Making the most of your IT budget

Data storageIt is that time of year again. Christmas is long gone and the New Year is well under way, and your thoughts turn back towards IT budgets.  Whether you are just starting your financial year, planning towards the next one, or using the last of your 2013 funds, where can you get best value to prepare your business for the years ahead?

The reality is that we are all in different places as far as our hardware, software, and infrastructure are concerned, but there are one constant that we all have to face, that is, advancing technology.

It can seem a never ending circle of software and hardware upgrades, each one leading to a necessary change in the other.  One way to help bring some stability to this is to virtualise your systems enabling a more fluid hardware specification and compatibility with older software versions.

There are many other benefits too.  Virtualisation can allow automatic redundancy and failover, it gives you flexible, adaptable hardware, with fewer physical boxes and lower associated running costs, freeing up budgets in the process.  This for many businesses is the preferred solution, but still half of all SMEs have yet to realise the benefits.

Another situation faced by some is that from April 2014, Microsoft is going to stop supporting the still popular Windows XP operating system.  Server 2008 mainstream support will run until January 2015, so now might be the time to allocate some funds for those future upgrades before they become a matter of urgency. The world won’t end in April, but the writing is on the wall.

IS People are happy to quote for hardware, software and upgrades, whether it is a straight box replacement or a bespoke solution. We can supply IT solutions and equipment from all the leading vendors at very competitive rates whether you have a requirement for a particular part number or a complete IT function that needs fulfilment.

When it comes to budget planning speak to us for free impartial advice, great prices and even better customer service so you can maximise your IT investment.