How would you like to be able to foretell the future? What would you do? For those of you who have seen Back to the Future 2, you might, like Biff, decide to use a copy of the Sports Almanac to make ‘informed decisions’ in order to secure yourself the best chance of making more money… Right?

Well, before you start thinking I’m about to offer you a magical document like the Almanac (don’t have one, sadly), or read today’s horoscope (don’t believe in it), or share weird and wonderful stories from fortune tellers (know anyone who has visited one?!), I’d like to share my thoughts on the next best thing… Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM).

“How’s that going to help me make more money?”, I hear you cry. Read on and I will explain…

When one considers the initial and on-going investment made in IT infrastructure, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that continual monitoring and maintenance of physical, virtual and digital IT assets are important. Whether it’s to help find performance gaps, or proactively identify potential issues to avoid service downtime, organisations are looking more and more towards managed services to help simplify and improve their IT infrastructure management.

With this in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise to find that Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) has increased in popularity over recent years.  Put simply, this service allows an organisation to offload routine-but-essential, or even mission-critical, tasks, to providers who focus on the monitoring and management of IT environments. In doing so, Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) leaves a business free to re-focus internal IT teams on more valuable and strategic activities, such as rapid application delivery to market to secure competitive advantage, to support growth and increase market share or shareholder value.

So, what other benefits can be realised? First and foremost, up to a 30% reduction in on-going operational cost. Coupled with less initial investment required, this means that the potential overall cost savings can be significant. An additional benefit is access to a team of highly accredited and experienced technical experts, who utilise best-in-class toolsets that some businesses may not readily have access to. Trained professionals plus leading, enterprise-class tools deliver a real sense of reassurance and peace of mind that most IT managers yearn for.

However, the real power of Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) lies in the notifications. The IT infrastructure is proactively and remotely monitored by a team who intimately understand the corporate environment. Through the generation of notifications, these highly skilled teams help an organisation detect potential impending issues and take action at the earliest possible opportunity – before minor issues turn into full-blown problems. Whether data resides in one data centre or several located worldwide, these notifications provide an organisation with a clear view of their IT infrastructure and enable them to identify areas for improvement. Critically, this service significantly lowers the risk of IT failures and service outages.

When it comes to Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM), setting the correct thresholds is key. Not only do the thresholds need to correctly relate to the platform being monitored, from a technical perspective, interpreting thresholds correctly is just as important.  For example, for servers, one would monitor the number of cores, the clock rate, the number of threads, the number of memory channels available, the respective maximum memory bandwidth that needs to be monitored, and so on… IT departments then need to interpret that data and determine what, if any, impact there is to the business. Things can, very quickly, become very complex.

Such complexities often distract members of the IT department from their primary roles and responsibilities. Often, too much time is spent troubleshooting issues when, for example, IT departments could – and should – be evaluating new applications and technologies to help support company growth objectives.  By reaching out to a provider of Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM), a business can sleep tight in the knowledge that its infrastructure is being proactively monitored. Moreover, the CIO can be confident that precious data is safe in the hands of experts, who will provide recommendations as to how IT infrastructure, platforms, applications and the wider environment can be further optimised.

Regardless of the situation, notifications are important. Whether it’s an email from a loved one asking you to pick up some groceries on the way home, or a car warning light indicating that you only have x miles left before you run out of fuel. Notifications let you know you need to take action. They draw your attention to potential issues and, just like the Sports Almanac, let you know where you should be focusing your efforts for maximum return. Translate that into the peace of mind derived from knowing that significant IT investments made are protected, knowing that valuable data is being proactively monitored and managed, knowing that a team of experts are anticipating issues and addressing them according to pre-agreed thresholds and ITIL processes… now that’s the sort of peace of mind that I’d like, wouldn’t you?

Welcome to 2014! Start the year as you intend to go on, take advantage of the expertise, experience and excellence waiting to help you make the 12 months ahead more successful than ever before…

Find out more about MTI’s solutions and services at mti.com, email ukinfo@mti.com or speak to a trusted advisor on +44 (0)1483 520 200

Asad Malik
Product Manager, MTI Technology