Whether you want to upgrade your information technology (IT) infrastructure to make your business grow or you’re still operating with outdated systems, scaling is necessary. Several business owners don’t prioritize scaling IT infrastructure because they don’t want to deal with a costly endeavor and avoid the stress involved in the process. However, while it’s often perceived as difficult, you can easily scale your IT infrastructure.
By using solutions similar to Buchanan's cloud migration project plan, you can make the scaling process seamless. To start, here are some of the ways to scale your IT infrastructure:
1. Expand The Knowledge Base
Digital transformation when you scale a startup presents new challenges to your company’s IT infrastructure. An often-overlooked element is how vital knowledge is and how vulnerable companies make themselves by not planning its sharing and storage.
When scaling your IT infrastructure, knowledge transfer is crucial. In small IT departments with staff who’ve been working for years, maintaining consistency and silo information is easy. However, when you’re scaling from 10 to 100, knowledge sharing becomes complicated, making it a critical part of the process.
To resolve this, encourage your employees to train one another and implement documentation. You should also consider services similar to SAP RISE program and others to ensure smooth digital transformation.
2. Embrace Automation
If you’re a small business, automation may not be necessary. However, once you deal with changes and as your business grows, automation becomes more critical. Not only is it cost-effective, but it also eliminates the chance of security risks and errors.
The best way to implement automation in your company is to focus on the tasks or areas that are repetitive and prone to error. While other areas can be improved with automated technology, it’s crucial to realize that you must start in a particular zone before you overwhelm your entire workforce.
You must also be mindful of automation’s impact on your IT infrastructure. If possible, weigh its pros and cons and know whether you should automate manual processes. Besides, you don’t want to replace the task or jobs of your employees just because you can. Be smart about the process you’ll automate to make your workplace more efficient and scale your IT infrastructure easily.
3. Use The Cloud
The cloud's storage capacity, flexibility, and security make it attractive for companies of all sizes. As you upgrade your network infrastructure, take advantage of the cloud to lessen downtime and continue your daily operations. If something happens during the process, you can be at ease knowing your files and data are backed up to the cloud and can be accessed anytime.
To get the best possible results when using the cloud, make sure to work with the right cloud service provider. Not all of them fit your needs, and some may not provide quality services. So, before you choose a cloud service provider, check its offerings, service quality, and industry reputation. This way, you can scale your IT infrastructure using the cloud without any inconvenience.
4. Add More Server Capabilities
If you lack network capability, add more servers to your business. Sometimes, you might not realize that your server is outdated because you don’t see it regularly, unlike routers and computers. Improving your servers can make a difference in upgrading your IT infrastructure and making your network more robust.
Adding more server capabilities also helps you enjoy faster processing power and store more data. So, adding servers for your IT infrastructure is an excellent investment since you won’t be susceptible to lapses in the operation times when one goes down.
5. Change Your Disaster Recovery Plan
You must always plan for the worst-case scenario, and it’s true when scaling your IT infrastructure. One of the components you need to update is your disaster recovery plan.
If you have more bandwidth and files to protect, you might need to alter your procedures and protocols in case of a breach. Practice your response protocols and educate your employees to ensure everybody knows what to do if issues occur as you scale your IT infrastructure.
6. Create Backups For Your System
When scaling your IT infrastructure, creating backups for your system is advisable. It might mean mirroring the operating system on your computers and partitioning drives to have a full backup, making duplicate files on hard drives or cloud storage. However, always create a Plan B. You don’t know when electrical shortage or downtime may happen, so back up your system to scale your IT infrastructure successfully.
7. Keep Your System Up To Date
Any scaling leaves possibilities of vulnerabilities and security risks. When your IT infrastructure upgrades are done, it’s vital to continue updating your systems regularly. Remember, hackers only take a small vulnerability or gap to gain access to your system and force it to crash down. Therefore, watch for available updates and install them immediately.
8. Embed Security
The price you need to pay for unsecured IT infrastructure is a costly undertaking. A data breach can cost millions of dollars, especially if you’re running a corporation. Besides the financial setbacks, you may lose your client’s confidence over security breaches or issues.
Once you fail to secure your IT infrastructure, you’re making your business vulnerable to various types of threats or risks like account hijacking and malware infiltration. Such vulnerabilities will give attackers control and access to your network, compromising your system. Poor IT infrastructure security can ultimately put your reputation and revenue on the line.
To prevent security risks as you scale your IT infrastructure, you should control and know who has access to your resources. As part of ensuring your IT infrastructure is securely managed, it's crucial to control who has access to your resources. A strong strategy in securing and managing user access lies in understanding what SCIM is all about, which streamlines user provisioning and de-provisioning in cloud applications. Implementing such a system enhances security and elevates efficiency within the company. Unauthorized access can compromise your company’s security. Therefore, improve your company’s IT infrastructure management and implement a zero-trust approach to grant and revoke access privileges. It can limit access to authorized users and quickly deny access to potential intruders.
Conclusion
A scalable and flexible IT infrastructure is crucial to relieve the tech burdens most admins currently experience and meet the demands of your company’s future. To achieve this, follow the above methods to support your growth initiatives and minimize headaches. If you don’t know where to start, don’t hesitate to work with experts to meet your needs when scaling your IT infrastructure.
