Why Resiliency Is Far More Valuable Than Efficiency
Is it possible to go too far when it comes to efficiency? As chief information officers struggle to balance the rising costs for security, pulling actionable insights from data while creating faster pathways for customers, efficiency reigns supreme as the vital department mandate.
Are Faster, Smarter, and Better Enough?
In the face of so many IT demands, the focus on cost-cutting and shaving seconds off response times may appear to be a necessity. The faster, smarter, better mantra, however, could be blocking IT teams from realizing opportunities that could bolster and strengthen the system, a strategy that is proving to be far less expensive.
Resiliency, the ability to bounce back from disruptions, could be a more vital goal than efficiency. As systems face an increasing number of constant threats from malicious cyberattacks, employee errors, natural disasters, and IT-related disruptions, an organization’s ability to recover quickly could result in significant opportunity savings. We can expect the need for resiliency to increase along with the rise of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and the added pressure from consumers who are demanding faster response times and faultless performance metrics.
Key Reasons Why Resiliency May Be More Cost-effective
The focus on efficiency has led to what Bloomberg refers to as a “perception gap” among IT and business decision-makers and contributes to a lack of IT resilience maturity. The Worldwide Business Resilience Readiness Thought Leadership Survey, sponsored by Zerto, reveals a perception gap between IT and business development managers regarding the importance of data availability and the success of digital transformation and IT initiatives. The survey found that the costs of not optimizing an IT resilience strategy include the following:
- 36.6 percent of respondents experienced a direct loss of revenue.
- 61.4 percent of respondents suffered either significant or minor damage to company reputation.
- 26.1 percent of respondents indicated a permanent loss of customers.
The resiliency mindset should include an IT roadmap that ensures an element of cohesiveness between customers, users, and stakeholders that takes the following into consideration:
- Responsiveness. How quickly are you meeting the needs of your business customers? IT must have a high level of customer responsiveness.
- Proactiveness. In a reactive, order-taking mode, IT organizations miss emerging opportunities and put themselves at risk.
- Maintenance costs. Recognition that the costs to maintain a system could be more than the cost to build.
Is the Balance Between Efficiency and Resiliency Contradictory?
A strategy that balances efficiency and resiliency involves recognizing that not all business processes are equal. By clarifying the purpose of each application, decisions can be made that honor the need to save costs against pushing so far that the integrity of the process is compromised. Here’s how:
Clarify the Purpose
The most effective method of maintaining the balance between efficiency and resiliency starts with a proper analysis of the business requirements of each application. Appreciate the value of IT leaders who understand how to recognize that not all application requests will demand the same strategic systems approach. Some data is more mission-critical than others. An analysis involves determining that several different tools and strategies, and accompanying costs, will be required for each business need throughout the organization.
Use Cloud Agility
A multicloud strategy makes it possible to more accurately tailor the services and features that are suited to specific applications. The benefits include the ability to pick and tailor the best performance levels and speed for each application. Decisions can be made to allocate critical data to higher-cost, fault-tolerant data centers. The ability to foresee when it makes long-term sense to use higher-cost secure facilities and when to share less expensive cloud-based services is a necessary component of a resilient strategy that is also efficient.
Don’t Skimp on Training
Cutting educational expenses is not an efficient strategy. When companies underinvest in training and skills development to save costs, applications cannot realize their full functional usefulness. Training will bring you far more value in terms of productivity gained to empower employees to do what is most effective.
The Bottom Line
An exclusive focus on efficiency keeps you from building an IT system that is poised to take advantage of opportunities to become more resilient. The ability to rebound from inevitable security risks and IT disruptions requires a balance. Achieving a high level of customer satisfaction with less operating cost requires good teamwork. An exclusive focus on efficiency, rather than a balance with resiliency, could prove to be far more costly and riskier.
