HP Converged infrastructure is driving the evolution of IT - where IT becomes the 'hero' of business, says Aptronics, HP 2015 Enterprise Group Partner and HP 2015 Cloud Partner of the Year.
Anthea Nadin, DataCentre Solution Specialist at Aptronics, says the days of IT as a grudge spend that just 'keeps the lights on' for the enterprise should be drawing to a close. "IT must start listening to business and thinking about what business needs from them in terms of service. IT needs to become the 'heroes' who give business what they want. In South Africa, too many IT resources are still allocated to routine tasks. But this is changing as enterprises move to more advanced and efficient infrastructure that frees skilled IT resources to deliver business innovation," she says.
Aptronics, an HP Enterprise Group Platinum Partner and HP Gold Partner, sees customers across the country moving beyond the first level of converged infrastructure. This is a good sign for the evolution of IT and for the ability of local enterprises to compete, says Nadin.
"Instead of adopting high end niche products that create siloes, local enterprises and midmarket customers are moving to adopt standards-based modular hardware put together in innovative ways, and allowing the software layer to differentiate for the business. Even small businesses are now moving to benefit from more converged, modular and open infrastructure," says Nadin.
Although some enterprises have not yet moved to converged infrastructure, Nadin says many are already into the 'next cycle': "Many have established the foundations. Now they see hardware as a commodity and they are realising the value in moving toward the next phase. Most have already started on the journey in some way: while some are still talking about virtualising their environments, a large number of local businesses are already starting on the automation and orchestration phase."
Nadin says those who have moved to the next level are already seeing results. "There are cost benefits, but more importantly, they are now able to be more agile in provisioning and application development. Additionally their IT resources are freed up to deliver innovations that support business strategy," she says. "Those that far along the journey see increased reliability; high-availability environments at a lower cost; and they are able to deliver more proactive and effective maintenance and management. Reliability is enhanced because the virtualisation it is plugged into offers built in redundancy." This takes IT closer to the ideal of being a business enabler, rather than a cost centre, she says.
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