{"id":64327,"date":"2023-05-17T10:16:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T14:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?p=64327"},"modified":"2023-08-30T08:41:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T12:41:07","slug":"it-unification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/it-unification","title":{"rendered":"Unify Your Stack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As organizations grow and change, it\u2019s only natural for their tech to follow suit. But if IT growth isn\u2019t approached strategically, it tends to sprawl. Integrations get complex, shadow IT sneaks its way in, and suddenly, your infrastructure\u2019s so dispersed, you\u2019re not sure you can see it all at once \u2014 let alone catch and address problems as they arise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This snowball effect makes your infrastructure expensive, hard to manage, resistant to change, and vulnerable to compromise. Infrastructures like these are a bit in need of a reset button: a strategic re-thinking of what it needs to make things work (and what it doesn\u2019t). This process is called IT unification. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next few months, JumpCloud will be diving into the three steps of IT unification. We\u2019ll walk you through the process of cleaning up sprawl, reducing costs, and positioning your infrastructure for success. Like many other IT professionals who have made the unification journey, you\u2019ll likely find that the benefits were more than worth the upfront work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is IT Unification?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

IT unification is the process of optimizing your stack by reducing the elements down to only what you need and connecting them smoothly. The goal is to create an environment that\u2019s compact, cost-effective, manageable, and secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT unification is built on the premise that more isn\u2019t always better. In fact, more for more\u2019s sake is sometimes worse. Think of Marie Kondo\u2019s method of tidying a space: she helps people remove clutter so they can see, make sense of, and connect with their environment and assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, think of unification like spring cleaning: it combats the clutter that happens when we\u2019re not looking and puts systems in place that prevent it from happening in the future. This instills in your tech environment the simplicity, clarity, and intentionality you need to quickly see and makes sense of it as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n \"JumpCloud\"\n <\/div>\n
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\n Reduce Your Organization's IT Sprawl <\/p>\n

\n Exchange disparate point solutions for a full-scale IT management platform to unify your environment. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n Learn More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

The Benefits of IT Unification<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Regain Control Over Your Stack<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When your infrastructure\u2019s a mess, everything\u2019s a mess. But when your infrastructure\u2019s tight and streamlined, things just\u2026 work. Manual processes get automated; integrations are streamlined; visibility becomes clear; data reports to a single source of truth. All of which make managing your stack infinitely easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An added benefit to this newfound visibility is the security that comes with it. At first, it may feel counterproductive to concentrate your security functions rather than spread them out. But the idea of diversifying assets in the name of security often gets taken to an extreme, where IT professionals no longer feel they have control over their environment\u2019s security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unity, by contrast, gives you clarity, confidence, and thorough knowledge of your systems. It grants your organization reliable, maintainable, and affordable security through clear visibility and strong communication amongst the tools in your infrastructure. And with a carefully curated stack, shadow IT sticks out like a thumb drive in 2023. That makes it easier to spot and address shadow IT as it occurs, allowing you to keep your stack unified long term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, a strategically unified infrastructure allows you to both build a better defense and mount a quick offensive, should the moment arise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be Ready for Anything.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When we talk about planning for the future, we often mean planning for the foreseeable<\/em> future. It involves answering questions like, What will our process be for onboarding a department\u2019s worth of new hires next year? How are we planning for upcoming EOL dates? How will we handle identities when this merger goes through?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning for future events is hard enough \u2014 addressing any of the above questions can take months of planning and cross-departmental collaboration. But planning for curveballs you can\u2019t anticipate is another exercise entirely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This became apparent for many IT admins and business leaders over the last few years as they lived the consequences of unforeseen change. A global pandemic that no one could have planned for plunged them into new territories that their technology wasn\u2019t built to support. Businesses suddenly found themselves tied to tech that was hard to manage remotely and even harder to retrofit to their environments, which seemed to have changed completely overnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you be prepared if you don\u2019t know what to prepare for? Ultimately, planning for the unforeseen comes down to investing in <\/strong>flexibility<\/em><\/strong> and <\/strong>the power of choice<\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>The million-dollar question becomes, How do we ensure that we can always adapt our tech to our needs and goals, regardless of what they are or how we plan to achieve them?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT unification is the answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unifying your stack both improves your flexibility and your freedom to choose what works best for your organization. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n