Why Scalable IT Is Critical For Business Success
If your company’s objectives involve expanding into new markets and improving your return on investment, you need scalable IT. Ensuring your business has scalable IT will allow your organisation to grow and generate revenue without being held back by a lack of resources or flexibility.
As a result, scalable IT is an essential component of your business infrastructure. Prioritising scalability can result in lower maintenance costs, a better end-user experience and heightened agility that allows your business to stay ahead of the ever-changing tech curve.
So what is scalable IT? And why is it critical for the success of your business?
Why is scalable IT important?
In the context of IT support, scalable IT is a system that can increase or decrease performance in response to changes in demand. This could include adding or removing users, or increasing or decreasing storage size as your business requirements change and evolve.
For large and small businesses alike, scalability is hugely important – but contrary to popular belief, it’s about more than growth. Any business can grow, but that doesn’t mean it has the adaptability, infrastructure or resources at its disposal to cope with increased output. Implementing scalable IT means you should be able to increase your workload in an efficient, cost-effective manner without overstretching your business. At the end of the day, it’s about meeting the demands of your business and your customers, as well as having a comfortable handle on a growing workload and customer base.
Essentially, scalable IT has given businesses the opportunity to keep their overhead costs low without compromising on the resources they need to stay up to date. As a result, scalable IT has become an increasingly important tool for modern businesses that need to be dynamic and agile in the face of changing technology – scalable IT plays a critical role in this day-to-day.
What are the benefits of scalable IT?
When you think of scalable IT, you most likely think of a system designed to meet sudden increases in demand. A well-known example is improving the scalability of a website to prevent it from crashing due to increased web traffic. However, scalability doesn’t stop at capacity. It also allows heightened flexibility in terms of features which can be hugely beneficial during times of change or even crisis and can actively reduce overhead costs. Instead of paying above and beyond what you require, you only pay for what you use. Although this means you won’t have additional capacity, ensuring your business has scalable IT means you’ll be able to access it should your business require it. As a result, scalable IT can give a business the tools it needs to scale up and down in a quick and efficient manner, minimising response times and costs.
Historically, business IT has been fairly rigid. The costs associated with staying ahead of the tech curve and ensuring your network is up-to-date have also been relatively high. However, in the digital age, this has all changed. There are numerous benefits to scalable IT but the most notable are lower costs, improved flexibility, greater control and reduced risk.
More flexibility
These days, your IT infrastructure should not only be capable of growing with you as a business, allowing you to introduce new team members or services as required. This is where scalable IT really shines – it can vastly improve the flexibility of your IT network as well as give you greater control of your business resources.
Scalable IT moves with your demand. This means that your business won’t be left paying for a service you no longer require. For example, a business might use an onsite server which hosts its very own network. However, while improvements could be made to the server, its capabilities will always be limited. As a result, if the business grew and expanded quickly, it is likely that the server would need to be replaced which takes time in terms of procurement, configuration and installation. It’s also important to consider the risk of purchasing a new server. What would happen if the business suddenly lost a number of employees? In this scenario, the business would be left with a costly server it no longer needs.
Scalable IT solutions aim to avoid this kind of situation, allowing your IT provisions to grow and shrink organically with very little risk to the business. In a similar situation, a scalable cloud-based network could increase in capacity at the click of a button – without the need for downtime or a new server. Any costs could also be spread over monthly payments. This is instead of paying upfront costs for physical hardware and IT infrastructure. Perhaps best of all, the requirements of the network could be reversed and scaled-down swiftly.
Lower costs
With scalable IT solutions, you only pay for what you use. This means your costs are likely to be lower. For example, when paying for a software package, you would be expected to pay for it upfront. It’s also likely you’ll pay for features your business doesn’t need.
However, with a scalable alternative, you’d only pay for the features you require which can reduce the overall cost. Your business will also be able to purchase additional features for a small period of time, meaning you’ll also pay for the features you require at any given time. Commonly offered through cloud-based software, scalable software gives businesses the opportunity to subscribe rather than purchase outright. Your business will benefit from a set level or membership, which comes with a bundle of features, meaning you’ll be able to choose the level that best suits the needs of your business and move between them should you need to.
Reduced risk
Investment required for large-scale IT projects will always carry a degree of risk for modern businesses. Even if your business is performing well, unexpected events can leave your business open to unfavourable outcomes – especially if your business has a network that is too rigid and unable to respond quickly to change.
Many businesses will only consider scaling up when it comes to considering scalable IT. However, as a scalable IT network allows businesses to cut overhead costs, it’s especially relevant during periods when the demand simply isn’t there. It’s important to remember the ability to scale down can also be an enormous benefit, particularly during times of great change or crisis. As a result, scalable IT is hugely beneficial to businesses operating in hyper-competitive industries or those experiencing regular fluctuations in demand.
Implementing scalable IT solutions at Acronyms
When it comes to succeeding in the modern business world, the most common goals generally involve revenue, profit and growth. Of course, a critical component of achieving these goals is the ability of your business to scale up – to do so, you’re going to need scalable IT.
Since 2003, the team at Acronyms have been helping large and small businesses alike with their scalable IT strategies. Our team of professional consultants, engineers and technicians offer a number of agile, scalable solutions, from cloud consultancy to scalable IT infrastructure. As a leading IT support provider in the South West, we can provide the flexibility your business needs to move with the times.
If you’d like to chat with a member of our team about scalable IT solutions, book a no-obligation consultation and we’ll be happy to help.
Alternatively, if you require any further information you may find the following useful:
Our IT Support Services
Our Microsoft Azure Services
Our IT Infrastructure Services