Research / Topics
Infrastructure operations
Research / Topics
Infrastructure operations
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The Foundation for Effective IT
IT infrastructure operations represent one of the largest and most critical areas of IT spend for many organisations. At the same time, high levels of standardisation and well-established pricing models make infrastructure services a natural area for identifying cost optimisation opportunities.
This section brings together our research and insights on IT infrastructure operations, covering key areas such as outsourcing, contracts, pricing, and commercial management.
IaaS
FinOps – financial management of public cloud IaaS
FinOps is a discipline focused on establishing financial governance, transparency, and accountability regarding enterprise spending in the public cloud. This article reviews the core FinOps principles for managing public cloud IaaS costs.
Public cloud IaaS – price comparison
This article reviews the key factors and elements required to accurately compare IaaS pricing across different cloud providers.
Storage
Storage strategy
This article outlines a methodology for developing a procurement strategy for the storage needs of an organization.
Storage Capacity Analysis
Growing data volumes and rising storage costs make capacity planning a key IT financial issue. The article presents a method for analysing and forecasting storage requirements 3–5 years ahead and shows how this can be turned into a solid basis for decisions on budgeting, sourcing and infrastructure investments.
Agreements
Digital sovereignty: Plan B for infrastructure outsourcing
What should an organisation do if its current outsourcing provider suddenly becomes unable to deliver its services? In this article, we outline how to develop a contingency plan (Plan B) for outsourced IT infrastructure services. We also examine five specific scenarios, each with a different emphasis on risk management, business continuity, and financial implications.
The expensive terms: Governance and reporting
In ITO service agreements, certain terms significantly impact the overall contract price. Specifically, requirements regarding governance structure and reporting are key factors that determine the total cost of the service agreement.
The expensive terms: Capacity flexibility
The requirement for downward capacity flexibility is a key factor that significantly impacts the pricing of the overall ITO service agreement.
The expensive terms: Special security requirements
Certain terms in IT operations service agreements significantly impact the total contract price. In particular, the inclusion of specific security requirements has a decisive effect on the final cost of the agreement.
The expensive terms: Design authority
Design authority is one of the terms that has a decisive impact on the price of operating agreements. In this article, we will review why and what can replace it.
The expensive terms: Special location requirements
Special location requirements are one of the conditions that have a decisive impact on the price of operating agreements.
The expensive terms: Complexity
The complexity of the overall IT landscape is a factor that has a decisive impact on the price of ITO services.
The expensive terms: Short commitment periods
While a short commitment period on an outsourcing agreement may seem attractive, it typically entails additional costs that should be taken into consideration.
Security
Pricing models for purchasing dedicated operational security services
In this article, we provide an overview of the most common dedicated operational IT security services currently offered in the market – for example, SOC. We review what these services include and take a closer look at how they are typically priced, as well as the factors that influence unit prices.
Economy
Price Trends In the ITO Market Q2 2026
The market price for composite IT operations agreements increased in Q2 2026. Read more in this article, where we review the quarter’s price data and translate the current development into concrete advice and recommendations for IT operations customers and suppliers, respectively.
Managing Discussions About Price Increases in
IT Operations Agrements
How do factors such as rising hardware and software prices, labour costs, and energy prices affect the cost of IT infrastructure operations? In this article, we answer these questions by examining the mechanisms that drive market prices for IT operations services and guiding customers through a scenario in which a vendor announces a price increase.
Tooling
Tool: Storage environment data collection
This Excel tool is designed to collect data regarding the storage environment during the requirement assessment phase of a storage strategy.