IT performance optimization does not always require a budget. Learn more about telecom expense management and how the same audit-driven approach that controls telecom costs can be applied to improving your entire technology environment. It’s a frustration we’ve all experienced. A computer, phone or tablet starts getting slow. Sometimes it happens way too soon. Other times we’re trying to hold onto ancient tech because we don’t want to spend money on new stuff. In any case, there are always things we can do before we commit to purchasing hardware. These five tips can help you address performance issues without spending a penny on equipment.
Why IT Performance Optimization Should Come Before New Hardware
The instinct to solve a slow device problem by buying a new one is understandable, but it is rarely the most cost-effective first response. In most cases, performance issues are rooted in software bloat, network congestion, misconfigured settings, or simple neglect — all of which can be resolved without spending a single dollar on equipment.
According to Forrester Research, organizations that invest in regular IT audits and proactive performance management consistently extend the useful life of their hardware by two to three years compared to those that rely on reactive purchasing. That translates directly into significant capital expenditure savings over time. Before you approve the next hardware requisition, work through these five IT performance optimization steps and see how much ground you can recover without opening your wallet.
Tip 1: Perform a Bandwidth Audit
Any network administrator can perform this task, and it’s typically a part of the job description. The audit will identify peaks and valleys in daily bandwidth consumption. This can help you better schedule tasks that are known to eat bandwidth or cause downtime. Updates are a good example.
Aside from noticing trends that can help you better manage the business, a bandwidth audit can also identify problematic devices. When one is found, you can perform the rest of these tips to help optimize its performance and prevent it from impacting the entire network.
Perhaps more importantly, the bandwidth audit can often identify problematic practices. As much as we all like to think the best of our employees, good people fall into temptation, and it’s pretty normal to find one or more people doing things they shouldn’t with work devices or on a work network. If and when you find such a case, how you handle it is up to you, but remember that the network administrator can throttle access to specific sites or apps if necessary. One way or another, you can ensure that unprofessional practices aren’t hurting your overall performance.
Tip 2: Perform a Device Audit
A device audit is distinct from a bandwidth audit. Rather than trying to figure out where the network traffic is going, a device audit is simply an attempt to ascertain how many and what kinds of devices are interacting in your greater system. This is especially important for BYOD (bring your own device) businesses, but pretty much every office has employees with personal phones on them. If these phones ever connect to your network — especially behind a firewall or VPN — it’s important to know about them.
The device audit can help you identify threats to the network. It can help you find nodes that are bottlenecking traffic. It can also help you find problematic devices and either fix them or remove them from the system. Mostly, a device audit gives your IT team a better understanding of exactly what they’re managing. That should never hurt their ability to do their jobs well. If your organization is also looking to use new information technology transform business operations, a clean and accurate device inventory is the essential starting point.
Tip 3: Perform a Software Audit
Three audits?! There might be a theme here. The best way to find cost-effective ways to improve performance is to know exactly what you’re up against. The software audit is the third leg of the tripod. It tells you when and where you can cut performance killing software. If you’re paying a license to use the software, this can save you money on both ends.
Large-scale software audits should probably be done about quarterly to make sure you aren’t wasting money on big purchases, but a software audit can also be performed on an individual device. If one of the previous audits found a problem child, a software audit is the next logical step. You can search for resource hogs, memory leaks and general excess that will slow the device or even render it unusable. The audit tells you exactly what you can turn off or remove to dramatically improve performance without spending a dime on hardware.
And, since everyone says it, don’t forget about software updates. They really are that important. Combining regular software audits with the discipline of 5 resolutions tackle telecom costs creates a comprehensive IT housekeeping routine that keeps both performance and spending under control.
Tip 4: Adjust Individual Settings
The software audit helped you clean out a little garbage on the device, but you aren’t done yet. Regardless of model or operating system, there are settings you can adjust to squeak a little more performance out of the device. A few of the biggest settings to remember are virtual memory and graphics processing. All modern devices use virtual memory, and you can adjust that allocation to make things run better. Not all devices will have dedicated graphics processing, but the ones that do can see massive performance boosts if you optimize those settings.
Most operating systems have automated optimization as well. They also give resource allocation a treatment and can help an older device extend its working life.
Lastly, you can remove excess data. It’s not exactly a setting, but since you’re tweaking a troubled device, dumping data you don’t need is usually a good idea. Full hard drives are among the most frequent sources of slowdowns.
Tip 5: Explore Continued Learning
This is fairly universal to business in general. You want your employees to always get better at what they do, and continued learning is important in achieving that. Helping your non-tech personnel better understand their devices can go a long way. They can learn how to tweak some settings to keep things running sharply every day. They can also be trained on warning signs and best practices that improve network security and prevent some of the larger problems you don’t want to think about. In too many small ways to count, better educated employees are the key to better device management. Pairing employee education with smarter procurement processes — like the ones outlined in 4 quick tips optimize supplier management — helps organizations build a culture of efficiency that extends well beyond the IT department.
Building a Sustainable IT Performance Optimization Strategy
This list is not exhaustive. There are plenty of ways to improve the performance of your technology. Some of them include buying hardware. If you want to always spend your money in the best way possible, it boils down to maintaining a strong IT strategy. These audits and adjustments should definitely be a part of that strategy, but it never hurts to add a little more expert advice into the fold.
IT performance optimization is not a one-time exercise — it is an ongoing discipline. Organizations that build regular audit cycles into their IT calendar, invest in employee education, and proactively manage device settings consistently outperform those that only address performance when something breaks. The cost savings from extending hardware life, eliminating software waste, and preventing network bottlenecks compound significantly over time, making this approach one of the highest-return investments any IT team can make.
Take the time to map your plan with your IT people, and it will save you time and money for years to come.
