periods that, for us, have shaped the evolution of hardware, software, networks, and data that together make up an IT infrastructure.
1959: Mainframe and minicomputer period
The arrival of the IBM 1401 and 7090 machines. The beginning of the massive commercial use of mainframe computers.
1965: Online remote support period
PC era starts with the arrival of the IBM PC computer in North American companies as well as the Wintel PC, the standard Windows desktop computer.
1981: Personal computer period
The PC era started with the arrival of the IBM PC in North American companies as well as the Wintel PC, the standard Windows desktop computer.
1983: Client/server period
It becomes possible for companies to distribute computing work on smaller and less expensive machines than centralized mainframes (minicomputers). At the beginning of this period, the Novell NetWare network operating system was the key to client/server networks.
1992: Enterprise computing period
At the beginning of the 1990s, the need emerged at the enterprise level for network and software standards capable of integrating non-compatible networks and applications in the same infrastructure.
2000: Cloud and mobile computing period
A computing model capable of providing access to a shared resource and data reservoir has arrived through a network. This means access to “clouds” from anywhere in the world and from any device connected to a network. Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Dell stand out.
2010: Growth and expansion period
IT infrastructure becomes a technological driver for important sectors of the economy. Its power is constantly growing, especially when companies realize and understand that their most important resource is information, and it becomes crucial to protect it.
History is written
The above-mentioned periods have been the result of developments in computer processing, memory chips, storage devices, hardware and software, telecommunications, and network connectivity. Together, these technologies have exponentially increased computing power and have reduced component costs.
IT infrastructure is constantly evolving. Today, CIOs are accelerating investments, including security, customer experience, analytics, and the cloud. According to Gartner projections, global IT investment will reach $4.4 trillion by 2022, about 4% more than in 2021. IT infrastructure takes a significant percentage, almost 10% of the investment increase for this year.
This is because traditional infrastructures are not able to keep up with the accelerated speed of change and transformation. It is imperative to have the mindset of change because IT infrastructure must migrate to Cloud, whether it is private, public, or hybrid. Today it is necessary to have an infrastructure focused on innovation, automation, and continuous optimization. This is the only way to obtain benefits in terms of profitability, security, productivity, scalability, and reliability.
The issue is that the infrastructure solutions implemented in many organizations today are not properly prepared for the future. They are almost obsolete systems, or close to becoming so. Besides, their configuration costs too much, there are usually delays in the implementation and they are not scalable. The truth is that we are in an era of change, which is just as important as the 7 previously mentioned so those who lead organizations should make decisions in this context.
By putting cloud infrastructure services in place, whether in public, private, or hybrid deployments, it becomes possible to mitigate incidents, emergencies, and crises, and even decrease money spending. It’s allowing your organization to move to a new level of flexibility and scale.
Think about it. Have you set to analyze the critical performance issues for your business? Do you know for sure where the bottlenecks are? Do you constantly monitor the health and performance of services, hardware, software, networks, and resources?
Consider evolving to the cloud with future-proof digital infrastructure
Although many organizations face staff, skills, and capital limitations, creating barriers to infrastructure transformation, as we said before, the requisite today is to have an agile and automated digital infrastructure. Re-architected infrastructures represent the best way to move forward. That is why companies must accelerate their migration to the cloud as part of their modernization and digitization strategies.
Gartner projections indicate that by 2022, migration to the cloud will generate opportunities for more than 1.3 trillion dollars. This amount is projected to increase to $1.8 trillion by 2025.
These statistics confirm the need to take advantage of this technological transition process. Organizations with a digital infrastructure strategy are making 4.5 times more progress by taking advantage of interconnection. But although it will be the main source of competitive advantage in the future, it is also important to mention that one of the biggest challenges of this transition will be how to support the business strategy and encourage the mindset of change within the organization.
Technology must go hand in hand with a change of mindset. The great challenge is in how your organization and those who are part of it manage to adopt the changes naturally and adapt them to their day-to-day. Being aware that it is no longer just about networks, hardware, and software, it is about offering services that rigorously meet business needs, business objectives, and market needs.
A future-proof IT infrastructure is not a cure-all miracle, but it undeniably opens the door to better scalability, productivity, and information security.
To conclude, we want to ask you: does your company’s current IT infrastructure support the progress of your business in the industry, or does it create obstacles? Contact us for a detailed analysis of the status of your infrastructure and how, with robust cloud strategies, we can optimize it to achieve our goals. If you want to know more about our IT infrastructure services, click here.