No alterations and developments within your organisation come without risks.
In fact, in today’s business realm, the majority of companies depend on the potential of their network infrastructure for nearly every process within their operations. Regardless of this, many businesses continue to fail to understand the significance of having a robust and secure IT infrastructure. To build upon them, relying on experts such as this IT managed services Toronto is crucial.
Having said that, in the technological era where several cloud-based apps offer digital services to the customers, it’s become all the more important to have a streamlined system in place to organise your daily operations.
Moreover, if you want your organisation to be more productive and efficient while performing with very little interruption, it’s crucial to partner with an IT support provider. While you’re at it, make sure that they’re not only offering IT support services for small businesses but also helping you with your business continuity strategy.
If you’ve been looking for a comprehensive guide to help you establish a strong IT environment, then you’ve come to the right place.
Here we’ve mentioned the top 3 ways to build a solid IT infrastructure for your startup.
But before that, let’s understand…
What is An IT Infrastructure?
In essence, your IT infrastructure refers to all the essential elements, such as human resources, hardware, network and software, that allow your business to offer IT support related services to both your employees and customers.
What’s more, by building a robust IT infrastructure for your business, you can ensure that all the necessary tools are available at all times and that the number of redundancies and failovers are reduced to a bare minimum. It also helps make sure that both your employees and customers receive 100% uptime and that your business is always on the driver’s seat!
4 Crucial Components of an IT Infrastructure
When it comes to building a solid IT infrastructure for your business, you cannot miss out on its 4 crucial components.
These include:
Hardware
The most obvious yet essential component of an IT infrastructure, your business won’t be able to stand on its feet without having a robust hardware.
These usually refer to your company’s switches, routers, computers, networks, servers, systems, and other important tools and equipment that are required to run your business operations.
Software
Software in your IT infrastructure refers to applications and programs that are either built or bought. This usually includes CRM (customer relationship management) software, management and communication tools, productivity applications, etc.
Network Connectivity
In the digital world, the internet has become an essential part of running your startup. In fact, both your employees and customers rely on internet access for their emails, cloud computing solutions, network connections, etc.
Human Resources
Human resources, also sometimes referred to as meatware, are another essential component of your IT infrastructure.
These are people who are responsible for other processes within your organisation, such as network or system administrators, IT professionals, developers and more.
3 Ways to Build an Agile Yet Robust IT Infrastructure
Now that you’ve understood the very definition of an IT infrastructure, let’s take a look at how you can build one for your business.
1) Select the Right People for Your Team
While there are several businesses that fail to employ the right people to help build a robust and secure IT system, some tend to overdo it. Now, how is it that your business can determine the right structure and size of IT infrastructure for the company?
Well, the best way out is to go through the size of your staff, the server count, your growth forecast, the flow in the way your data is being communicated, your client/customer base, and more.
You could even seek assistance from an IT support provider for the same.
Normally, an IT team focuses more on keeping tabs on your crucial IT solutions along with other essential components like wired and wireless network operations, cloud storage, hardware, IT security, software, network utilisation, capacity monitoring and other service updates.
However, along with this, they can even assist you with the auditing, designing and implementation of the right IT infrastructure for your company.
2) Take Your Growth Plans Into Consideration
Your startup’s IT infrastructure needs to be flexible enough to quickly and smoothly adapt to the changes happening within both your organisation and the industry.
To ensure a robust IT environment along with sufficient capacity, you need to plan ahead in time (at least for 2 to 3 years down the line).
Additionally, you need to take your employees into consideration and plan for a well-organised IT infrastructure; meaning you need to predict how you’ll be going about with your company expansion in the future. You also need to foresee how your organisation’s requirements would look like 2 to 3 years down the road and accordingly align your IT infrastructure.
3) Go for Reliable Vendors
In order to create an agile yet secure IT infrastructure for your organisation, you need to select reliable SaaS, software and hardware vendors. This is because they’re not only crucial for the success of your IT environment but also for your organisation as a whole.
That said, before you seal a long-term deal with vendors, it’s best practice to use their products or services for a trial period to determine whether it works for your company and if there’s an issue, how does the supplier respond to it.
Other questions you need to ask include:
- Do they act right away?
- Do they charge additional fees for minimal support?
- Do they offer 24/7 support?
Checking these aspects beforehand and going with quality services can help you save money in the long run.
Build a Robust IT Infrastructure and Boost Your Business Operations
Why wait until you face an IT related hiccup in the middle of your business operations and why not understand the significance of having a robust IT infrastructure beforehand?
After all, the reliability and quality of your business’ technology is what manifests its potential to innovate, expand and outshine the competitors.
Moreover, products, services and tools that help create a fail-proof system not only refine the strategies of your business but also optimise other operations. So, it’s high time that you start embracing these innovations and build an IT infrastructure that helps you adapt to the modern marketplace!
