VirtualMetric — the all-in-one monitoring solution provider and CloudLand — one of the leading IT distributors in the Netherlands, join efforts to help SMEs from the DACH region and the Netherlands to overcome the top IT challenges during the pandemic. Although the IT sector is one of the most stable during the global pandemic crisis, small and medium enterprises need to battle their specific problems – internal and external.

Many IT analysts and thought leaders name the COVID-19 the new Disaster in IT world of 2020. And as you develop your Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plan in case of natural disasters, you need to have a plan for ensuring your normal business processes and uninterrupted operations during the “new normal”. 

As experts in IT infrastructure and delivery of monitoring, security and management solutions, CloudLand and VirtualMetric help SMEs to solve the new issues of today and to be more prepared for what’s coming in the next months. Knowing your organization can overcome an unforeseen event with all or part of your team in place (or done 100% remotely) is invaluable at a time like this.

Cloud Market Increases, so Do the Demand for Hardware

The cloud market was increasing by multiple digits and with fast pace long before COVID-19. The situation in the last months is driving up demand for everything from IT hardware and software to power and cooling infrastructure gear for cloud service provider data centers. And this is valid not only for cloud providers but also for Telco, MSPs and companies managing their private clouds. In the period from March to May, we saw disruptions of the regular supply chain and distribution. In addition, a shortage of RAM and SSDs was also noticed. By implementing a smart monitoring service into your IT infrastructure, you are able to analyze how well you utilize the existing equipment. By conducting an in-depth analysis, you can make your plan on how to optimize even better and decrease the need to buy new hardware in short term. 

Lowering capital expenditures (CAPEX) and optimizing operating expenses (OPEX)

Lowering the costs is a strategy implemented in many companies around the globe during the pandemic. As nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, SMEs try to minimize investments, avoid CAPEX investments and keep new initiatives to a minimum. Although many large corporations decreased costs by compulsory layoffs of people and long weeks of unpaid vacations, CloudLand and VirtualMetric do not recommend such a strategy to lower expenditures. Both companies believe that by improving the internal efficiency of the IT environment, companies can do way bigger savings. For example, ensuring better infrastructure utilization, optimal usage of the internal resources and decreasing the time engineers spend on monitoring of their IT environments, can lead to better usage of the manhours and improving general company competitiveness. 

Remote Hardware and Infrastructure Management and Control

These are certainly challenging times, but from what VirtualMetric and CloudLand have seen during this pandemic, helping companies maintain business continuity and adapt to new realities is extremely important. Many companies are in need of implementing a plan for large-scale remote operations, and for that, they need an experienced partner to help. You need to ensure effective management on two levels — your organization’s infrastructure and data centers, and the equipment used by the remote workers. 

Sysadmins and DevOps engineers in charge of their companies’ tech stacks have spent days in wrestling with remote employees’ hardware configurations. And meanwhile, they need to keep an eye on their enterprise IT environment. In such a situation, the implementation of smart monitoring services is a must. Firstly, it saves you an enormous amount of time. Secondly, you detect all possible issues even before they occur. Which saves resources for your organization. 

Be Prepared for the Unknown

There are now two market trends that should be weighed. In short term (this year) we are affected by market fluctuations, and the other – the longer-term envelope of a global recession which might impact us seriously. The short-term shifts will probably keep the market steady overall because the needs for computе infrastructure are here. But the long-term effects of a shrunken global economy are less clear. Nobody knows how long and how deep that can be. And during these times of uncertainty, IT companies and entities delivering IT services to the human need to develop and provide better services and innovations. 

VirtualMetric and CloudLand believe that exactly these companies can help the world to live a better life during the pandemic. As a company delivering services based on IT, you need to develop your service portfolio and believe in your own strengths. Being prepared and having multiple plans, keeping your infrastructure under control and ensuring maximum efficiency is the key to your success in the next years. And VirtualMetric and CloudLand can help you build your IT strategy and mix of hardware and software solutions to ensure this. As experts in the domain they can help you to plan your IT approach, ready your applications and embrace successfully the new normal.