5 Keys to Getting More from Your IT Budget

Since the Great Recession, businesses have been pushing their IT departments to do more with less – and once you start down that path, the expectation is that becomes “the new normal.”

The good news is that Big Data helps make this possible by providing IT with the insights needed to optimize business operations, enhance customer engagement, and drive sales. That help comes in the nick of time too, because we’re on our way to producing obscene amounts of data given the explosion in social media and connected devices.

Managing such vast quantities of data puts a tremendous demand on your infrastructure and, for many businesses, means trying to figure out how to cope when your IT budget remains flat. To help achieve that, here are five considerations to keep in mind while you strive to deliver more with less for your business.

Flexibility is essential because as your business grows, so do the demands on it. Often your IT resources remain the same while the amount of data your company generates grows exponentially. You need to be able to protect countless machines, operating on diverse IT platforms, including the mobile devices your team members rely on.

Comprehensive cyber protection ensures you can secure the data of traveling field employees and distant office locations – regardless of whether they use Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android devices. Using one agile solution to consolidate backup from all devices makes your solution more efficient and makes it easier for you to ensure your business grows.

Just because you have more data, doesn’t mean you need to pay more to protect it. Acronis software, for instance, comes with simplified licensing to ensure a lower upfront investment and greater transparency.

Additionally, automation can save you time and budget dollars if the right wheels are set in motion. Schedule backups for convenient times for your business to increase reliability while decreasing the need for oversight.  With advanced scheduling features, like multiple backup plans for the entire server or just one file, you can deliver even more functionality and cost-savings.

Have a huge amount of data to manage? Off-loading large backup jobs to another host offsite can be a game changer for a speedy recovery, while reducing the need to maintain hardware on-site. For on-site storage needs, customizable storage options – from tape drives to fast, hot storage – are a strategic way to balance recovery speeds and protection costs based on your needs. Acronis’ unique hybrid cloud architecture means you can store your data where and how you want.

Getting key insights to stay in control of your data need not be expensive either. Automated, customized reporting saves you admin time and money. 

The first priority of any IT professional should be to stay up and running, no matter what. By leveraging multiple innovative technologies, Acronis makes sure your systems have fail-safes to ensure business continuity while providing backups so you don’t lose data. Acronis Instant Restore allows you to start any physical or virtual Windows or Linux system directly from backup storage as a virtual machine – without needing standby hardware or moving data. Just a few minutes later, you can be up and running on a new machine with Acronis Universal Restore – a technology that overcomes compatibility issues, allowing you to restore an entire system to different hardware with just a few clicks. By virtually eliminating outages, Acronis keeps your business going so you can focus on your customers’ needs.

While backup and recovery was traditionally enough to keep your data safe, today's threats require a new generation of cyber protection solutions. Industry-grade encryption is an important start, ensuring that your files can only be accessed by you. Beyond that, Acronis’ blockchain-based technology certifies that your files have not been modified by outsiders.

Other new threats like ransomware require an even more innovative approach to protect your data. Unlike other technologies that can only defend against known strains of ransomware, Acronis Active Protection monitors your system in real time, using artificial intelligence to determine if a process running on your system is malicious. If a threat is detected, our technology stops the process and instantly notifies you so you can take action.

Of course, if you’re trusting your data to a third party like Acronis, you want to be sure it’s under lock and key. We do that – and a lot more. All of our data centers are built to be Tier IV secure with the latest disaster prevention technologies, 24/7 security, and both ISO and SSAE-16 certifications.

Using data to mine new opportunities and leverage existing ones is ideal, but many industries demand that certain regulations are followed. This has become even more critical since the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect. And, as we’ve already seen, penalties are steep for any business that doesn’t adequately protect their customers’ data.

While the GDPR is nuanced and complex, staying compliant need not be.

Acronis Backup helps ensure your customers’ personal data is secure according to the GDPR’s strict standards. End-to-end encryption, blockchain certification, and our unique AI-based anti-ransomware technology combine to provide comprehensive cyber protection. In addition, cloud customers can choose which of Acronis’ compliant data centers (Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) will store their files.

It’s not easy to keep doing more with less. Yet, with the right technology in place, you have a good shot at not just keeping the lights on, but keeping customers happy and growing with intention – safely and affordably.