Whether you’re a startup or a large enterprise, optimizing your IT Infrastructure stack is key to scaling your company.
Modern companies depend on this technology as the foundation for all digital operations. IT Infrastructure tools leverage compute, network, and data capabilities to help companies develop, fuel, and connect the business across the cloud.
These tools streamline processes, manage data, and help mitigate operational disruptions and defend against cyber threats. The modern IT Infrastructure tech stack is the backbone of an organization, so it’s no wonder that companies invest more dollars into these solutions than any other SaaS category.
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Optimizing your IT Infrastructure is critical to prevent unnecessary costs. Understanding resource consumption patterns enables businesses to right-size their tech stack and avoid over-provisioning. Assessing this usage helps identify areas of inefficiency or underutilization, allowing organizations to optimize their systems for better performance and cost-effectiveness.
Here are some key insights that can help you optimize your IT Infrastructure tech stack:
IT Infrastructure Trends
Like many other SaaS categories, IT Infrastructure remains a dynamic industry. Suppliers frequently innovate with new technology and capabilities while adjusting their offerings to stay competitive.
Trend 1: Leveraging Support Resources
Suppliers have been offering support options such as Technical Account Managers and Solutions Architects to help companies optimize their spend and find solutions that work best for their needs.
While these services often come with a fee, the long-term benefits (i.e. cost savings) of leveraging these resources typically outweigh the upfront costs.
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Trend 2: Valuing Rollover Credits
IT Infrastructure negotiations can be a cumbersome and long process, making it difficult to know if you’re achieving the best savings outcomes. One area that can prolong the process is discussing rollover credits versus discount rates. If you’re negotiating a usage-based contract, rollover credits often provide greater long-term savings than increasing the discount rate itself.
Here’s an example: Company XYZ downsized last year and only utilized 80 percent of its annual commitment. They can use that additional 20 percent as a rollover credit on a $100,000 deal, resulting in greater savings than a 15 percent discount (i.e. $20,000 savings versus $15,000 savings). While this may seem like a scenario that is “too good to be true,” software suppliers often view this as a strategy to secure a long-term partnership.
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Trend 3: Bringing IT Infrastructure In-House
It’s worth noting that some organizations are opting to bring data storage and IT Infrastructure in-house when suppliers prove to be too expensive.
By purchasing and managing your own servers and storage infrastructure, you can avoid the variable costs associated with cloud platforms. This decision is largely based on individual use cases and how much value organizations place on performance versus budgetary constraints.
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Dominant IT Infrastructure Tools in 2024
There are many solutions geared towards managing and optimizing various pillars of modern IT environments. These tools cover monitoring, cloud computing, data storage, networking, security, automation, and more. Here's a snapshot of some of the most popular IT Infrastructure tools companies are currently using. Access our Q1 2024 SaaS Category Benchmarks Report to get the full report and see how companies are structuring their tech stack across different company sizes.
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While there are some suppliers offer specialized solutions for different niches within the space, a few major players stand out as dominant forces. Here is some insight to some of the staple tools that companies continue to purchase and keep as part of their modern IT Infrastructure tech stack:
DataDog
Datadog continues to increase its market share. Their platform is valued for its ease of use, scalability, and comprehensive monitoring capabilities, making it a preferred choice for DevOps, IT operations, and developers seeking visibility and control over their complex IT environments.
Snowflake
Snowflake has captured a significant portion of the cloud data warehousing market. Because of their rapid growth and widespread adoption by organizations of all sizes and industries, Snowflake is considered one of the leading players in the cloud data warehousing space, alongside competitors like Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, and Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.
FiveTran
Customers use Fivetran to streamline their data pipelines, reduce manual effort, and ensure their data is accurate and up-to-date. The platform offers pre-built connectors for a wide range of data sources, eliminating the need for custom coding and allowing users to quickly set up data pipelines without extensive technical expertise. Fivetran's ease of use, reliability, and scalability make it a popular choice for businesses seeking to centralize and analyze their data effectively.
GitHub
GitHub is valued for its user-friendly interface, powerful features, and extensive ecosystem of integrations and extensions. Whether for personal projects, collaborating with colleagues, or contributing to open-source initiatives, customers rely on GitHub as a central hub for their software development workflows.
Optimize your tech stack with maximum leverage
Since companies purchase IT Infrastructure solutions more than any other SaaS category, optimizing this part of the tech stack drives the biggest impact.
Tropic helps IT professionals make data-driven decisions around their IT Infrastructure tech stack. Through comprehensive pricing data and expert negotiation insights, Tropic gives you ultimate leverage to optimize your tooling, maximize efficiency, and cut costs.
Get started by submitting a free savings assessment today.
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