Saving Money in IT: Granularity Is Key

Saving money in IT is certainly on everyone's mind these days, and one of the keys to doing so is using "granularity."

Huh? The idea is that for a long time, IT has not been very granular in its approach to things. Purchasing over capacity has been a way of life. The mainframe is a perfect example of this: this was a huge box, much of which sat idle until the enterprise had written a bunch of programs for it. Things got a bit better once minicomputers and PCs came along: you could size the box to its tasks. But even that wasn't quite right: if you bought a new application, it usually required a new server. So you had a bunch of computers, all of which had some excess capacity within them. If you could add all of that excess capacity together--and use it--then you probably could coast for a couple of years without having to buy a new computer.

The thing that has added granularity to hardware is virtualization. Now you can split a physical server into multiple virtual machines--and expand or contract the size of those machines as needs dictate. This ability to make a machine just the right size helps explain virtualization's current popularity. It comes down to granularity.

When it comes to software, we've once again typically taken the "big box" approach--or, to be more accurate, the "big list of features" approach. Somebody needs a productivity suite? Give them Microsoft Office. It does everything and then some. In many cases, it does more than the employee needs; but there's no easy way to get Microsoft Office lite from Microsoft. Some enterprises fix that by not buying Microsoft Office for casual users.

However, that is starting to change. Google, OpenOffice.org, IBM Lotus, Sun, and others are offering productivity suites with less functionality than Office--but also making the argument that that's OK because they cost less. Their wins are typically not in displacing Office--but rather in giving productivity suites to users who had none. Once again, it comes down to granularity.

And that makes sense--one of the ways you save money is by buying exactly what you need and nothing more. In the past, due to technology constraints, IT has had to overbuy--but those days are waning. State-of-the-art IT shops are focusing on granularity--whether it's in the form of virtualization or segmenting their employees--and are saving money while at the same time supporting the business.

Note: cross-posted in the Burton Group CCS blog

Comments

[justin]

nice read :)