Limiting the number of vendors used in an IT infrastructure has been a common tactic for decades. This is a proven strategy that also saves time and money when it comes to end-to-end implementation, troubleshooting, monitoring, and interoperation. Yet, the single-vendor approach may no longer be the right method to take these days. In fact, many of the previously overwhelming factors against multi-vendor infrastructures can now be addressed.
Infrastructure companies have realized that “passing the buck” when troubleshooting in a multi-vendor environment is highly detrimental to their ongoing success. Vendors’ partnerships provide cross-vendor interoperability information, best-practice implementation guides, and other useful aspects for administrators when working to integrate multi-vendor equipment into the overall IT infrastructure. It also allows to streamline and nullify the challenges customers might encounter when managing a multi-vendor environment.
Miraworks provides multi-vendor equipment comparison and makes the transition much easier. Nowadays multi-vendor infrastructures are easier than ever to build and manage because of the fact that previous closed and proprietary infrastructure components have since been opened. IT administrators began seeking ways that data could be pulled out of infrastructure equipment, then manipulated or analyzed for the purpose of making intelligent decisions. Infrastructure operators opted to avoid closed ecosystems in favor of open source infrastructure alternatives that included open application programming interfaces (API). Seeing this trend, major infrastructure manufacturers had no choice but to include APIs that allowed administrators access to data – and more importantly – the ability to automate processes across a multi-vendor environment. Evolutions in technology and demands by customers have significantly reduced the hurdles of multi-vendor management. Thus, now might be the right time to expand horizons and take a second look at the best-of-breed technology adoption approach.