IT infrastructure modernization is critical to business sustainability.
Management of IT infrastructure, whether on-premise or off-premise often is challenging. Although on-premise IT infrastructure has its benefits, the increasing IT complexity, security, scalability, compliance, and the need for experts to manage the infrastructure often present business challenges. On the other hand, although off-premise IT infrastructure offers cost savings and scalability, there are challenges regarding data security and dependency on the cloud vendor to solve every problem.
For these reasons, organizations are now considering hybrid IT infrastructure with the help of IT asset management systems to manage and handle interconnected devices and systems and seamlessly adopt advancing technologies. Hybrid IT can offer complete flexibility, security, scalability, modernization, and cost optimization. Again, having full visibility of the hybrid IT infrastructure requires businesses to follow a few best practices.
What is Hybrid IT?
Hybrid IT refers to the combination of on-premises and cloud-based systems in order to uplift the cost effectiveness, performance, and business operability. In the present era, when traditional systems are failing to keep up with the organizational growth, hybrid IT has emerged as a boon. Through this centralized and integrated approach, businesses get the flexibility to infuse the control of on-premises systems with the scalability of cloud infrastructure for better workload coordination between different environments, data portability and process orchestration than earlier systems. However, the journey of businesses from traditional on-premises systems to modern hybrid IT systems was not easy.
Earlier, the traditional on-premises systems offered limited capacity for data storage, manual management of IT resources, and high capital expenditure, which often resulted in inefficiencies, over provisioning and scalability issues. As a result, businesses shifted their focus on cloud platforms that offer better capabilities, features and scalability than on-premises systems. These cloud systems are known to enhance the storage capacities, resource management, load balancing, resource pooling and many more aspects.
But, even cloud computing systems fail to meet the evolving business needs owing to which companies started exploring more sophisticated options. As a result, hybrid IT came into existence that helped businesses improve their productivity, data storage and handling, and process orchestration abilities, besides eliminating various issues associated with data security, cost management, process optimization, and resource management.
Why do businesses prefer Hybrid IT infrastructure?
As digitization proliferates more into the business arena, the IT landscape also has to constantly change to handle the demand and fit the trends. A few IT set ups are easier to handle by the businesses, and a few require continuous monitoring. In such a scenario, hybrid IT has emerged as a meaningful solution for businesses. Some of the reasons behind the increased growth of hybrid IT infrastructure are as follows;
- Improved risk and disaster recovery management
- Business continuity and reliability
- Enhanced data security and integrity
- Better accessibility for remote/hybrid workers
- Ensure better cost savings
- Better flexibility for the employees
- High scalability scope
- Improved business agility
- Enhanced operational power
- Optimized workload and resource management
- Centralized data access and storage
Types of Assets in Modern Hybrid IT Infrastructure
Modern IT infrastructure consists of different components which are classified into tangible and intangible assets. Some of these are as follows;
Hardware - These include physical devices such as computers, machines, data centers, end user devices, servers, printers, etc., that are necessary for data processing and storage.
Software- These include intangible systems such as operating systems, utility tools, network management applications, software licenses, middleware, cloud applications, etc., that are essential for performing business operations.
Digital Assets - These assets cover business databases, customer information, websites and domains, financial records, etc.
Networks - These assets include LAN, internet, intranet, VoIP systems, and various other equipment and systems required for the network access.
Besides these, there are various other assets that an organization can manage through IT asset management solutions.
What are the Security Challenges of Hybrid IT Infrastructure?
Nowadays, businesses use multiple cloud platforms. This was disclosed in a multi-cloud survey that stated that around 86% organizations rely on more than 1 cloud platforms. As a result, issues associated with data protection, IT skills gap, API security, secure data sharing, compliance, misconfiguration, incompatible tools, insecure data transmission, etc., are common, which adds to increased complexities and real-time visibility issues. Not only this, but the monitoring and tracking of these multiple cloud systems also become difficult, posing new challenges to hybrid IT infrastructure. Multiple assets and systems also means increased number of endpoints, making the system more vulnerable to cyber breaches. Benefits of IT management software services in such scenarios cannot be ignored as it offers greater asset visibility, improved asset acquisition, low procurement costs, and many more benefits to ensure optimal IT service delivery.
Top 11 Practices For Complete Visibility of Hybrid IT Arena
Complete end to end IT asset visibility plays a major role in the effective functioning of any business. In fact, 82% organizations consider lack of IT visibility a major hurdle to overcome. The following best practices are always recommended to ensure complete visibility of the entire hybrid arena.
#1 Know the benefits and requirements of cloud and on-premise IT management
Having a proper idea of the benefits of cloud and on-premise IT management is useful in accurately identifying the areas where relevant systems can bring maximum results. On-premises IT management offers benefits, such as better security and control, low latency data access and predictable performance. However, it comes with several challenges, where cloud IT management comes into picture, helping businesses reduce the negative influence of these challenges on the overall system and IT visibility. IT teams having this information can analyze business requirements and accordingly implement suitable on-premises and cloud systems that can counter each other’s weaknesses, make informed decisions and ensure optimum visibility.
#2 Proactive management and maintenance
Asset failure can lead to service disruptions, hence need proactive management and monitoring. This can be done by monitoring the usage and health indicators through which the IT team can get the required visibility to identify patterns, schedule maintenance, replace assets before failure and perform timely repairs to ensure uninterrupted services. Through proactive maintenance and management, businesses can improve their IT visibility and eliminate any hindrances to it as they will be able to avoid the risks that may occur due to security breaches, operational failures, compliances, etc. Some of the major proactive management and maintenance options include preventive maintenance, condition-based maintenance, predictive maintenance, and prescriptive maintenance.
#3 Implement an unified IT asset management platform
At present, businesses rely on a huge number of assets that cannot be efficiently managed through a simple IT asset management software. To effectively manage such a huge number of assets, an unified IT asset management platform is the need of the hour that can centralize the information, eliminate waste, support every team, and consolidate the management of all IT assets. An unified IT asset management system can automatically discover new assets as soon as they are integrated, provide detailed insights into asset performance, identify underutilized resources, generate real-time reports, record predefined configurations, plan maintenance, etc., aimed at maximizing and enhancing the overall visibility.
An unified IT asset management software should support integration with existing systems, centralized data repository, automated inventory discovery and management, real-time monitoring and reporting, resource optimization, compliance management, and continuous improvement to ensure estimated results and IT visibility.
#4 Adaptive cybersecurity
Adaptive cybersecurity is a trending security approach to detect, prevent, predict and respond to cyber threats in real-time. One of the most common ways for adaptive cybersecurity is adopting web application firewall (WAF) protection. Around 67% businesses use WAF protection to secure their hybrid IT infrastructure. Adaptive cybersecurity tools rely on network detect and response, extended/unified detection and response, dynamic asset mapping, user behavior analytics, cloud security posture management, and several other models, enabling the security operations center to adapt to the ever advancing threats.
#5 Properly group all IT assets
Another best practice to ensure continuous IT visibility is properly grouping the IT assets based on several factors such as location, function, type of asset, management needs, etc. Businesses can opt for both manual and automated asset grouping, depending upon their needs. Manual grouping is best for adding resources whenever required, whereas automated grouping is best for creating the criteria to add newer resources. Also, include Bring your own device in the overall asset grouping.
#6 Comprehensively track complete asset lifecycle
Comprehensively tracking the complete asset lifecycle help business acquire important information regarding the asset status, usage, performance, procurement, deployment, maintenance, etc., which can further be used to optimize asset usage, identify obsolete resources, better plan for future upgrades/replacements and ensure greater visibility over the IT assets. This practice is also beneficial for businesses in identifying and removing the ghost and zombie assets. For comprehensively tracking the entire asset lifecycle, businesses can opt for an integrated IT asset management tool that can easily manage large asset portfolios for both cloud and on-premises systems.
#7 Set rule-based alerts
Through rule-based alerts, businesses can identify and fix the assets that fail to meet certain critical control evaluations. These alerts eliminate the need to actively monitor the system and only need intervention when the system deflects from the actual trajectory. Automated IT asset management tools come with robust rule-based alerts that can trigger whenever an application exceeds the latency threshold, resource usage, or deviates from service level agreements. Businesses can configure rule-based alerts to notify the relevant teams via messages, emails, notifications, etc., of possible issues. Typically, businesses use these alerts for performance monitoring, configuration changes, budget threshold, resource usage, service outages, backup and recovery, capacity planning, etc., significantly preventing blindspots and improving visibility.
#8 Leverage AI and automation
Proper AI and automation abilities can promptly collect, process, and analyze data in real time, enabling companies to respond faster and make better decisions. AI-based IT asset management software can analyze and learn from past data to understand the normal and fluctuating behavior of applications. From centralizing asset monitoring and detecting asset failures to automating routine tasks and enhancing security, artificial intelligence can cohesively bring numerous positive changes to IT asset management. An automated asset management solution is among the top asset tracking methods. It can also help give full visibility with less human intervention to automatically scale up resources or redistribute workload whenever an asset is underperforming.
#9 Ensure proper configuration management
Organizations having proper configuration management processes in place can protect themselves from misconfiguration related issues that can negatively impact the visibility, control, accessibility and security of the hybrid systems. With proper configuration management, businesses can easily track and manage the organizational assets, their configurations, related policies to ensure better security, management, and visibility. Effective configuration management can also monitor and document the changes to IT assets in real-time, which is beneficial in tracking their impact and promptly resolving any issue if found. Businesses typically use a configuration management database (CMDB) to ensure proper visibility into asset location, number, configuration method, etc.
#10 Integrate necessary apps and tools for visibility enhancement
Integrations are among the first things that a business notices when investing in any It software, system or application. Lack of integration directly impacts the real-time visibility, scalability, and flexibility of the hybrid IT systems. A reliable IT asset management system should integrate with CMDB, ITSM, cloud management platforms, cybersecurity, process orchestration, supply chain management, backup and recovery, service desk, people management, supplier management, digital asset management, warehouse management, vendor management, product lifecycle management, data import/export, and various other required tools to centrally manage data from one dashboard, enabling better monitoring and management with greater visibility.
#11 Real-time predictive analytics
Real-time predictive analytics features can also help businesses acquire complete visibility over its hybrid IT infrastructure. Through real time predictive analytics, businesses can analyze large data volumes to flag anomalies as they occur, forecast future asset needs, and minimize disruptions, ensuring enhanced control and visibility. IT asset management solutions having these features provide advanced insights and analytics that businesses can leverage to proactively address potential issues, secure loose endpoints, optimize the overall costs, and strictly adhere to the legal compliances.
New Trends for Modern IT Service
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ESG Integration
As the focus on sustainability grows further, integrating environmental, social and governance principles into IT asset management can be a valuable choice for businesses as well as the environment. Infact, 87% of organizations are looking to focus more on ESG strategies. ESG integration in IT asset management solutions can measure and track the environmental impact of the assets in order to minimize it while not impacting performance. Through it, businesses can monitor energy consumption, waste, compliances, etc., in real-time, ensuring better visibility that allows them to take necessary precautions to reduce their carbon footprint.
IoT Integration
Businesses are already investing in IoT owing to the benefits it offers. IT asset management tools with IoT integration can provide real time data into the asset performance and working that IT departments can use to predict maintenance, optimize asset usage, set smart alerts, etc. IT asset managers are rapidly integrating it into the IT systems to effectively detect the location of devices, monitor asset usage, determine asset failures, identify abnormalities, etc. Over time, the efficiency of IoT enabled IT asset management tools is only going to improve, bringing more benefits to the IT services.
Gen AI Integration
Generative artificial intelligence or Gen AI is among the latest AI advancements that greatly influence the decision making, competitive positioning, and revenue generation opportunities if applied properly. Infact, 71% organizations already leverage Gen AI for decision making with more to follow, according to a recent KPMG research. Its integration into IT asset management tools can be used for automated documentation, report summary generation, proactive issue resolution, data analytics, intelligent resource allocation, automated compliance audits, trend forecasting, etc., strengthening the hybrid IT environment management.
Hybrid Digital Twins
Hybrid digital twins refers to the advanced version of digital twins in which numerical simulations are combined with real world experimental data for enhanced predictions. Earlier, it was limited to large scale industries but that’s not the case anymore. Businesses irrespective of size are rapidly deploying hybrid digital twins to measure missing data, explore causality, adjust simulation models, achieve better transparency in error detection, lower energy consumption and optimize costs. Hybrid digital twins will be a crucial component for businesses in easily managing complex hybrid IT systems and achieving disruptive advancements for their success.
Future of IT Asset Management
The global IT asset management market is expected to cross $2.8 billion in the upcoming years with a steady CAGR of 6.1%. Technological advancements, increased focus on sustainability and efficiency, immense pressure on cost optimization, need for risk management and compliance, increase in the number of IT assets, etc., are the major drivers behind the future growth of IT asset management and its solutions. Not only this, but the evolving technologies like AI, automation, Gen AI, etc., are also expected to improve the functioning, efficiency, and performance of IT asset management solutions, while preventing issues associated with integrations, compatibility, data accuracy, implementation, scalability, etc.
Conclusion
“Success in a hybrid work environment requires employers to move beyond viewing remote or hybrid environments as a temporary or short-term strategy and to treat it as an opportunity.” - George Penn, Vice President, advisory, Gartner HR practice
While on premises systems offer benefits like cost effectiveness, better control and customization, cloud systems offer better agility, flexibility and RoI. Both on-premises and cloud systems have their own advantages and disadvantages and organizations need to leverage both to ensure a higher competitive edge in the market, better revenue, improved user experience and get a holistic view of all the assets and data. Hybrid IT is here to stay, and if businesses fail to take advantage of it, the results may not be favorable to them in the long run. In addition, rapid developments in IT asset management systems are also supporting the sustainability, feasibility and operability of all assets in hybrid IT infrastructure. If you are also looking to invest in a hybrid IT infrastructure, the following list of free and open source IT asset management systems can help you. You may alternatively view the complete list of premium IT asset management software on GoodFirms.
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