The IT infrastructure of modern businesses require a number of seemingly never-ending cycles to track assets. As these assets go through different stages of usefulness or functionality, IT teams must constantly manage the process, which takes them away from other more important tasks and saddles them with mundane contractual obligations, maintenance reviews, cost-analysis and procurement paperwork. What’s the alternative to opening your IT komodo to a myriad of vendor pitches and the scrutiny of the finance department? Obsolescence.
No self-respecting IT person would allow their infrastructure to dissolve into obscurity and place the business at risk. Enter the domain of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management or ILM. ILM is a method of keeping the IT infrastructure aligned with a business so that it’s functional from the time it’s implemented through its retirement. The ever-present and constant specter of ILM does have the benefit of ensuring effective asset management, configuration, deployment and disposal while setting up the technology standards and maintaining continuity. However, there are many assets – with varying dates of obsolescence to contend with.