IT Design & Architecture

Good IT design and architecture thinks through how your IT can best be coordinated. It’s about establishing the best combination of hardware, software, systems, networks and their connections to your team and customers for your budget and your organisation’s goals. Get it right and you will dramatically improve your organisation’s performance.

The design process needs to answer many questions: how many people need to use the IT? Does it need to be available all the time? What security risks does it need to mitigate? And how will the IT service need to work for the business?

Such planning is complex and hard to do well. Both technical know-how and an obsession with detail are required but you need to see the bigger picture too as IT design has to address your current and your evolving business needs. You’ll require experience of translating those business needs into IT solutions and understand the practicalities and challenges around delivery both from a technical and people perspective.

Our design process allows you to make informed IT decisions based on the current and future needs of both your business and your budget. Whether looking at how much IT capacity you may need, what levels of security you may require, or what the likely future demand will be, our design process will give you the options to make informed business decisions and plan accordingly.

We base our design approach on industry-standard processes. These help align IT services with the needs of business, ensure compliance and provide the means for measurable improvement.

Specifically, in design and architecture we look at:

• System design – should you centralise or widely distribute? Do you have on-premise or cloud solutions, or both? Do you need powerful or lightweight computers?
• IT infrastructure – what servers, storage, hardware and switching do you need?
• Applications and licencing – what software adds value to your business? What operating systems, licensing arrangements and custom applications do you need?
• Security and protection – what firewalls, antivirus, power protection and data protection do you require to stay ahead?
• Backup and recovery – what data storage and system recovery is needed to ensure business continuity?
• Communications – how will your offices connect to one another? What type of internet and telephony is needed? How important is remote access?

Choose Blue Saffron for your next IT design project

Blue Saffron has over 10 years’ experience of designing IT solutions for organisations in a wide range of market sectors. We specialise in medium-sized businesses and have particular expertise in applying IT to meet the needs of professional service firms, recruitment consultants and the Third Sector. With experience in most client scenarios we have the insights into what works and can demonstrate the effectiveness of any approach we recommend.

In all cases, we are entirely open. We are mindful of budgets and give clear analysis of immediate and longer term costs. We explore the these and the trade-off of different approaches. For example, you may choose to “lock down” access to applications rather than make them widely available. Or you may want to decide between a cloud-based solution, locally hosted systems or a combination of the two.

Design & Architecture is inherent across all of our services and solutions: Security & Compliance, Business Continuity, Support, Infrastructure Management, Microsoft Software & Services.

 

Want to learn more about our IT design and architecture services? Contact us today or talk to one of our team on 0844 560 0202.