HYBRID IT - APPSPACE

With the world settling back into office life, some companies have chosen to adopt remote or hybrid work models on a more permanent basis. In order for these companies to ensure positive employee morale and consistent work standards - integrated management systems have been required by many.

An example of this is the unified workplace experience platform, Appspace, who is a facilitator of Hybrid IT systems. The software encompasses everything a workplace would need, including workplace communications, space reservations, and analytics. They’ve already introduced elements of automation/ML to the platform, with more things in the works. Appspace supports the overall workplace experience, ensuring that productivity is optimised and that employees stay connected, even when working remotely. In addition, Appspace’s many integrations reduce the complexity of administering a Hybrid IT technology stack. Companies greatly value this flexibility from Appspace, which saves time and money by managing dozens of point solutions.

Managing company infrastructure is no longer reliant on just an on-site data storage centre. For example, software selection and company architecture configuration are key components of a hybrid IT setup.

Having a good mix of IT infrastructure platforms has been proven to increase companies’ agility and improve customer service, as well as employee satisfaction and productivity. This is especially the case for enterprises who operate globally.

The downside is that the convergence and management of multiple technologies is becoming increasingly complex. Where companies would traditionally only have one data center, some information technologies now span across a multitude of geographical locations, partners, the cloud, legacy systems and applications.

DIgital processing and the advancement of cloud computing has made the concept of hybrid IT systems greatly efficient, yet - if a company runs on older technology - it can be difficult to scale or costly to adapt to hybrid IT systems.

From a facilitator’s point of view, the best way to go about effectively introducing a hybrid IT system in the workplace is by being well-informed and taking a strategic standpoint as an IT decision-maker, before going about implementing large scale data management changes.

It is greatly important to align technology platforms with the right applications and workloads. Another aspect to consider is choosing the right hybrid cloud offering for your organisation.

Before shifting to a hybrid IT system, it’s important to balance stability and change. Systems that run core business applications need to remain stable and functioning throughout the process of

moving data or disrupting operational processes. There’s no point in introducing innovative technologies to the company if it means core systems cannot continue to function properly.

While many companies are pursuing legacy infrastructure modernisation, keep in mind that the working environment needs to support and have the capacity to handle such changes. As a result, companies need to maintain two IT environments - one being the cloud and the other on-premise.

This is where it becomes complex, with some limitations, as to how apps and services interact across the two domains. This is why business agility should always be considered before cost and security when wanting to shift to a hybrid IT system.

From our perspective, driving efficiency and performance is only possible if the complete pool of IT resources has the capacity to be dispersed between the cloud and on-site management systems - whilst performing as usual when change is in progress.

Creating an optimal hybrid IT environment cannot be rushed. A solid foundation needs to be set before making changes to how company systems and data storage operates. Keeping up with digitalisation is only relevant if a company’s existing IT systems are well prepped to blend and merge with new networks.