Combating Slowdown with IT

OPEX is now the difference between success and failure in a business. However

the watchword is cost control. CAPEX can be forecasted and watched, but OPEX

issues are more difficult to point out and can get out of control more quickly

if not watched daily. The most crucial OPEX costs for most are employee-related:

salaries, benefits, travel, bonuses. Almost everything from the space and power

needs of equipment, cooling requirements, integration of disparate systems, to

provisioning and billing for services, support of legacy and next-gen services

and others fall under OPEX.

Everyone is looking at cutting operational cost and the first signs of cost

cutting are brutal, massive layoffs. However, doing this generally has a

negative impact, as it reduces employee loyalty. The focus should instead be on

optimizing all OPEX heads so that there's no major impact on IT operational

performance.

One needs to deeply scrutinize all loose ends in network operations to reduce

the extra flab, and do some belt tightening, i.e. less travel, reducing

communication cost, reducing power cost, reducing maintenance cost, unified

helpdesk, optimizing redundancies and manpower. All these should be implemented

without degrading the quality of service and maintaining 100% up-time. A balance

could be achieved between the required level of services and take care in case

of device and/or network failure to reduce redundancies.

By employing suitable datacenter processes, substantial power saving can be

achieved and by automating the monitoring processes, additional resources could

be optimized. This can be done by server virtualization, use of energy-smart

servers/blade servers, improve air flow management by removing hot as well as

too cold spots and by installing KVM switches to avoid multiple monitors. One

should take up regular energy audits and constant energy saving drives: by

proper power saving practices, operating cost can come down by 40-70%. One

important aspect could be to take up servers' consolidation and figure out if

some redundant servers could be switched off or more importantly if some could

share load off peak while others could be switched off.

How much you can save with VoIP?



Much has been said about how switching from a traditional telephone exchange to
VoIP can save organizations lots of money. It is true that businesses can save

on long distance charges and even mobile phone subscriptions. Businesses can

also save up on setting up separate networks for telephony. The difference in

infrastructure requirements of VoIP systems can make it easy for offices or

staff to transfer—or even travel across the globe—without even having to change

numbers.

However, there is no simple answer to whether switching to VoIP would entail

cost savings. The answer is maybe.

For one, the size of a business would dictate how easy it is to determine

whether VoIP would help the bottom-line. Smaller companies would usually need

more basic services, and the cost savings would be in terms of long distance

calls. However, the cost advantages may not necessarily be great, since long

distance costs these days are increasingly dwindling, and purchasing VoIP

hardware also entails a huge upfront cost.

K B Singh, CIO, BSES JV Reliance

More complex and larger organizations, meanwhile, might be better able to

harness the rich features that VoIP offers, and hence the cost savings are more

identifiable. While upfront costs may be greater for bigger businesses, this

would most likely be negligible in comparison to total costs to the company (and

perhaps even telecommunication costs).

Bigger organizations might be able to save more on infrastructure, compared

to maintaining a traditional telephone system. Since computers are already

connected using an IP network, installing VoIP equipment on them would require

minimal added cost. Bigger organizations may also be able to utilize other IP

services like videoconferencing, which can help save on travel costs.

The greater cost savings would come in terms of the productivity boost that

comes with rich IP-based applications that VoIP usually brings in. Compared to

traditional telephony systems, VoIP can integrate data and voice applications,

such as instant messaging and presence management. VoIP systems can also support

sending of voicemail and faxes to the company's email system, thus saving on

equipment costs, and the time needed to route physical fax printouts.

However, having to train managers, personnel and IT staff on the maintenance

and use of VoIP systems might also entail additional costs to a business. For a

small company, this can be negligible, but for a larger organization, this can

be considered a large scale—and hence more costly—activity. Businesses should

weigh the cost of lost productivity attributed to training each manager and

staff, against the benefits of users being able to adequately use the system.

Again, there is no sure answer to whether switching to VoIP can entail cost

savings. Businesses should evaluate this adequately, taking into consideration

not only the money aspects of it (buying equipment, setting up infrastructure),

but also in terms of productivity and manpower.