With tech developing on a seemingly never-ending speedy basis, it can be increasingly difficult for businesses to know how best to manage their IT infrastructure – balancing costs, performance, and the need for the best possible hardware. IT Lifecycle Management is, as IT is, always developing; but here the Procurri team talk through how some of the industry best practices that can help organizations stay at the top of their game.
What is IT Lifecycle Management?
As with everything, IT assets are not infinite, and they have a lifespan. IT Lifecycle Management (often abbreviated as ITLM) is the process of managing all IT assets from the ‘cradle to grave’; including hardware, software, Cloud computing, and data.
It’s worth noting that IT assets include housing infrastructure such as chassis and racks, the physical and virtual locations of data centers, policies, systems and software, and even the data management of other departments within the business.
Proper and thorough management of IT assets helps to ensure reliability, security, cost optimization, and compliance, as well as reducing downtime.
The Stages of the (Typical) IT Lifecycle
There are various stages of the lifecycle of IT assets, which are usually continuous and then repeatable as new assets replace old. Typically, the lifecycle stages are as follows:
- Planning and gathering requirements
- Procurement and acquisition
- Deployment and configuration
- Operation (BAU) and maintenance
- Upgrade or optimization
- Decommission and disposal.
The Best Practices of each IT Lifecycle Stage
There are lots of practices that organizations can enact through each lifecycle stage of IT assets to help best manage them and optimize their performance throughout. This includes:
Planning and gathering requirements
In the initial stages of IT planning, the business can:
- Ensure that the strategy being taken toward IT assets aligns well with wider business goals
- Perform resource forecasting and full assessments of business needs
- Establish policies around IT lifecycle stages such as asset refresh cycles, support plans, EOSL planning, and standards for ITAD (IT Asset Disposal)
- Factor in Capex and Opex into budgeting for a realistic forecast as possible.
Starting as you mean to go on with careful consideration and planning can help lay a solid foundation for best practices to be utilized throughout.
Procurement and acquisition
The actual purchase of IT assets can be managed in a way that ensures optimization of financial spend and the best possible supplier relationships. Best practice in this area can include:
- Prioritizing suppliers who have a strong track record in security and reputation
- Evaluating the TOC (Total Cost of Ownership) rather than just the initial purchase price
- Standardizing hardware and software to keep its management as simplified as possible
- Using centralized procurement to maintain compliance and compatibility with the rest of the business.
Deployment and configuration
As assets are deployed into use and configured for optimization and compatibility, further measures can be taken to consideration such as:
- Automating provisioning (using configuration templates, scripts and/or MDM as required)
- Implementing strong identity and access controls from day one
- Maintaining consistent and thorough documentation of assets (including but not limited to serial numbers, licenses, warranties, support packages, EOSL points).
Operation (BAU) and maintenance
As IT assets are being used, organizations can continue to ensure they’re managing them as best possible. This includes:
- Scheduling routine updates
- Scheduling regular security audits
- Scheduling patch installation as required
- Proactively monitoring the performance and health of devices
- Ensuring warranties and software licenses are renewed on time
- Implementing change management protocols.
Upgrade or optimization
When assets require upgrading, the following practices can be used to hold standards as high as possible:
- Tracking asset performance and usage to determine upgrade timelines
- Using analytics to identify under- or over-utilized systems
- Optimizing software licensing to ensure nothing unnecessary is being invested in
- Updating hardware before it fails – to reduce replacement costs.
Decommission and disposal
When IT assets reach the end of their functional life, there are several things that organizations can do to ensure that everything is managed well, including:
- Working with e-waste companies that are environmentally responsible and will meet (if not exceed) all legal compliance requirements
- Ensure the thorough and secure wipe of all data from data-bearing devices before it is processed for ITAD
- Recovering usable components where possible for recycling or refurbishment
- Ensuring all licenses are deactivated or reclaimed where possible.
The Most Common Mistakes Made in ITLM
There are several common pitfalls that businesses find weaken their IT Lifecycle Management overall. These are, however, fairly simple practices to put in place and their impact should not be underestimated – so these can be easily avoided. The most common mistakes made are as follows:
- A lack of centralized asset tracking – resulting in duplicate assets or mismanaged assets
- Poor documentation – resulting in non-compliance with industry or regulatory standards, as well as inconsistencies in policy, spend and operations
- Inconsistent deployment processes – resulting in mis-configurations
- Deferred or delayed upgrades – resulting in security risks as patches are missed
- The siloing of procurement decisions – resulting in missed opportunities for cost savings and/or contract negotiations.
The Trends Shaping ITLM Currently and Into The Future
Of course, ITLM is developing as technology does, and there are several trends we’re seeing emerge more and more. These include:
AI-driven predictive maintenance
As AI is being integrated into more aspects of IT as a whole, we have seen an increase of businesses using such tools to help them shift from reactive to proactive lifecycle planning. AI models can help more accurately predict hardware failures, software degradation, and capacity issues before they occur. This allows for the optimization of refresh cycles by determining when devices will cease to offer premium performance rather than just opting to replace hardware based on dates alone.
AI models are able to make predictions based on previous behaviour and performance, and can help trigger automated ticketing, patching, and triage; reducing the manual workload for IT teams.
Saas Lifecycle Management
SaaS (Software as a Service) lifecycle management sees an external vendor provide lifecycle management services, which are accessed by a business online; usually through a web browser. This management approach helps organizations ensure cost-effectiveness, maintain security and lessens in-house resource load.
Using the SaaS approach toward lifecycle management allows for organizations to expand their scope beyond just hardware, and to optimize their financial spend based on usage analytics enabling the rightsizing of licenses and renegotiation based on actual consumption rather than predictions.
However, SaaS lifecycle management is not without its fault. Current variations can see IT managing renewals, data governance, and integrations across dozens or hundreds of SaaS apps – so it’s critical that things are kept as simple as possible.
Sustainable ITLM Initiatives
Sustainability is an increasing focus for many businesses – no longer considered a ‘nice to have’, but rather a BAU consideration and often mandated by regulations. As such, sustainability initiatives can include:
- Maintaining ‘green’ procurement policies and ensuring that any suppliers meet energy-efficiency standards, recyclable materials requirements, and extended repairability
- Lifecycle plan with a carbon-aware approach to evaluate the carbon cost per device and considering this within the context of refresh cycles and the choice between repairing or replacing devices
- Managing data centers as sustainably as possible by migrating to the Cloud where possible, consolidating servers and investing in power-efficient hardware
- Continuing the use of hardware past its EOSL point through the use of Third Party Maintenance.
Using Third Party Maintenance with ITLM to Ensure Sustainability
Procurri is a 100% channel dedicated provider of independent IT maintenance for enterprise servers, storage, and networking. Our Third Party Maintenance services provide ongoing support and maintenance for server, storage and networking systems long past their EOSL point – allowing for the ‘sweating’ of assets to maximize the value derived and increase sustainability credentials.
If hardware doesn’t cease to function and can still operate well, why replace it? Instead, invest in a Third Party Maintenance contract and instead plan budgets ahead for the eventual replacement of non-operational equipment. What’s more, we’re a Carbon Neutral Company and work in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – making us an ideal supplier to mark down on your annual CSR report.
Get in touch to learn more on how the Procurri team can optimize your ITLM, today!
