Ok so this
is my third day in this job and already I’ve learnt so much. When you’ve been
around as long as me you start to think you’re starting to have seen it all.
But I haven’t, not in the least bit.
I like to
think in the GIS world I was a bit of a “face”, pretty well known, that my
opinion was taken note of and maybe that was the case. But I had lost sight of the
fact that GIS is such a small part of the world of computing and so much has
happened in that world that had passed me by.
One phrase
that I have come across that I was unaware of is “Sweating the Assets”. When it
was first mentioned my mind thought of me when I’ve finished a 6Km run. I have
very sweaty assets then. But it appears the phrase is somewhat more above the waist
than that.
Basically it’s
getting the most out of your existing kit, not just IT, but any hardware that
you use. Making your existing assets work as hard as possible for as long as possible
before replacing them. To borrow a war time phrase “Make Do And Mend”.
Now that
sounds a fine principle but how is it achieved?
If you have the
expertise in house to carry out that maintenance schedule and have the time
available to do that then it makes obvious sense to do that.
But what if
you don’t?
A third
party service that looks after it for you for a fraction of the cost?
There is
going to be cost, let’s be realistic, no one is going to do it for free. But is
it’s a lot less that replacing your existing IT hardware it has to make sense.
In these
times of austerity and cuts it has to make sense to spend as little as possible
but get the most out of not just any new investment but what you have already
got.
