10 Ways to Cut Your IT Budget

Many IT divisions are under pressure to cut their costs, but don't know where to look to discover price benefits. Here's some guidance from technical experts on intelligent methods to cut the IT funds.

Some places of the IT funds - such as protection - require continuous improves in order to remain effective. The key is finding those places where expenses can be reduced.

Tech research company Gartner says organizations should focus on their IT facilities and functions (I&O) investing, which creates up about 60% of all IT costs globally.

Following these 10 steps, Gartner says, can help organizations decrease I&O expenses by 10% over the next 12 months, and 25% over the next year:

1. Delay non-critical projects - When determining whether to obtain a venture, IT management need to ask three questions: Does it assistance a high-priority company initiative? Will it help lower costs? Does it prevent protection issues and outages?

2. Take another look at telecommunications expenses - A big slice of companies' I&O investing goes to telecommunications organizations. It's worth taking a regular look at how much the company is investing on those services, evaluating them to market rates, and trying to negotiate agreements, if necessary.

3. Negotiate information facilities - Many organizations are saving cash by closing down smaller sites and merging functions into larger information facilities.

4. Virtualize - Virtualization can help organizations press more life out of current equipment. Many organizations are starting to use hosting server virtualization, but it can also be used to personal computers, storage space, social media and other places.

5. Reduce energy and chilling expenses - The energy invoice creates up a huge part of IT's function expenses. Read some guidance on how to decrease energy and chilling expenses in information facilities.

6. Management information growth - Gartner reports that by 2016, organizations will be having 850% more information then they are now - and it's going to price a lot to store all that information. IT must discover methods to manage the amount of information the company maintains - such as the use of storage space virtualization, computerized tiering and storage space source control (SRM) tools.

7. Use the smallest possible assistance level - Many organizations have several levels of IT assistance, with different price points for each. To increase performance, organizations must make sure users are always instructed to the smallest possible level that can fix their issues.

8. Improve process - There are several methods IT can streamline and improve day-to-day functions, thereby decreasing headcount. Gartner suggests the ITIL approach.

9. Improve IT source control - By keeping a nearer eye on their resources, IT divisions can discover methods to cut expenses, such as removing unwanted software permits, deferring improvements, and changing needless servicing agreements.

10. Use intelligent freelancing - The decision is a lot more complicated than just understanding whether to delegate all or none of IT's I&O functions. Companies must look at their own situations and decide which places are less expensive in-house and which should be freelancing.