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Do’s and Don’ts of Future-Proofing Your IT Infrastructure


Future-proofing your IT infrastructure means designing and implementing scalable and flexible building blocks that will accommodate new technology and applications as they are needed. Bottom line? You’ll be running optimally today while preparing for the demands of tomorrow.

Bonus: A future-proofed, flexible IT infrastructure is also resilient and incorporates intelligent automation while remaining efficient and cost-effective.

DO: Assess Your Current IT Infrastructure

Identify the components of your IT infrastructure and assess their effectiveness. Ask if these components (especially those that are critical) meet current business needs. Consider the scalability of these components — can they all handle increasing demand?

With the ever-increasing rates of cyberattacks and cybercrime, it’s also critical to ensure your current infrastructure can withstand an attack and be quickly updated to protect against future threats.

Finally, consider the costs. How expensive will it be to maintain or patch your current systems vs. upgrade them?

DON’T: Rely on Aging Hardware and Software

When assessing your IT components, keep their lifecycle in mind. What will be going end-of-life or end-of-support?

Once software or hardware reaches end-of-life, it will no longer receive important updates or security patches. Create a roadmap for what will need to be upgraded and replaced over the next one, three, and five years to stagger the cost and prioritize areas of greatest need while ensuring critical systems don’t go down and cost your business precious time and resources.

DO: Collaborate With a Managed Services Provider You Can Trust

A great managed service provider will act as an extension of your internal IT team, supporting and maintaining your IT infrastructure and helping evaluate your IT infrastructure based on current and future business needs.

DON’T: Rely on Legacy Systems

Legacy systems create challenges due to limited integration and scalability, higher maintenance costs, and limited support. At best, they may run slow and can lead to frustration and slower business outcomes. At worst, they present a security risk.

If your business relies on legacy systems to provide critical functionality, make these a top priority when considering the future of your IT infrastructure. What does migration look like, and what will it cost?

DO: Leverage the Cloud and Automated Cloud Migration

As you look to the future, consider investing in cloud infrastructure. Cloud solutions allow IT infrastructure to scale as needed, enabling improved operational performance. Cloud solutions will also offer improved disaster recovery capabilities and enhanced remote access for employees working outside the office.

Many organizations use a variety of tools to migrate applications, workloads, and data to cloud environments. However, these differing tools can lead to inconsistencies that can cause business disruptions.

While various cloud automation tools can help eliminate redundancies and associated outages, another approach to automated cloud migration is working with a managed service provider. A reliable MSP will create an automated migration strategy and test it before shifting the entire workload.

DO: Plan for the Long Term

With technology driving more and more business growth, IT is no longer a reactive cost center. Instead of doing IT planning in a silo, technology leaders must consider the organization’s overarching vision for the future.

How will intelligent automation, or the use of AI and ML, factor into the future of your business? What additional technologies may business leaders ask to be onboarded?

If your business has a five-year plan, what part will technology play in it? Will they be adding employees or locations? Consider the big picture to make your infrastructure future-proof.

DON’T: Overlook Cybersecurity

Securing your evolving IT infrastructure requires a strategic approach to cybersecurity. Similar to developing a roadmap to ensure IT infrastructure meets evolving business needs, organizations should focus on building a security approach that takes into account today’s threats while preparing for the future. Key elements to consider:

  • Backup and recovery: If a data breach happens, what’s your plan? How long will it take to recover, and how much will it cost? Having a plan in place is key.
  • Proactive threat intelligence: Continuously scan the environment, understand emerging threats, and be aware of potential exposure points.
  • Continuous detection and response: Discover, prevent, and recover from cyber threats faster.
  • Cybersecurity compliance: Understand regulatory and compliance changes that may take effect soon. Incorporate this into your strategic approach.

DO: Invest in a Scalable and Resilient IT Infrastructure

Scalability and resilience are essential factors for both protecting and growing your business. As your business grows and changes, so does the demand on the network.

As more devices are added to the network, so too is the amount of data that is being transferred. Your IT infrastructure must be capable of handling these new requirements, and it must be resilient enough to withstand failures, outages, and threats that may compromise business continuity.

Engage an expert managed services provider to help future-proof your IT infrastructure to meet tomorrow’s demands. Get in touch with TPx to get started.