One of the problems, according to Chou, is that the team responsible for managing the corporate network and the one tasked with managing the company's physical data center don't communicate effectively. The problem with this strategy is that it can leave significant gaps in efficiency. For example, the people that choose a location for the data center are likely to focus on the cost and geographic features such as access of the location itself but may not look into bandwidth availability. This could lead to performance issues or outages down the line, which ultimately cost the company money.

Chou suggested businesses need to "think vertically" about optimization. This forces teams to communicate with each other, so that a decision ultimately meets critical IT needs. For example, optimizing virtual machine deployment and management likely involves a convergence of internal expertise from compliance and infrastructure management teams. Fostering collaboration between these employees would better position the business to determine the potential risks of virtualizing IT environments as well as give a better estimate of data security and storage demands.

Particularly as IT infrastructure evolves to be capable of holding even larger volumes of data, employees as well as the technology solutions they use will likely need to work in concert with each other. Just as data center operators and network managers will need to work together, using data protection and file compression software in conjunction with each other can maximize the return on technology investments.

Growing need for cybersecurity
Malware has evolved considerably in recent years. While malicious software that disrupts a computer's ability to function still exist, a significant number of bad programs are silent. In reviewing threats that occurred in 2012, TechTarget contributor Moriah Sargent noted that 45 percent of all organizations were victimized by a cyberattack. Trojans and phishing scams were among the most common types of threats. In addition, 27 percent of organizations that suffered a breach didn't make any changes in the aftermath of the incident.

Just as business decision makers could benefit from taking a vertical-thinking approach to optimization, a similar paradigm could be leveraged to mitigate the risk of data breaches. For example, software procurement staff would gain a deeper understanding of the risk posed by specific information by collaborating with the compliance team. This collaboration would lead to better decisions regarding data encryption software and other security solutions.