EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
SALMAN ALI , SENIOR MANAGER SOLUTION
ENGINEERING META , RIVERBED TECHNOLOGY
The first step is to gain visibility through solutions that deliver insight into user experience , digital performance , network traffic to reduce costs .
IT is always facing budget pressures , but with the increase of remote work , increasingly complex infrastructure , global economic outlook , supply chain disruptions , and rising costs , those pressures are tighter than ever ! Gartner found that 73 % of IT leaders are being asked to reduce spend and it appears this appeal is justified – although spending on software is set to increase 11.8 % this year , and a report by Flexera shows that 38 % of desktop software spend and 33 % of SaaS spend are wasted due to under-used licenses .
While there is potential to reduce IT costs , it can be extremely difficult to identify where this can be achieved without impacting end-user productivity and satisfaction . The increasing prevalence of SaaS , hybrid work force and cloud infrastructure make it challenging to monitor digital experience and usage , leading to bloated software , network and cloud spend .
The first step is to gain visibility through solutions that deliver insight into user experience , digital performance , and network traffic to intelligently reduce costs without harming the business . For example ,
Digital Experience Management , DEM tools can locate devices with high levels of resource utilisation , view complete device list and issues , and reclaim unused or underused licenses to lower IT costs .
Or consider how DEM could be used to adopt a smarter approach to device refresh cycles – something that would yield significant cost savings given that employee device costs have risen 20 % since the beginning of 2021 .
Traditionally , teams have relied on a device ’ s age as an indicator for when it is time to refresh . This , however , does not speak to the actual health or performance of the device . DEM offers insight into actual user experience , which helps teams make more informed decisions to replace devices when they ’ re no longer performing well . Targeted device replacement saves organisations money by allowing them to replace devices based on user experience rather than device age .
When IT teams approach IT asset cost reduction , they are often forced to make sacrifices in their digital transformation initiatives or make cuts that end up harming the user experience . If instead these teams are armed with unified observability solutions that pinpoint IT cost issues like software bloat , unused licenses , poor network performance , and unnecessary cloud spending , they could strategically eliminate wasteful spending without sacrificing on their innovation roadmaps .
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