Maintaining a high level of service on a flat or reduced budget is a challenge facing many IT executives. Simplifying your network can slash support and maintenance costs and free up hidden dollars for your department, says Jim Metzler, vice president of IT consulting firm Ashton, Metzler & Associates.
If something isn't adding value to your network, perhaps it's time to remove it. However, some targets of simplification are more obvious than others.
C5 Editorial, a sound postproduction company in New York, was drowning in physical hard drives until supervising sound editor and network administrator Lew Goldstein took the plunge and built a storage-area network (SAN) to house the company's massive sound-effects library.
"For every feature film, we typically have five or six people working on the soundtrack. Although they're doing different parts of the film, there's information that needs to be common between them," Goldstein says. Rather than share the same files, sound engineers relied on hundreds of hard drives that were carried between desktops as needed.
After doing some research, Goldstein built a SAN using Gadzoox Capellix switches combined with ATTO Technologies' ExpressPCI Fibre Channel host bus adapters and AccelWare drive-management software. At the heart of the system are two racks with 16 Seagate 73-gigabyte Fibre Channel drives. The system cost around $25,000 but returned immediate dividends in improved file sharing and flexibility.
"Right now, we have about three terabytes worth of storage shared among 27 users editing feature films, including 'Men in Black II' and an animated film called 'Ice Age.' The SAN has eliminated a tremendous amount of redundancy, and drastically changed every way we're working," he says. The system is also simple to administer.
When defense contractor Northrop Grumman wanted to streamline printing and copying, Dave Licher, manager of sector print services in Hawthorne, Calif., counted more than 40 contracts for 2,500 copiers, printers and fax machines. Sidelining the stand-alone machines and leasing a fleet of 900 high-speed multifunction Xerox Document Centres slashed the need for IT printer support by 90%, thanks in large part to a Web-based printer administration center.
"The real beauty of this system is Web-based self help. Users can print to any printer in the country that is linked to the network Web site. That same Web site also has FAQs and how-to [information] that show people how to map their own drivers with step-by-step instructions, something they were totally dependent on IT for before," Licher says.
Having one lease that includes consumables and maintenance saves thousands in administrative and purchase order costs, and the flexibility to run high-speed, high-volume print jobs from any desktop let the company close several copy centers. "We now maintain just one copy center per site for color jobs and other things we must closely control," Licher says. Northrop Grumman has realized a seven-figure return on investment (ROI) so far, more than double Licher's estimate for the project.
Steve Shim, director of IT services at Health First in Brevard County, Fla., oversees a network of 40 healthcare clinics and three major hospitals spanning a 400-mile area. Of particular concern to Shim was Health First's telecom infrastructure, a chaotic mix of equipment from multiple vendors.
There were outdated key set systems, many of which didn't support voice mail, five-digit dialing between locations or other advanced features. The mix of equipment and voice mail systems meant multiple maintenance contracts as well," Shim says.
Health First invested a little less than $2 million to roll out a Siemens HiPath telecom system. The organization deployed Siemens HiPath switches in the hospitals and headquarters.
Replacing outdated key systems and phones with Siemens remote shelf technology at outside locations lowered maintenance costs and eliminated the need for outside service contracts. Remote clinics now enjoy the same calling services that the main hospitals have.
Bill Benton, telecom manager for Health First, says ROI for the project will be achieved sooner than planned, thanks to streamlined maintenance and the ability to run the new network with existing IT staff.
The key to a successful simplification starts with a thorough audit, Metzler says. An audit highlights opportunities to standardize on specific vendors, consolidate redundant tools, limit the number of designs in your network, and reduce versions of software.
However, audits are no easy task, especially in a large enterprise or decentralized environment. If your IT team has been lax in record keeping or recent acquisitions have made cataloging installations difficult, appointing an action team can help. Licher of Northrop Grumman asked the manager responsible for each copier contract to get together with the IT person for the site. "Each team member was asked to gather data on how many printers, copiers and faxes were located there, and report back," he says.
Once you've identified key inefficiencies, be prepared to demonstrate how they affect the IT budget. "For example, if the whole company wants PCs, but a department is determined to keep their Macs, it translates into added maintenance and support dollars," Metzler says.
Lastly, find out who is using the technology, what they're using it for, and research the effect that the proposed simplification will have on them before any cuts are made. "You don't want to announce you'll no longer support Macs and discover that means you've cut off payroll," Metzler says.
Georgia is a freelance writer in Hudson, Mass. She can be reached at bonny@wordsatwork.net.
