How Navigating the Everchanging IT Landscape Can Be Like Perfecting Barbeque

By Travis Richards, Director of Consulting Services, cStor

Like most people in the world over the last year and a half, I have found myself with extra time and have been able to start some new hobbies. For years I have enjoyed other people’s barbeque, but I never found the time to try it on my own until this last year. I figured it was easy… buy a smoker, throw the meat on it and enjoy, right? Man, was I quickly proven wrong! As I started this new hobby, I quickly learned that there is a lot more to barbecuing than just throwing meat on the smoker. Sure, you can do that, but to get really good results ‒ the kind of result that gets people to spontaneously show up on your door wondering if you are cooking tonight ‒ takes a lot more than that. Once I had several “meh” results and a planned family barbeque party that turned into a pizza party as the meat took seven hours longer than expected, I knew I needed help. Sure, I could slowly experiment and learn on my own, but then that would mean many more ok meals and missed dinner plans to get closer to my barbeque nirvana.

So, what did I do? I asked experts! I found friends, co-workers, family and whomever I could get advice on how this all worked. One friend laughed repeatedly as I told him some of my early BBQ mishaps, mistakes and missed dinner expectations, as he had done the same things when he was starting. As I took the “experienced experts” advice, my barbeque game significantly improved… much quicker than it would have on its own.

Leveraging Experts to Optimize Your IT Environment

So, how does this relate to the IT and security landscape? Just like barbeque, in the ever-changing IT and security landscape, you can try it on your own or get help from experts to get you where you need to be quicker.

If the last year has taught us anything with the global pandemic and ever-increasing security attacks and business disruption concerns, it’s that in IT, we need to be ready for anything. These experts can become invaluable when “your meat isn’t cooking,” you’re trying something new, or just need an expert. Many companies lack the time and expertise to effectively navigate the complicated and ever-changing pace today’s businesses demand. Understanding and knowing when something is no longer adding value to your organization, or maybe more importantly when something newer could add more value, is important.

IT leaders struggle to meet growing demands from the business and to keep staff skilled in the latest innovations in technology and security all while continuing to design, implement, optimize and proactively refresh to utilize the latest technology innovations to maximize their investments. That means architecting change, developing and implementing new solutions, and continually monitoring and optimizing systems for peak performance becomes challenging, creating a potential for high-risk.

Keeping Pace Through On-Demand IT Services

Maintaining and optimizing your IT and security investment is critical to keeping the business running smoothly around the clock. On-Demand IT services, such as cStor’s ManageWise data center and security offerings, help clients by providing experts who proactively navigate today’s everchanging technology and security landscape.

Expert maintenance of your IT environment is critical to keeping your business running smoothly around the clock. ManageWise On-Demand IT services provide expert engineers for post-implementation support to proactively ensure systems are following best practices and operating at peak performance, maximizing your return on investment. They also assist with client-driven initiatives and infrastructure planning to make sure you can meet your business initiatives.

Other advantages of the ManageWise service are the expert engineers that review your environment on a regular cadence for environmental health, best practice adherence and gathering insight into the unique requirements of your business. They can then help you craft the perfect IT and security environment for your business by objectively evaluating your system health while identifying potential areas for improvement and optimization. By recommending best-of-breed solutions based on your specific needs, these impartial experts can pull from the entire spectrum of IT solution providers to find the best fit. This ensures that you are making the “perfect barbeque” for your business.

ManageWise Service Options

ManageWise typically begins with a discovery phase where our experts learn about your specific business needs and how your environment is configured. Through this process, the environment is reviewed, and challenges, risks and potential improvements are identified. As the ManageWise service continues, the identified items are prioritized and addressed to make sure you are optimized and utilizing your hardware and software investments to their full capabilities. This allows a proactive approach to maintaining the health and efficiencies of your environment and enables experts to assist in helping architect and plan for your future.

ManageWise is customized to each business’s individual needs and can include the following:

Onsite. For teams that need in-person support, cStor experts set up onsite throughout the engagement to help monitor, maintain and optimize system performance, allowing your team to focus on more mission-critical activities and being responsive to internal stakeholders.

Remote Only. Today’s advanced technology means teams can meet online and systems can be monitored remotely so the day-to-day system administration is seamlessly handled with minimal internal resources required.

Hybrid. Some environments call for both onsite and remote support to blend the perfect mix of face time with internal staff and ongoing system support from remote locations.

Fixed Schedule. At times, your team may only need a fixed schedule with support for day-to-day administrative tasks so they can redirect their time and attention to more strategic initiatives.

ADHOC. This pre-purchased bucket of time offers a 3-day business SLA that is refillable at a fixed rate to allow business flexibility for an expert to assist when needed.

No matter which support option you choose, ManageWise offers the assurance you need to maximize your investments. Just like getting expert help and advice has helped me to improve my barbeque game, let cStor’s experts help you improve your IT and Security game and create the perfect receipt for your business.

If you would like to learn more about how cStor can work with your team to capitalize on today’s leading technologies and maximize your IT investments, contact cStor to schedule an appointment today.