If you’re running a business and envision expansion, you need to lay the foundation for that growth by implementing processes that facilitate and enable scalability. A lack of growth signifies stagnation that could ultimately threaten your company’s survival.
You can scale via software, whether your business is internet-based or physical presence-based. It’s the sort of issue that should be on your company’s agenda as far as IT functions go.
In this digital age, companies ask IT teams to enable applications, IT services, databases, and more to scale. Today, companies are able to scale and forecast inventory replenishing plans, use AI to optimize route planning and fleet management, and global recruitment. That’s all good and well, but IT scalability is one of those tech buzzwords that means different things to different people. So, it’s critical to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
What is IT Scalability?
IT scalability defines how IT systems– networks, databases, and applications–continue working correctly even when volumes or sizes change. Whether demand increases or decreases, you’ll want your company’s IT systems to meet the changing demand. It needs completed seamlessly so no hiccups or service disruptions exist.
If you need to scale up to meet higher demand, your IT team’s IT scalability solution might be to boost processing power so that servers work faster. Implementing the right software will allow you to scale quickly to account for changing business dynamics.
Why Do You Need to Worry About IT Scalability?
Prioritizing IT scalability will help your business retain quality throughout expansion or the release of IT resources without jeopardizing useability for customers or employees. A lack of scalability can be disastrous. For instance, if you roll out a new product that brings in a lot of customers but your IT infrastructure can’t handle the increased web traffic, your site could crash
Downtime is a problem you’ll want to avoid at all costs. Customers these days won’t simply sit and wait around. They’re used to getting what they want when they want it. So, they’re likely to go elsewhere if your IT scalability isn’t robust enough to handle demand increases.
Also, consider the impact on your employees if your IT infrastructure can’t keep up with demand variations. Problems along these lines can compromise the ability of your staff to do their jobs.
Whether you run a virtual business remotely or you have brick-and-mortar locations, you’ll want to ensure your company’s software and hardware can seamlessly scale to meet demand.
Don’t Forget Security
IT scalability also includes security, which is essential given today’s threat landscape. Focusing on your IT infrastructure without considering security at every phase is foolhardy. In other words, your IT department needs to assess how prepared it is to meet cybersecurity challenges. If you’re not diligent, your IT scalability plan could compromise the integrity of your network.
You must ensure your cybersecurity process is flexible enough to keep up with changes in scale. Concentrating on scalability is a multi-pronged approach. It can be achieved with a serverless approach like moving to the cloud. Testing is key. Your IT team then needs to conduct various tests, like stress tests and performance tests, to ensure the infrastructure scales properly.
IT scalability is something that deserves your full attention. It’s not merely a value-added consideration. Rather, it’s something your company needs to put in place. And it’s the sort of thing you can use whether you run a virtual company or a brick-and-mortar company.
There’s an old saying that if a business isn’t planning to succeed, it’s planning to fail. Your business needs an IT scalability plan to not only survive but also thrive.
