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Managing a tech startup is no easy feat. A wrong decision could lead the business to closure, and you have to make the most of each right move to ensure growth and sustainability are tangible. Most startup founders focus their energy on their team’s innovative capabilities but forget the importance of having the adequate infrastructure to ensure optimal results. Taking steps in the right direction is vital for continued success, and thinking strategically about IT for tech startups can provide the proper foundation to lay out the groundwork.

This article covers some main reasons to plan ahead and understand your needs when developing your tech infrastructure. It’s a simple process that will help you save time, money and raise the bar for compliance, security and efficiency for your business.

Why should you care about your tech infrastructure before scaling

Scaling a business is hard, and without the proper structure in place, it becomes impossible. This means that most tech startups tend to start by doing things in an unplanned and unstructured way and eventually need to adjust to suit their growing structure. Making the best decisions for your particular business early on will help you avoid struggles and complex migrations in the future without losing flexibility and agility.

This process shouldn’t be conducted only “before scaling”; rather, it should be a recurring process aligned with your business strategy. Just as you have a plan for your business strategy and finance, it’s equally important to have a technology plan. By understanding the importance of IT for tech startups and preparing your business accordingly, you’ll find several benefits for your organisation both in the short and long term. Read on, and we’ll discuss some of these benefits.

Freeing developers to focus on your business

A common assumption in tech startups is that they don’t need external technology expertise because their in-house developers are tech-savvy and can easily manage their current needs. And it’s typically true that a business like this is much better at handling technology than a standard SME.

However, it’s also true that IT for tech startups face a much more complex environment and that the skills needed for developing and coding are not the same you’ll find in a dedicated IT partner. Such businesses have engineers specialised in networks, Cloud and cybersecurity, utilising several tools to ensure that their client businesses are running smoothly. Strategically speaking, it makes sense to seek advice from one of these specialists.

Plus, as your business grows, there’s the ever-growing need for technical support. Your devs don’t want to spend their days resolving issues and finding solutions and products to assist the rest of the team. It’s crucial that they can focus on your product and are able to implement new functionalities and fix bugs, so you can free them by having a dedicated support Helpdesk.

Building your Cloud Infrastructure with efficiency and security

When we think of Cloud, we immediately think of scalability. However, choosing the best solution between the leading Cloud providers could prove challenging – and it doesn’t stop there. Cloud migration is one of the topics we see most people facing hardships, even experienced professionals.

Read: Migrating to the Cloud – Our Guide to Azure and Microsoft 365

Structuring the best solution for your business as early as possible will allow you to operate in an efficient and secure environment with less chance of hiccups in the future. If you wait until late, these necessary adaptations may be troublesome.

Choosing the best tools to allow scaling

The same logic that applies to your Cloud infrastructure also applies here. The best tools when planning IT for tech startups must allow for efficient scaling, reporting, transferring data, integrating with your security suite and maintaining compliance. All that, while not overlapping and interfering with other business tools.

When you begin operating in a new business, most people will search for simple, cheap and convenient tools, not realising the impact that this choice might have in the future. When you eventually outgrow these providers, migrating your data and getting your team up to speed with the new platforms might prove challenging.

By procuring the best solutions when scaling, you can save a lot of time and effort in the future. And you can also save money by avoiding overlapping tools, which may be providing similar services or even disrupting each other from operating effectively!

Ensuring security and backup best practices

Cybersecurity and backup are vital for most businesses operating today, especially if you’re talking about tech startups! These are both complex topics that should not be oversimplified – unfortunately, that’s what many vendors are doing. We’re not saying that you must spend considerable time driving these tools or becoming an expert yourself. Instead, you should be aware that there are many factors to consider and that an antivirus software or online backup tool alone won’t be enough to secure your company.

Any business that relies on technology should have a security-first culture, with protection and monitoring tools diligently enforced around your business activities. Backups are vital, but they’re only as good as your recovery strategy. Purchasing any backup solution without considering and testing its recovery capabilities brings you no guarantee.

We’ve several articles covering cybersecurity, backups and disaster recovery. These may offer you some clarity when discussing IT for tech startups:

• What can a Cybersecurity Company do for my Business?
• Backup Strategies to Prevent Data Loss
• How Backup and Disaster Recovery Protect SMEs?
• How can Cyber Resilience Protect SMEs in Ireland?

Generating more trust, proving compliance and maturity for Investors

When you plan with IT for tech startups in mind, you can gather evidence of compliance and a mature business environment from early on. Setting up policies and pursuing GRC (governance, risk and compliance) best practices from the get-go will stimulate your staff to operate with the right mindset and always do the right thing. This is extremely important in a world where data protection is highly valued, and regulations such as the GDPR demand companies to be accountable.

All this becomes automatic when you have the right set of tools and policies in place. Auditors who dive deep into your systems will find plenty of evidence of compliance, and these reports are very appealing to investors.

By following GRC best practices, you’ll likely see an improvement in your security too. Recommendations by the best global standards tend to reflect on good security advice that can be applied to most industries.

Managing third-party vendors through a single point of contact

This is one of the main reasons companies look for an IT partner, and it’s essential when simplifying an organisation’s technological challenges. Companies today deal with several tools, platforms and vendors to get their job done. When one of these is not functioning correctly, we commonly find a lack of accountability – thus, solving an issue becomes extremely difficult.

By having a dedicated IT partner, it’s their job to ensure everything is working well and there are no underlying issues. Plus, by having access to your internal keys and configurations, they can fix most problems and integrations between vendors without needing your constant input. This will save time, money and increase your overall experience with technology, making it a must when thinking about IT for tech startups.

Future-Proofing IT for Tech Startups – Aligning what you have with what you need

As mentioned earlier, having a team of developers and tech-savvy professionals can be very handy, but that’ll only take you so far. Having specialist capabilities when building your network, providing support and enforcing security and compliance will significantly improve your capacity to scale and operate efficiently.

We recommend talking to a company with proven experience in providing IT for tech startups. We’re always available for a chat, and our team would love to meet you! We’ve been working with tech startups offering varied services, including fintech, health tech and even Cloud platforms. Book a Free Discovery Call for a 30-minute no-compromise chat.

The earliest you have this conversation, the better. Don’t wait until scaling up to figure out the best solutions, as you can save a lot of time, money and trouble by developing a strategic plan for your technology infrastructure!

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