What is IT Life Cycle Thinking and What Can it Do for You?

When we think of a life cycle, we may be plagued with visions of Secondary School biology classrooms and the age-old tale of the chicken and the egg. We are often guilty of only applying the term “life cycle” to living things; animals, plants and even human beings.  

This means that, when it comes to inanimate objects, we often fail to consider the stages of life – where our belongings come from, how we use and maintain them, and how we eventually dispose of them.  

However, by applying life cycle thinking to physical objects we can explore the full potential of what we own at every stage and increase the value that we receive.  

Techbuyer applies life cycle thinking and practices to IT solutions and services to improve technology systems across all metrics – environmental impact, performance, efficiency and cost.  

What Do We Mean by IT Life Cycle Thinking?  

The definition of life cycle, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica is:  

“The series of changes that the members of a species undergo as they pass from the beginning of a given development stage to the inception of that same development stage in a subsequent generation.”  

From a product standpoint, life cycle refers to the entirety of an item’s impact, from initial mining and manufacturing to what happens after disposal. The life cycle is a product’s entire impact – socially, financially and environmentally. 

By looking at IT hardware in terms of its entire lifespan, we are able to assess its impact for your business to maximise its value.  

Depending on the stage of your IT journey, life cycle practices ensure that we increase the potential of technology for your organisation whilst minimising negative impacts. 

What Does IT life Cycle Thinking Look Like?  

When applying IT life cycle thinking to your business, the process relies on looking at your technology needs and exploring your options based on what you already have, the impact of your technology and how you can unlock the most value from your technology.  

Life cycle thinking is valuable at each decision stage of technology use and can influence how you make IT hardware choices, to ensure you get the best possible outcome for your business and minimise overall environmental impact.  

For example, finding the best options during the IT procurement stage means looking at existing technology and exploring how what you currently have can be reused, sold, cascaded down or upgraded to support your new technology and achieve the best possible value.  

At Techbuyer, IT life cycle practices enable us to advance your IT performance and systems whilst using your technology to its full potential, from components to complete infrastructure.  

Why Explore IT Life Cycle Thinking?  

Applying life cycle thinking to your IT strategy increases the performance of your technology across all metrics. Not only do life cycle practices save your company money, but they are designed to boost IT system efficiency and carbon footprint, increase performance and productivity and reduce overall environmental impact.  

We understand that your IT systems must be able to support your business against many different, and often competing metrics. However, IT life cycle thinking allows you to examine all options available at each stage of IT decision making. It also balances your priorities to develop the best solution for your individual company.  

We believe in expanding your choices around IT decisions to ensure that you get the best possible solution that meets your current goals and future development.  

IT all Begins with Procurement 

The beginning of your IT life cycle journey lies in procurement; exploring every choice available to you when purchasing hardware is essential for developing an IT system that is tailored to your business. 

Through our server configuration service, Techbuyer applies IT life cycle thinking to your technology procurement process. We design your server solution to your company’s exact needs, balancing your business goals and operations, as well as what you need from your technology, to create a custom solution optimised for your organisation. 

Our life cycle server configuration service offers:  

• Custom server design centred around your company’s priorities.  
• High-performance equipment that balances performance and efficiency.  
• Free server build service.  
• An industry leading warranty to ensure peace of mind.  

Explore our server configuration service here to start your IT life cycle journey.  

Maintenance IT Life Cycle Thinking 

IT life cycle thinking centres around making the most out of our technology and extending the lifespan of our IT systems whilst retaining or improving, the overall performance.  

By maintaining our devices, using life cycle practices, such as component level upgrades, IT repairs and cascading assets, we can increase the value we get from our technology and renew the performance of our devices. 

Increasing the life cycle and value of technology is essential for maximising IT budgets, increasing device performance based on specific workloads, and improving the impact of technology on the environment.  

If we assign a dedicated, average life span to a device, for example, if we use laptops for four years, we can measure the impact of the device over this period. If we begin to expand the life span of a device, its impact, over time, decreases, meaning that your technology has less impact per year of use than the original product. Life cycle services, such as component level upgrades and repairs, allow us to do this.  

By expanding the lifespan of devices, we decrease the quantity of e-waste we send to landfill, improve the overall efficiency of our devices to decrease energy draw and carbon production, and limit the technology we purchase to restrict the impact of manufacturing on the planet.  

This means that life cycle thinking is not only a must for your organisation’s goals, but it is also an essential practice for protecting our planet’s future. 

Disposal IT Life Cycle Thinking 

When it comes to end of life, we can fall victim to thinking that our technology has no value, and our concerns over security and just general hassle can impact our decision making.  
However, if we explore life cycle practices to ensure that our technology is handled correctly at the disposal stage, we can meet all the above concerns, as well as retain the value of our IT assets.  

IT Asset Recovery is a solution that expands the life cycle of all usable technology whilst guaranteeing data security. This service fuels the reuse aspect of life cycle thinking to offer you the best solution for IT disposal whilst bringing technology back into the secondary market where possible.  

Techbuyer’s IT Asset Recovery is R2V3 certified, meaning that we ensure that your technology is disposed of ethically and sustainably. This minimises the impact of your technology further down the supply or waste stream to increase sustainability practice within your organisation.  

However, the IT life cycle does not stop here. These disposal services are used to accelerate your IT budgets for business development and technology refresh. Disposal is a part of life cycle thinking, not the last chapter, and so it is just as important in your IT journey as both procurement and maintenance. 

The three work together to create a custom solution generated from your business goals.  

Combined Services for Unique Approach to Technology 

IT life cycle thinking addresses all areas of the technology decision making and maintenance process to unlock the full potential of your IT system and increase value across all metrics. 
Life cycle thinking allows you to reimagine your IT design to ensure quality and performance, renew productivity of your IT system, and reuse where possible to maximise your IT budget and extend lifespan.  

We believe that each business deserves to explore the best solutions for their individual needs and operations. By providing IT life cycle thinking, we expand your IT options and deliver IT freedom when making the best decision for your business.  

Whichever stage of the life cycle you are in, your journey to unlocking your IT potential can begin now. Contact our team to advance the performance, efficiency, lifespan and impact of your technology here.