Gone are the days when only software companies relied on IT; IT is the backbone of virtually every business today. Today, IT supports all business verticals and more often than not, the business critical systems. Operations could come to a standstill if networks are down. This paper talks about current IT Infrastructure Management priorities, followed by an overview of contemporary approaches for managing IT infrastructure. An alternative approach is also introduced and its advantages are discussed.

Infrastructure Management Priorities
The most important operational priorities for an IT organization include maximizing IT availability, eliminating security threats, ensuring business continuity, and disaster recovery - so that IT optimally supports business operations.

For IT availability, it is important for IT specialists and administrators to understand the impact of IT issues on business operations – so that IT issues that affect businesses the most are resolved first. To ensure high end user satisfaction, it is important to provide a centralized SLA (Service Level Agreement) driven process to manage and resolve end user reported requests or issues and incidents based on automatically detected events. From a compliance perspective, it is important to eliminate the risk of unlicensed software and operating system usage. IT Assets must also be tracked and managed to ensure optimal usage and eliminate any wastage. Data security also needs attention, specifically in terms of preventing data theft, intrusions, virus attacks, and denial of service attacks. Managing business continuity in face of disasters is vital to any business. With increasing awareness and acceptance of ITIL based best practices, progressive IT organizations have started implementing some or all of these best practices.

Traditionally, CIOs have encountered difficulty in demonstrating measurable ROI on IT investments. The India domestic IT industry faces severe lack of technical expertise to manage one or more of the following: voice, data networks, high end UNIX servers, complex middleware applications, ERP systems, data warehouses, etc. Attrition of technical staff also leads to severe disruptions in operations. With increasing business growth and demands combined with operational inefficiencies, most IT organizations spend about 80 percent of time in a reactive mode. Very little time is planned or is available to design and execute a strategy for increasing efficiency of IT operations.

Issues with Traditional Approaches