f you’ve been keeping an ear to the ground recently, you may have heard alarm bells regarding the next recession. But unfortunately, the signs indicate that another financial storm may be brewing. Recently, Bloomberg reported that the global yield curve has been inverting for the first time in at least two decades – signalling that a recession is imminent.

World Bank has also published an in-depth market study, “Risk of Global Recession in 2023 Rises Amid Simultaneous Rate Hikes.” They claim the problem to be increased interest rates in the face of unexpected external conditions like the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and too much money printing.

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Why ITOps cost optimization matters
Obviously, any recession is bound to cause tremendous pressure on enterprises to run their- day-to-day IT operations. As a result, CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs end up grappling with serious challenges, such as skyrocketing prices of IT infrastructure, rising talent costs, and shadow expenses.

While these challenges may have been prevalent even during a good economic period, a financial crisis – for all practical purposes – brings out the worst in them. What’s more, fixing IT inefficiencies often gets so much focus that fostering innovation takes a backseat.

ITOps cost optimization can be one of an enterprise’s best allies during a financial crisis. However, it’s first important to confront an uncomfortable and inconvenient truth. A lot of IT spending gets wasted due to contractual oversights, vendor lock-ins, tech bandwagon-hopping, or any other reason. Once you accept this, you can strategically optimize the nooks and corners of your ITOps ecosystem.

So, let’s look at five steps to optimize ITOPs expenses.

5 R’s of ITOPs cost optimization during a financial crisis

Review short-term and long-term IT expenses 
Ruthlessly eliminating IT-related expenses has been mythologized for too long as a cost optimizer. But, in reality, cost-cutting is merely a small part of saving the financial health of your ITOps. Sometimes, it can even cause damage by removing valuable tools and resources that can bring long-term savings. So, instead, it is strategically important to spend now on what can help you save later – leveraging AI and automation, which are the building blocks of true financial freedom for ITOps teams. Plus, using these technologies ensure that your team gets more work done with less effort.