IT strategy: spring cleaning

Last updated: December 1, 2021

Temperatures are getting warmer again and flora and fauna are awakening from hibernation. Or to project it onto the “office world”: During the lunch break, you can already see one or the other colleague with an ice cream in his/her hand again and others are only eating salad in order to turn the winter flab into a swimwear figure in time. All this is an unmistakable sign that spring is on its way.
This is traditionally also the time for spring cleaning: clearing out, tidying up and getting rid of old things that are no longer needed. There is also something liberating about this. Throwing off old ballast to start the new year fresh and unencumbered.

But not only at home, but also in the IT network, a spring cleaning makes sense: old hardware and software, associated licenses and user permissions should be “cleaned out” again.

Old hardware = dead capital

How much old, unused hardware is still standing around in your company? Or put another way, which computers haven’t been logged on to for at least two months? Are these systems really still needed or can they be disposed of?

Employees leave, new ones join, the boss gets a new iPad, a printer is replaced by a multifunction device or some of your local servers are moved to the cloud. Admins have to deal with all of this on a daily basis. New equipment must always be available immediately and without delay, and above all it must function without restriction. But what happens to the old equipment that is no longer needed? For lack of time, they are first put to one side … into storage, if there is any room at all, next to all the other old hardware. Dismantling, disposing of and checking out of the inventory system, all these time-consuming tasks can be done later, when there is some breathing room.

But we all know that there is never time for that! Always urgent and important tasks come in. And so the old hardware just sits there and piles up over time until the warehouse is bursting at the seams.
This is not only impractical, but in most cases dead capital is gathering dust. Many companies still have old hardware in use and are often desperately looking for spare parts, because these are either no longer sold by the manufacturer or only at “moon prices”. It comes in very handy when such a spare part is offered in good used condition or possibly even still in its original packaging on one of the usual online trading platforms. A classic win-win situation!

There is even a secondary market for PCs that are a few years old. In most cases, they are still wonderfully suitable for home use. Of course, not for hardcore gamers. But working with office applications and surfing the Internet still works great. That’s why such PCs are often very popular at online auctions.

But you can even do something good with your no longer needed workstation systems. Donate them to charity! Schools in particular, with their extremely tight budgets, are delighted when they can expand their IT rooms or replace hardware that is sometimes severely outdated. And a nice side effect: Your boss will be happy about the positive publicity when an article appears in the local press that your company supports the local school.

There is still a secondary market for most equipment. Even though this probably won’t generate large sums of money, it may be enough for a spring barbecue with colleagues. Or you can do something good and donate the hardware that is still in working order. But no matter which way the old equipment leaves the company building, in any case you regain space and order.

Over-licensing and under-licensing cost money unnecessarily

Old hardware piling up is a very visible problem. However, this is also accompanied by an issue that is not immediately obvious at first glance, and which also requires urgent attention: various software products are usually still installed on the decommissioned computers. “But the software isn’t even being used anymore. So what’s the problem?” many will now ask. That the software is no longer in use is correct. But what about the associated licenses? Have they been assigned to other devices? Have the license and maintenance contracts been reduced accordingly? In most cases, the answer to both questions is “no.” Adjustments are not made until the next license audit. Until then, you are paying unnecessarily for something you no longer use.

But be careful, the opposite can also be the case: Hardware is purchased for new employees and the necessary software products are activated with the company license key. But are there enough licenses available? Underlicensing can quickly become very expensive.
Without proper license management, it is easy to lose track of the situation. Software licenses should be checked regularly in order to avoid under- or over-licensing. Because both cost money unnecessarily.

Check rights and roles

The most urgent need for tidying up, however, is probably user rights and roles in most companies. Colleagues change tasks and departments, work temporarily on projects, leave the company or join. Each time, they immediately need all permissions for the new tasks. But also the old rights are still urgently needed, because it might happen that they have to access old things after all. How is the poor admin supposed to keep track of who has which rights and roles?

Several studies have shown that insider attacks are the greatest danger for companies. Frustrated employees sell or publish sensitive company information. Ex-employees delete masses of data or even paralyze the company network. All this happens regularly and unfortunately you are never completely immune to it. As an IT administrator, all you can do is make sure that no one has unauthorized access. This can only be achieved through strict authorizations, which must also always be kept up to date.
For this reason, it is essential to check the permissions regularly and adjust them if necessary.

Regular cleanup pays off

In IT, a year is a long time in which a lot changes. Due to the many daily tasks, there are unfortunately usually no resources left to document everything cleanly by hand. As a result, you inevitably lose track of everything sooner or later. For this reason, it is essential to regularly clean out the IT infrastructure. At least once a year you should do a big clean – for example in the form of a spring cleaning.
…and if you need support in inventorying, documenting and analyzing your IT infrastructure, you know where to find us.