Bob Muglia on doing more with what you have

Today Microsoft posted an article featuring Server and Tools president Bob Muglia discussing smart ways customers of all sizes can control IT costs in a tough economy. 

Excerpt: 

Microsoft recently released the results of a two-year study of the impact that datacenter best practices could have on IT operations costs. The study shows that businesses also can realize immediate savings just by operating their existing datacenters more efficiently. As part of the study, the company commissioned a survey of CIOs and IT managers at 162 organizations regarding six typical server infrastructure workloads: collaboration, data management, identity and access, e-mail, connectivity, and print server management. The survey found 31 systems-management best practices — such as automated backup, hierarchical storage management and server clustering — that can result in significant savings and improved service levels for businesses of all sizes.

Related to this - you may be interested in the Forefront Client Security Total Cost of Ownership of White Paper. The paper describes a study that showed how customers realized benefits with FCS such as:

85% average reduction in security costs.

75% average security issues response time reduction.

$24 average annual total cost of ownership savings per desktop.