Road rave: How Infrastructure Optimisation makes IT a more strategic asset

Delegates to Microsoft’s Knowledge Driven Health Roadshow in London heard how Infrastructure Optimisation can help trusts meet their changing business needs. Paul Curran caught up with healthcare technology strategist, Vatro Popovic, to find out more.

The annual NHS IT infrastructure budget is around £1.54 billion, excluding spending on the National Programme for IT in the NHS. Unfortunately, most of it is spent on maintenance, Vatro Popovic told delegates to Microsoft’s Knowledge Driven Health Roadshow in London.

Less than a third is used to introduce new functionality and solutions. “That is because many NHS IT departments have an infrastructure that’s historically overly complex, inflexible and costly to manage,” he explained.

“Added to which, they face pressures like cost, regulatory compliance, security and connectivity issues. What they need is an integrated environment with the right supporting infrastructure to make them more agile and responsive to operational demands.”

This isn’t just IT companies trying to sell more boxes. Mr Popovic, a Microsoft healthcare technology strategist, says IT managers are often shocked by research from IDC.

It found that just 4% of organisations have a best-of-breed “dynamic” infrastructure; yet moving to an optimised IT platform can save around £500 per PC per year in overall maintenance costs. For a 2,000 PC environment, that’s £1 million per year.

NIMM: Defining the roadmap

The route to these savings is an Infrastructure Optimisation (IO) model originally devised by IT analysts Gartner in association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The model has been adapted by Microsoft for its products as the Microsoft Infrastructure Maturity Model (MIMM) and by NHS Connecting for Health for the health service as the National Infrastructure Maturity Model (NIMM).

However, the principles remain the same; these models offer a logical roadmap for IT teams to progress from expensive but ineffectual fire-fighting to proactive IT service management.

NIMM not only includes a vendor-agnostic service roadmap, but best-practice advice on benchmarking standards and an extra focus on areas that are critical to NHS applications, for example compliance.

Mr Popovic says NIMM and MIMM also offer helpful guidance to third-party suppliers on creating the infrastructure solutions trusts need. Microsoft’s many healthcare specialist partners offer NIMM and MIMM compliant solutions.

The infrastructure component of the IO model is broken down into four specific technology categories:

• Identity and access management - who gets to use trust IT facilities
• Desktop, server and device management – efficient and economical computing
• Security and networking – privacy, compliance, data security and information governance
• Data protection and recovery – failsafe information management

Trusts can engage in a logical process of pinpointing their level of technological sophistication in each of these categories, and then set about identifying which areas need upgrading to reach an acceptable standard (in which they serve the organisation effectively).

Then, they can set about aiming for an optimised standard (saving money and delivering pioneering levels of service). “The NIMM is being used successfully by several trusts to assess their level of infrastructure maturity,” Mr Popovic says.

“It helps them plan and coordinate capability improvements, describe their infrastructure roadmap in IM&T plans, and set investment priorities. It also helps them define the desired outcomes at each maturity stage and where best to apply technologies to achieve greater functionality.”

Why infrastructure maturity matters

Understanding infrastructure maturity is important because it allows IT managers to match IT to specific business requirements. It encourages forward planning to support future initiatives and reduces the time to deploy new applications.

“Say, for example, you need to deploy a new application that requires a mature level of data security,” says Mr Popvic. “If your data protection is only at a basic level, you’ll need to make changes to your infrastructure specifically to support the application.

“This will take time and money; but the IO model shows us that it’s time and money well spent – because the improvements in technology and processes result in a reduced total cost of ownership, plus further knock-on benefits for future IT deployments. The IT regime is improved, and demonstrably supports the trust’s activities.”

IO Assessment with Microsoft

Even with the NIMM to help, adopting optimisation strategies often puts a heavy load on hard-pressed NHS IT departments. To make the job easier, Microsoft has developed an IO assessment process, including a specially designed assessment toolkit, to help trusts get started.

“The NIMM and our IO assessment process work hand in hand,” says Mr Popovic. “They help deploy your existing resources more effectively by first carrying out a detailed diagnosis of your IT, people and skills to create a roadmap for infrastructure improvement.”

“By using the NIMM, in conjunction with our IO tools, a trust can establish a straight line between where it is – often a mish-mash of servers and processes - and where it wants to be - a co-ordinated IT infrastructure with resilience, capacity and cost control all aligned. That’s the goal we’re really trying to achieve.”

The assessment process is very precise in measuring an organisation’s infrastructure capacity. First a trust’s IT team completes a questionnaire detailing its core infrastructure, business productivity, and application platforms.

Next, Microsoft or one of its partners analyses the results and plots them against the model. This is then followed up by a custom report identifying next steps against clear business and IT priorities.

“What comes out of the whole exercise are very specific recommendations and guidelines on what particular Microsoft technologies will help improve your efficiency, the competence of your IT and its resilience,” says Mr Popovic. “It encourages NHS IT departments to approach IT proactively and with an understanding of the business benefits to be gained from advancing through the maturity model.”

After all, he concludes: “When all is said and done, your IT infrastructure should provide more than just a service – it’s a crucial strategic asset to your organisation. Our IO process ensures an organisation’s infrastructure is fully functional and connected to all its capabilities.”