It’s a new year and time again for technology analysts and industry pundits to make their annual predictions on IT trends and technologies. I have never claimed to be a technology analyst or an industry pundit, but I do have a budget, annual performance objectives and a set of goals that have been handed to me for 2007. While my strategy may not align with all the predictions, it will show what one real-life IT manager in one real-life company will be focusing on in 2007.
Some analysts have predicted increased IT spending; however, my goals are focused on continued cost containment, infrastructure consolidation and reduced IT spending. The largest component of my IT spending is allotted to maintaining multivendor frame relay and T-1 connections, so the three technologies I’m interested in are Internet VPNs, managed MPLS and VoIP.
Internet VPNs will let me significantly reduce the cost of providing data connectivity to smaller locations and external clients. By replacing dedicated circuits with lower-cost broadband Internet access and using the Internet to route traffic, I can reduce the cost of connectivity to these locations by as much as 30%. And by using SSL and IPSec tunneling methods, I can provide a high level of security for client-based and site-to-site VPNs.
For locations that warrant a higher level of service, a vendor-managed MPLS service will let me replace my internally managed multivendor frame relay data networks with a network managed by a single vendor and capable of supporting data, voice and video.
The ability to consolidate disparate voice and data networks into a single infrastructure can drive significant infrastructure cost reductions on its own. When you factor in the reduction in support costs that can be obtained by using a vendor-managed service, the potential exists to obtain significant cost reductions while providing a high level of service and support.
The key to consolidating voice onto the MPLS network is VoIP. While I continue to question the real near-term savings a full VoIP implementation can bring, reductions can be obtained by IP-enabling PBXs and consolidating interoffice trunks on the data network (or in my case, the MPLS network). I will not be swapping out my handsets for Session Initiation Protocol phones or consolidating intra-building voice on my LAN; rather I will be using VoIP to eliminate interoffice dedicated voice trunks.
So where do technologies such as Terabit Ethernet, IPTV, Vista and Web 3.0 fit into my strategy? They don’t – at least not yet. With my focus on cost containment, any new technology that requires substantial implementation costs will be scrutinized carefully. There needs to be a quantifiable business benefit in implementing any new technology.
My 2007 strategy is the same as it was in 2006: to increase operational efficiency and reduce operational costs. The technologies that form my strategy are ones that reduce costs, provide the required level of functionality and help the business meet its strategic goals. And isn’t that what IT is all about, anyway?
