How to create the IT environment you need today, and might need tomorrow

Companies rely on their IT system infrastructure to shift, flex, and scale as needs evolve, new trends and tools—each with their own requirements—emerge, and unexpected disruptions rear their heads.

But designing, deploying, and managing the complex IT environments needed to perform this dance isn’t easy. Many factors are needed to ensure optimal performance for today while safeguarding against what might happen tomorrow. There are three key factors to consider as you work to build an IT infrastructure strategy today that will continue to meet your needs in the future.

The balance between cost and service

The bottom line isn’t always the bottom line, but cost plays a crucial role in every business decision. Make sure to differentiate between cost and value as you select an IT environment—a low price point is meaningless if it can’t satisfy your needs and strengthen your operations. Conversely, the most expensive solution isn’t always the best one.

Ultimately, the right services and partners will empower your organization to effectively address needs, solve programs, and deliver a consistent performance that can flex and pivot with a changing business landscape to help drive long-term success.

What to consider:

• Upfront vs. ongoing costs
• Short- and long-term ROI of the solution
• Is the provider invested in your success or just interested in your money?

When PharMerica-BrightSpring Health Services was looking for a new data center space for their operations, they had some specific financial constraints that limited the service options available to them. Flexential was able to offer a flexible solution that meant PharMerica didn’t have to compromise on quality to make costs work.

Flexibility for the future

The business world is evolving more rapidly than ever before. No single IT environment will satisfy your organization's needs— which means flexibility (both in the IT infrastructure and the provider) is critical.

Hybrid IT delivers the flexibility to position each of your workloads in the most appropriate environment—whether colocation, public or private cloud—to optimize performance, security, and cost. A hybrid IT strategy supports the development of a comprehensive solution that combines legacy deployments, cloud-native applications, and other IT infrastructure components with the flexibility to address emerging requirements and introduce new technologies.

Flexibility in your partnership with a third-party provider is also key. Working with a provider that can only offer off-the-shelf solutions that don’t adequately address your pain points or deliver desired outcomes is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

What to consider:

• Does the solution adapt to fit your needs or require you to adapt to fit its capacity?
• If you adopt new tools or technologies, will it flex to meet your needs?
• Does the provider listen to, understand, and address your needs?

Working in the healthcare vertical, PharMerica-BrightSpring Health Services relied on various tools – some modern and some legacy and not suited to a cloud environment – and had ongoing plans to embrace new technology. The experts at Flexential worked in partnership with PharMerica to develop a solution that supported all the company’s needs – not just the ones that fit their key offering.

Expertise and insight to achieve outcomes

Not every organization has the expertise to develop, deploy, and manage an impactful IT model. And IT staff with the expertise and skills to manage these environments for the long term are becoming increasingly more difficult to find and retain. Be sure to consider how the solution you choose will be maintained once deployed.

Internal IT teams have other obligations and may struggle to find time for routine maintenance – an issue that can compromise IT resilience and expose your organization to outages, end-of-life equipment, and other disruptions. An experienced data center team can deal with daily operations and maintenance and offer insights into IT trends, emerging technologies, and best practices to keep your company on the cutting edge.

What to consider:

• Where will the resources to deal with both routine maintenance and unexpected disruptions come from?
• Is tasking internal teams with IT environment management the best use of their time?
• Do you have the time/resources to stay current on changing trends, threats, and technology?

PharMerica-BrightSpring Health Services is a healthcare company – not an IT firm. They were happy to offload some processes they were already struggling to maintain to the Flexential team and recognized the value of Flexential’s expertise in maintaining their IT environment and keeping them current on best practices and emerging strategies.

Empowering your IT journey

At Flexential, our focus is our partners’ success. We specialize in building flexible, scalable solutions that empower your organization to innovate and grow. Check out our FlexTalk with Stephen Myers, SVP of Technology Services for PharMerica-BrightSpring Health Services, to learn how Flexential met its diverse needs with a hybrid approach to IT and a commitment to be a partner, not a vendor.