Businesses are constantly evolving and adapting to the latest trends and changes in their industry. To stay ahead of the competition, it’syour business needs to have a solid IT infrastructure roadmap. This will ensure that your technology is prepared for future growth. This blog post will discuss the most critical areas to focus on in your 2023 IT infrastructure roadmap.
1. Hardware upgrades
First and foremost, your roadmap should focus on keeping your company’s hardware up to date. Take stock of your existing devices and equipment, including their model, manufacturer, last maintenance data, and warranty expiration. Then, evaluate the devices and run performance benchmarks with various applications to see if they’re still operating at peak efficiency. If any hardware is lagging or out of warranty, consider replacing it with more powerful hardware that will help your business stay competitive.
Considering how many employees are demanding hybrid working options in 2023, you may need to invest in mobile devices. Company-issued laptops can help your employees work from anywhere easily, but your infrastructure may also need to accommodate the use of personal devices for work.
2. Network performance
Many technologies today require a fast and reliable network connection, such as cloud computing, video conferencing, Internet of Things devices, and more. To meet these technologies’ growing bandwidth and latency requirements, you’ll need to optimise your network performance. This involves significant changes to your network infrastructure, like upgrading to faster connections and installing new routers and switches. Network optimisation could be as simple as investing in bandwidth management software to better monitor and control network traffic.
3. Cloud computing
Cloud computing is known for its scalability and flexibility, making it essential to any company’s IT infrastructure roadmap. With the right cloud services provider, you can quickly roll out new applications and services without additional investment. Plus, you’ll have access to the cloud’s powerful computing capabilities and near-limitless storage capacity, allowing you to meet your IT needs without breaking the bank.
However, the challenge with cloud computing today is not just about selecting the right services but also about avoiding app overload. Cloud app overload is a phenomenon where a business uses too many cloud applications that don’t work well together and end up creating siloed processes. When this happens, getting a full view of your company’s operations is difficult and can cause major inefficiencies.
To avoid app overload, carefully consider which cloud applications your business needs and how they should integrate with existing systems. It may also be worth investing in cloud platforms like Microsoft 365 instead of stand-alone applications, as cloud platforms bring several apps into one unified system.
4. Cybersecurity
As your company gravitates to new technologies, your security requirements will become more complex. Cybersecurity is an ever-growing concern, and you’ll need to ensure that your IT infrastructure is up to date with the latest security measures to protect your most important assets.
Your infrastructure should be equipped with advanced authentication protocols, network monitoring, role-based access management, threat detection, anti-malware protection, and data encryption. Beyond the technical security measures, you should also consider investing in ongoing security training and awareness programs for your employees. Educating them on the latest threats and best practices reduces the chances of data breaches caused by human errors.
5. Business continuity
Uptime is vital for IT infrastructures. If your systems go down due to a power outage, a natural disaster, or a cyberattack, your business could suffer major losses. In most cases, you’ll have to redo work hours, pay for expensive repairs, lose customers, and even face lawsuits.
You should build business continuity measures into your IT infrastructure roadmap. This could be as simple as regularly backing up your data to the cloud, which allows you to quickly restore your systems after an unexpected outage. You should also invest in power backup solutions such to safeguard your systems in the event of a power surge.
If you absolutely cannot afford any downtime, your roadmap should account for remote work policies and secondary data centres. Both of these solutions will allow your staff to continue working from an alternative location
Whatever is in your IT infrastructure roadmap, you’ll likely need an experienced managed IT services provider to put your plan into action. Empower IT is here to help you make your infrastructure more secure, reliable, and cost-effective. Contact us today to learn more about our services.
