In a traditional IT infrastructure, computer processing, storage, and networks usually run on separate platforms. This division creates islands of hard-to-manage, underutilized resources. In most cases, today’s legacy systems aren’t up to the task of providing speedy, flexible service. They lack the capacity to ramp up or down as business units start and stop projects—sometimes at a moment’s notice. Traditionally, it has taken IT departments days, weeks, or months to install new server hardware to accommodate the needs of internal business units. That won’t fly in today’s rapidly shifting markets.

What companies need is an IT system that can automatically adapt to changing market demands without disrupting or delaying the organization’s workflow. This is where composable infrastructure (CI) comes in. Essentially, CI is an IT framework where computer processing, storage, and networks become a shared resource that can be accessed anytime, anywhere. In other words, the IT department can quickly “compose” or reconfigure its resources based on the needs of the business. The business gets and pays for only the IT resources it needs.

How composability boosts your ROI

The beauty of CI is that it reduces the operational complexity for the IT department, which in turn lowers the total cost of ownership by reducing capital expenditure and operating expenses. Here’s how:

• It provides Business Agility: With composability, management no longer has to choose between funding legacy applications that are business-critical and investing in new apps that can lead to innovation and growth. The CI environment is robust enough to support both at a lower cost than legacy systems.
• It offers IT as Pay as you grow: If IT keeps functioning as a support cost center, the business will eventually turn to external suppliers to save money. With CI, IT has the tools to work with the business units to find creative ways to lower costs while improving service.
• It simplifies Management & delivers economies: Apps have different requirements for computing, storage, and networking. For example, some apps require high-performance storage, while others have low-performance requirements. CI’s fluidity provides the right resources for an app at any one time, eliminating the waste that occurred in the traditional, siloed, static model. This translates to cost savings that can be used to fuel growth.

Strategically, CI allows you to compete in the digital age in a way traditional infrastructure never could. Bimodal IT, a term coined by research firm Gartner, is what most companies must deal with now—two modes of IT operating simultaneously. Mode one is the traditional, stable model that emphasizes safety and accuracy. Mode two is the wave of the future—meaning IT becomes exploratory and nonlinear, emphasizing agility and speed.

CI allows companies to function in both modes at the same time, adapting and changing to whatever the future holds. And that is what winning in the digital world is really all about—innovating on the fly and delivery as a Service.