Page 32 - Security Today, November/December 2019

IT TECHNOLOGY
SPOTTING SIGNS YOUR
IT IS OUT OF DATE
Focus on the four primary levels of evaluation By Jorge Del Prado Lera
“Most signs of your IT being outdated are not related to the technology itself.”
The evolution of IT technology is advancing at breakneck speed. This evolution not only keeps the IT department in a constant state of change, but also dramatically changes the way the over- all business must adapt to stay competitive.
IT technologies have rapidly morphed, including the way us- ers consume them. Companies that hesitate to adapt will quickly fall from market leaders to laggards depending how effectively they embrace digital transformation.
Mobility
With mobility, we refer to how employees or customers can in- teract with the company via mobile devices. This is typically the area of greatest obsolescence in companies. In the most common failings, your employees are not able to manage their work from their mobile devices or your customers are not able to access your website in a mobile friendly way. Consumer use of mobile has overtaken the use of desktops to access services. Businesses must adapt instead of relying on laptop use.
If mobile is not a core part of your IT strategy, this means your IT has been outdated for a while already and you should define a strategy to catch up.
Workplace IT
The last, but not least, indicator of outdated IT we want to high- light is workplace IT. This addresses desktop PCs, laptops, mo- bile phones and workspace applications like email, telephony, video/audioconferencing, etc.
It is well understood you need a plan to renew your devices, which is usually every three years for mobile phones depending on your specific needs. You also need to have your operating sys- tem up to date to run modern applications. If you do not have an update plan, it’s a sign that the workplace is outdated. Another clear sign is if you use a hosted email system instead of a cloud system or if you still use old telephony devices instead of IP ones.
For a non-IT company, IT is becoming a service rather than a duty that the company itself manages. That can sometimes feel uncomfortable and perceived as a loss of control. But it really means IT is managed by highly specialized companies so your company can focus on your own business and customers, surely much more exciting than IT itself.
Jorge Del Prado Lera is head of business solutions portfolio and applications CSI for Getronics
But how does a leader know if the company is leading or lag- ging, and if its IT is out of date? While there are numerous ways to evaluate, let us focus on four primary levels, including infra- structure, applications, mobility and workplace IT.
Infrastructure
When we talk about infrastructure, first thoughts typically go to the cloud. The cloud, in essence, is a change of paradigm, not a technological change. Your company, in the past, purchased servers typically housed in your own data center. This model was based on periodic capital investments.
The maintenance might have been done by internal or external teams. Depending on a company’s approach, there was often an operational expense to support the data center too. The challenge is data centers can become outdated quickly, and you must main- tain ongoing hardware investments to maintain effectivity.
If you have not already, an evaluation of completely moving to an operational model in the cloud should be conducted. Of- tentimes, companies are forced to do so because some aspects of their infrastructure and applications require the cloud.
Keeping a data center on your company’s premises is a clear sign of outdated IT and not using the cloud at all is another one.
Applications
You probably have a combination of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) business and legacy applications as well as some devel- oped ad-hoc for your business (bespoke applications). When we talk about COT, there are two signs your systems are outdated. First, the version you use is no longer supported by the vendor, and there is not an easy way to upgrade the version.
This situation, sooner or later, will trigger tough decisions that will require an important, and potentially significant, investment. When we talk about bespoke applications, an important sign of obsolescence is when the technology used to develop your appli-
cation is not used anymore in new applications and it is hard to find developers to maintain them.
The final point to mention here is licensing. Licensing models are moving more to SaaS (Software as a Service) where you pay for the whole package including software and hosting. If most of the applications you have follow an old licensing model, this might mean you are not moving at the right pace and need to rethink your applications strategy.
Applications versions, licensing models and technology used in your development will guide you on how outdated your ap- plications ecosystem is.
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 | NETWORKING SECURITY