The road to a simpler IT landscape: 5 essential tips

You know what I’m convinced of? That is that many IT landscapes lead to confusion, inefficiency and security risks. The root cause: they have become too complex. Namely, the more you manage, (which sometimes isn’t even necessary) the more challenging it becomes to protect against the ever-increasing number of cyber threats. Therefore, let me clarify in a readable way how your company, too, can simplify its IT landscape.

Tip 1: Do an audit and inventory

Start with a thorough audit of your existing IT infrastructure. Identify all hardware, software, network components and data storage. Create a detailed inventory list and assess which elements are essential to your business goals. Bet over the years so-called tools (tooling) have come in that are really just getting in your way?
Removing unnecessary systems and applications can already result in significant simplification. Moreover, in most cases, simplification also yields cost benefits.

Tip 2: Investigate SaaS alternatives

You can also achieve a simpler IT landscape by deploying SaaS alternatives in more places. You can use the following four steps to do this:

1. See if a SaaS variant of your business application is now available and migrate to it
2. If you really need to maintain a client/server application, see if you can migrate it to Azure. Once in Azure, investigate whether, instead of a server, it would be better to acquire a platform service. That way, a SQL server that you now manage yourself will soon be turned into a SQL database, with much of the underlying technology handled by the cloud provider
3. If the conclusion is still that it is better to keep the client application close to the server backend (for example, for performance reasons) then it is recommended to host the client application on a VDI (such as AVD or Windows 365) solution running near the application server backend.
4. Build in regular moments to revisit Step 1. As soon as you can, migrate your application to SaaS to reduce dependence on servers.

Tip 3: Focus on standardization

Adopting standardized processes and technologies significantly simplifies the management and maintenance of your IT infrastructure. Therefore, choose uniform operating systems, software versions and security protocols. This simplifies both day-to-day operations and troubleshooting. Tip 3b could also be: “don’t say yes to everything,” because that is precisely what has created complexities. In short, build your solutions in such a way that they are easy to manage.

Tip 4: Automate routine, repetitive tasks

Often these are the tasks that are tedious, such as keeping up with system updates, data backups and security monitoring. Fortunately, many of these types of tasks can be taken over by technology itself. This reduces the workload of your IT team and minimizes human error. Microsoft offers several tools for automation, such as PowerShell, that you can use to simplify and speed up tasks. It is a cross-platform solution for task automation that consists of a command-line shell, a scripting language and a configuration management framework.

Moreover, simplicity is also offered to users, for example, with Microsoft Power Automate, a powerful tool for automating recurring processes based on imitating clicks and keystrokes. It works like this: a script is programmed once where to click and what to type according to as data. After that, the computer can follow the script an infinite number of times without getting “tired. After all, computers never sleep. However, we do have a warning with this: only put this kind of tool is when you are in control of your environment, otherwise you will automate the wrong things.

Tip 5: Always keep security and compliance in mind

Simplicity never means compromising on security. On the contrary, it is essential to implement automated security measures to ensure regulatory compliance. Therefore, use tools that can work with each other to enable multi-level detection. Many security improvements can be achieved by applying “common sense” and simply setting up your environment neatly and uniformly.

We like to help when simplicity is complex

For many companies, it is quite complex to simplify on the one hand and comply with laws and regulations on the other. After all, there are quite a few demands. That’s why we offer Secure At Work as a total solution, in which all such technical simplifications can be aligned with compliance requirements. Simplicity means peace of mind, for employees and auditors. Especially since security is better assured.

Kenneth van Surksum – Owner of Secure At Work & MVP