Every corporate working structure is unique. If you’re considering changes to application infrastructure services, outsourcing can be an attractive option, especially valuable for large enterprises with multiple locations. But your approach has to be as distinctive as your company and goals. And the provider you choose has to fit comfortably with your corporate culture as well as your budget.

There’s a lot to think about.  

All your IT system elements are interdependent. However you configure them, your next generation of application infrastructure services has to provide the right combination of across-the-board control, performance, security and consistency.  

These are seven important factors you’ll want to consider:

1. Performance. How efficiently are you able to deliver applications and services throughout your enterprise right now? Are you getting the robust performance you need -- all the time? What is the exact nature and level of importance of existing applications that support various business services? New systems must ensure enough flexibility to readily meet variable daily demands for application and data usage.

2. Transaction management. What are you needs and expectations regarding servers, shared hosting environments and databases?

3. Protection. Are you satisfied with the way in which existing networks enable you to control access and security? How will those needs change?

4. Storage needs. The right application infrastructure services and provider will be able to comfortably meet your fluctuating requirements for data volume and frequency of access with elastic caching.

5. Regulatory requirements, both geographic and functional.

6. Multiple data centers. If yours are not currently standardized throughout your enterprise, you’ll need better integration that ensures greater efficiency and scalability in order to meet service expectations going forward.

7. Legacy infrastructure. Your existing system may be approaching obsolescence, or you may be out of capacity to support continued growth. Older systems occupy lots of space and don’t “play well” with newer technologies, biting into your ability to streamline operations, increase productivity and take advantage of the latest innovations.

Naturally you expect virtual or cloud-based application infrastructure services to reduce operations expenses. But it’s vital to negotiate service level agreements and pricing details very carefully. A professional IT consultant can help you properly assess your current situation and guide you through the transformation decision-making process.

When you compare costs to build new infrastructure versus outsourcing, be sure to assess total cost of ownership, not just initial costs. And remember that anything new you build must meet your future demands or you’ll incur additional costs down the road. This is actually one of the strongest arguments for outsourcing, as it offers the greatest flexibility and scalability to flex with you.

Think about the data transfer process, too.

Migrating IT systems and applications is often one of the biggest risks associated with data center transition. Obviously your goal is no disruption whatsoever in function. Anything less than perfection represents a risk to daily business operations, performance levels or availability or even security, so this becomes a critical concern in evaluating changes and choices regarding application infrastructure services.

There is no such thing as “status quo” in today’s global business climate. If you aren’t moving forward, you’re falling behind. The right application infrastructure services – provided by the right vendor – can help assure the agility and flexibility you need to maintain peak performance as you navigate the unpredictable road ahead.