Migraine Or Migrate

80% of IT managers spend their time on break/fix activities. Not only is it time consuming. They hate it. Loading patches, installing and managing Microsoft Exchange which is becoming more and more specialized, it’s enough to make them want to stick a thumb drive in their eye. The worst part is, where is the ROI on break/fix activities?

Keep looking… Can’t find it?

That’s probably because there isn’t any.

Knowing this, it’s pretty safe to say that 20% or less of the IT manager’s time is spent on planning and strategic projects. Ah! There’s where the ROI is! Yet, little time is being spent moving forward.

What if you could flip that around somehow? You smart people already know where I’m going with this. Of course, I’m talking about migrating to the cloud.

WAIT! Don’t go! 

I realize that moving data around is NOT easy. As a matter of fact, it’s messy. You’ve got countless disabled profiles of former employees along with all their files and other data that ultimately doesn’t need to be moved to the new server. Plus, you have to find all those “hidden” applications that still may or may not be prudent. That all needs to be cleaned up prior to migrating. It’s a lot of planning and perspiration.

Now I’m going to tell you why it’s worth it.

Please review the first two paragraphs of this article about the 80/20 activities. With your data in the cloud, you can outsource some (or all) of your tactical IT activities – whatever you are comfortable with. This leaves your talented IT in-house professionals to do more to bring returns on your investments.

In addition to that big elephant in the room, let’s add the costs associated with purchasing and maintaining your own hardware. With your infrastructure in the cloud, you no longer have to use CAPex to replace expensive hardware every 3-5 years or annual hardware manufacturer maintenance. You can now use OPex to handle the lower monthly payments for IaaS and ITaaS.

PAIN: Getting things cleaned up, planned and moved.

GAIN: Makes your IT organization more strategic and budget can be allocated to more important projects! It’s a win-win!

For more information: Read "Land of No and Slow - The CIO Nightmare" on LinkedIn #cloud #cio or on Twitter @wickedmktg.



Sources: 

Intelisys Cloud University

Neely Loring, Matrix