Economies of scale are the holy grail in business. This prize is the “raison d’être” of many merger, acquisition, and automation projects. Increases in productivity, decreases in cost, or both will be realized if economies of scale are achieved. With the constant changes in technology over the last several decades and the exponential growth in technology adoption in recent years, are these goals still possible? If so, what do economies of scale look like in relation to IT infrastructure automation?
Historically, the goal of automating the management of IT infrastructure was “to do more with less”. This mantra has meant limiting vendor choice to maximize scale discounts and limiting IT staff headcount to save costs. However, the result has been unmanaged IT automation, which is expensive. Lack of coordination and communication across teams and the enterprise has fostered operational inefficiencies.
But, the future is bright! New and improved economies of scale are achievable, using standardized, modular, shareable automation methods that are based on business initiatives.
Improve Vendor Management
The initial economies of scale an enterprise will realize with standardized, modular automation is an overall improvement in vendor management capabilities. With the elimination of duplicate tools, the cost savings will be immediate. Flexible and vendor neutral IT automation provides greater bargaining power with hardware and software vendors. Rather than waiting to achieve scale discounts, an enterprise is in the driver seat, negotiating an infrastructure purchase like a commodity and avoiding vendor lock-in.
Empower Team Collaboration
Secondly, reusable and composable automation is fundamentally designed to be shared between teams. Breaking down the old automation silos allows teams to expand working processes and enforce required procedures. Additionally, this modern approach to IT infrastructure automation enables consistent integrations between infrastructure components, providing validation across multiple systems and building a stronger, more resilient enterprise.
Eliminate Tool Sprawl
In addition to the cost savings already mentioned, choosing IT automation tools in a deliberate way with a focus on the enterprise will provide a “single source of truth” and eliminate operational confusion. Human capital is too precious and expensive to waste on duplicative efforts and sorting through the morass of unmanaged IT automation. Additionally, IT staff are freed to focus on advanced automation concepts, including standardizing security and compliance guidelines across the enterprise.
Real Talk
Even with the exploding IT landscape, economies of scale can be achieved for every type of infrastructure. Creating standardized, modular, shareable automation and reusable workflows with Digital Rebar, you can unlock better bargaining power with vendors, eliminate tool sprawl, empower team collaboration and information sharing. These will bring economies of scale to every infrastructure: on-premises, public cloud, co-location, or at the edge.
