1. Perform an IT Audit
Are you really using all the software licences you're paying for? Could some staff be using lower spec, lower cost packages of software? Ensuring you're making the most of what you're already paying for just makes sense.
If you're planning for virtualisation, an audit of your server and storage infrastructure will help you to optimise your environment and to choose the right solutions.
Auditing your desktops also makes sense. If you're planning Vista roll-out then an audit of what you've got and whether your existing desktops need to be upgraded will be invaluable. The alternative route is to look at desktop virtualisation. More on that later.
Click here for further information on Trustco's Virtual Audit.
2. Reduce Power, Space and Cooling with Virtualisation
According to VMware, the term virtualisation broadly describes the separation of a resource or request for a service from the underlying physical delivery of that service. Modern virtualisation within the data centre enables organisations to benefit from much higher utilisation rates for their servers and storage. This leads to
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A reduction in the number of servers required
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Reduced space, power and cooling costs
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Increased flexibility, reducing time to deployment for new and changed systems
In addition, the virtualisation of storage provides greater efficiency and flexibility, while desktop virtualisation (see later) improves manageability and makes software roll-out much simpler.
Click here to read this paper from VMware, which presents an overview to virtualisation and the key benefits that can be achieved.
Click here to read 10 techniques for improving power efficiency in your data centre, from NetApp.
3. Review Telephone Costs
One of the most overlooked ways to save money is examining your utility costs and in particular, your telephone bill. Many companies happily pay this without examining where the costs are arising. Pareto Law kicks in, and whilst most people worry about the 80% of calls, it is the 20% that hides 80% of the costs. This is normally calls from the office to mobiles. So if you really want to home in on costs, cut the calls to and from mobiles, it’s as simple as that! It is not unreasonable to also put a limit on how much you will contribute towards staff mobile phone costs and ban unreasonable levels of mobile to mobile/fixed personal calls.
Click here to read 8 more tips on saving telephone costs, plus some things to check out before switching to a new telecoms provider.
4. VOIP... Can it really save you money?
Voice Over IP is often cited as a cost-saving technology. But will it really save you money?
What is it?
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a protocol used to make voice conversations over your organisation's private data networks and internet connections.
How does it work?
VoIP services convert your voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet or network as data. At the destination it is converted back to an analogue signal for use with traditional telephony services.
Click here to read further, including... Will it really save me money? and indications for a move to VOIP
5. WAN Acceleration
According to Gartner, The primary function of Web Optimisation Controllers (WOC) is to improve the response times of business-critical applications over WAN links, but they can also help to maximise return on the investment in WAN bandwidth, and sometimes avoid the need for costly bandwidth upgrades. To achieve these objectives, WOCs use a combination of techniques, including:
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Ensuring fair access for mission-critical applications during periods of congestion by prioritising business critical traffic, through QoS policing and traffic shaping, for example
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Minimising the effects of network latency using methods like protocol- and application-specific optimisation
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Reducing the bandwidth required to transfer WAN traffic by compressing it, for example
Click here to read more from Gartner about the WAN optimisation market.
In order to ensure that the most effective solution is put in place, providing the best overall return on investment, a detailed analysis should first be undertaken. This will establish
Contact Trustco to discuss your requirements. We can perform such an analysis for you and then apply our knowledge of the market to suggest appropriate technology solutions.
6. Promote your products with cutting edge web video
Watch this 90 second video to see how new types of web content are dramatically increasing the attention that company websites can get.
See the video here.
Contact us to find out more.
7. Sign up to Trustco AdVantage
Trustco AdVantage enables you to maximise the benefits of doing business with Trustco. In addition to annual rebates you will benefit from priority access to vendor offers, business events and our acclaimed online reporting.
Click here to read more.
8. Thin Client or VDI to Reduce Upgrade Costs
The traditional PC as the corporate "thick client” has long been at the forefront of desktop computing. It has represented a favourable compromise between functionality, performance and cost. However, a number of challenges remain.
A Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) could be the answer. The strategy has many advantages over the PC, not least including significant reduction of desktop costs over time and also much simpler roll-out of new applications.
Click here for the rest of this article, including the key challenges of the desktop PC and some of the benefits of VDI.
9. Back up review. How much is your media costing?
Could your backup regime cost you less? If you're using tapes, it's worth reviewing your existing procedures, looking at things like
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how much administrator time it takes to manage
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how much time it takes handling tapes
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what effort is required to manage off-site tape storage
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is your backup window sufficient
A virtual tape library may be an appropriate solution for you. Providing a non-disruptive replacement or complement to existing tape backup, such solutions offer great flexibility and reduced costs.
This article introduces VTLs and their associated data de-duplication technologies.
This report from Forrester discusses VTLs and assesses 12 vendor offerings.
Contact Trustco to help you with your backup review and to establish which, if any, solution would be appropriate for your environment.
10. Print Audit. Who is printing what, to where, why and do they really need to?
Most organisations underestimate their printing needs and expenses by as much as 50%. If you could learn
then you could
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direct print jobs to the most efficient devices
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control the use of features such as colour, duplexing, etc
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facilitate/enforce a hardcopy strategy
Trustco can help with this kind of print audit. Contact us to find out how you could reduce your hardcopy expenditure.
