For business success and sustainability, scalability is essential. In particular, a business should work to put in place scalable technology applications and solutions that will allow them to seamlessly grow without tech-related roadblocks.
Scalability should be a key consideration when selecting business software, cybersecurity tools, and enterprise DDI solutions, and on-premises and cloud-based solutions.
The following is an overview of business scalability and in particular, things to know with regards to tech scalability.
Why Is Scalability Important to a Business?
When entrepreneurs are either beginning a new business, or they’re planning to grow their current business, scalability is imperative. Without a scalable business model and the necessary tools to make that happen, it would be nearly impossible to increase revenue and profitability without subsequent cost increases.
When a business has scalable technology and also a scalable overall business model in place, it makes them poised for exponential growth rather than linear growth.
With scalability, as revenue goes up, the costs stay the same, paving the way for more profitability. When you’re a scalable organization you have more room for growth with less required capital, and that means you’re more efficient.
Scalable Cybersecurity
One of the most important things modern businesses have to consider is cybersecurity. When you are looking for cybersecurity solutions, they, as with other areas of your business, should be highly scalable.
Many of the core components of a good cybersecurity strategy don’t differ based on what industry you’re in or how large your business is.
For scalable cybersecurity, keep visibility as one of your top priorities. In order to fully protect your IT assets and everything else, you need to be able to see what’s happening. If you can choose a solution that offers visibility on a scalable level, you’re going to be well-prepared to grow with an eye toward cybersecurity best practices.
You also need to look for cybersecurity solutions that are going to keep pace with potential scalability within the cloud. You never want security to be a bottleneck to productivity or performance, nor do you want gaps to exist.
Build a Solid Database Infrastructure
When your database is critical to your business, ensuring you have a solid infrastructure is integral for scalability. You should think carefully about how you’re going to store data but also how this will allow you to access it.
You want to be able to grow your database over time without it becoming overly complex.
Think About Interconnectivity of Your Pipeline
When you’re building a technology stack, you need to think about how each component is going to connect and work with the other parts. This is important in terms of not just general scalability but also what you can do as far as your data collection and application.
You want components that can communicate with one another and help you see the bigger picture.
You should also evaluate core functionality as a primary comparison factor when choosing what to add to a tech stack.
IT Services Providers
If you are going to use an IT services provider, you should choose them carefully since this can be part of your scalability also. You want an IT services provider who is going to be able to keep up with what your anticipated growth rate is, and a good way of determining whether or not this is the case is to look at their current clients.
You should also discuss scaling projects they’ve worked with other clients on, and you should ask about the results.
When choosing providers, question their processes as far as how they work and what they do when working with clients, and having familiarity with your industry can go a long way in terms of providing you scalable support.
Software and Cloud Services
Thankfully SaaS and cloud services providers have made complete scalability a much more attainable objective. When you’re choosing the platforms that you’re going to integrate into your business, choose smart platforms that might allow you to pay as you need right now but then, as your volume or need increases, you can pay more, and it will meet your needs.
Of course, regardless of the technology, you have in place, if your business isn’t scalable in other ways, it won’t be beneficial. For example, scalability relies on having strong leadership and a business that can operate without you. Scalability can also be linked to agility and your businesses’ ability to weather different storms that might occur or changes in your industry.
