Everyone likes good value for money, but this is especially important if you’re a small to midsize business. After all, outdated infrastructure, limited budgets, and other factors can seriously hamper any effort to achieve cost-effective IT spending.

Thankfully, as an infographic from Hewlett Packard Enterprise points out, it is possible to get more bang for your buck. What’s more, a report by Aberdeen Group shows how a hybrid approach can also reduce costs and boost agility.

HPE’s advice on how to maximise your IT budget

Capitalise on more efficient systems

The newest technologies not only increase performance, they also reduce complexity, energy use, and above all else, costs. You can save space with high-capacity storage and leverage networking gear thanks to built-in security too.

Leverage server virtualisation

Did you know that virtualisation can help reduce hardware costs by 30 per cent? Therefore, it makes perfect sense to leverage server virtualisation. Also, consider consolidating resources to reduce utilisation, run more apps on fewer servers, and accelerate app deployment with virtual machines.

Consolidate and simplify management

It is possible to reduce downtime by up to 77 per cent with better management. This can be done by automating manual tasks, saving time with end-to-end management designed for IT generalists, and using one toolset for overseeing servers, storage, and networking.

Aberdeen Group’s advocacy for a hybrid approach

In August 2016, Aberdeen Group published the report The Best of Both Worlds: Using a Hybrid Approach to Boost IT Agility. Key findings included:

  • 42 per cent of small and midsized businesses list ongoing cost as a key criteria when evaluating cloud-based systems
  • Small and midsized businesses with a hybrid IT approach are over six times more likely to see improved application performance
  • Small and midsized businesses with a hybrid IT approach are twice as likely to have an improved ability to increase capacity

As Aberdeen Group explains: “With a hybrid IT approach, small and midsized businesses can leverage the greater control, faster access, and increased security that comes with on premise, while taking advantage of the increased agility, reduced costs, and better flexibility that the cloud offers.”