IT is an integral and crucial component for most businesses. Therefore, it makes sense that every business should have a clear IT strategy. However, detailing where you’re going and how you’re getting there can be difficult. So, when developing your strategy, the following eight components must be considered. Let’s have a look.
What is an IT Strategy?
An IT strategy describes your businesses’ ability to create value utilising tech know-how and IT business assets. Furthermore, it is a business document, not a technical one, so it should be understandable by any employee.
The Big 8
These are the eight infrastructure and management components you’ll need to define to create your IT plan:
- IT asset inventory
- Desired IT site environment
- Security and Governance requirements
- Servers, devices, and storage
- Customer, user, and IoT interfaces
- Transport and delivery
- IT personnel and management
- Cost and budget
1. IT Asset Inventory
This is a list of all physical or virtual IT assets. These might include; utility equipment, telecommunications, infrastructure equipment, PC hardware and software, networking equipment, IT licenses and IT personnel.
2. Desired IT Site Environment
Define your IT site environment location. This may be multiple sites and could include traditional servers, the cloud, or a hybrid setup.
3. IT Strategy Security and Governance
List your security components such as anti-virus and anti-malware programs, firewalls, encryption storage and masking techniques. Next, review which compliance standards you fall within.
4. Servers and Storage
Application and infrastructure servers must be included in your IT scheme document.
5. Customer, User, and IoT Interfaces
How will services, users, and IoT devices access data, content, and applications? Plan for them in your strategy.
6. Transport and Delivery
Importantly, transport and delivery items outline what protocol and communications routes customers and users travel to access your content. This includes all planned users such as customers, employees, business partners and vendors.
7. IT Personnel and Management
Your strategy must include the type of IT personnel you’ll need to achieve your vision. So, consider the IT staff structure.
8. Strategy Cost and Budget
Define your expected strategy costs for each specific item and create a budget.
Putting Your IT Strategy Together
An IT strategy creates a plan for using IT to realise organisational goals and create value. Therefore, your infrastructure and management components are a critical part of that plan. So, be sure to define these items correctly, as your IT vision and plan will depend upon them.
If you’d like to discuss your IT Strategy, contact our friendly team at Blue Sky IT Consulting today.
