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Managing Networked Infrastructure and Operations. Infrastructure Challenges and Threats. How changing IT infrastructures affect business How management priorities must shift How the risks that affect day-to-day operations can be reduced
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Infrastructure Challenges and Threats • How changing IT infrastructures affect business • How management priorities must shift • How the risks that affect day-to-day operations can be reduced Ever-improving technology offers a growing number of problem-solving options; new industries have emerged to help operational managers realize greater efficiencies and capabilities
Chapter 5 Understanding Internetworking Infrastructure
Internetworking Infrastructures(totality of existing client-server systems, new externally provided services, and legacy systems) • Approximately 75% of most companies’ IT dollars go to infrastructure investments • Half of all capital expenditures • Must carefully evaluate implications of emerging technologies and infrastructures for operational capabilities
The Network(medium and supporting technologies—software and hardware—that permit exchange of information between processing units and organizations) • Fiber optics, cable systems, DSL, satellite, wireless, routers, switches, firewalls, net monitoring
Key Management Issues • How to select technologies and standards • How to select partners • How to manage partner relationships • How to assure reliability • How to maintain security
Processing Systems(the hardware and software that together provide the ability to handle business transactions) • Transaction software (enterprise systems such as SAP and Oracle), servers, server appliances, client devices (PCs, handhelds)
Key Management Issues • What to keep internal and what to outsource • How to deploy, grow, and modify • Enterprise system or best-of-breed hybrid? • Relationships with legacies • How to manage incidents • How to recover after a “disaster”
Facilities(physical systems that house and protect computing and network devices) • Corporate data centers, managed services data centers, data closets
Key Management Issues • Internal or external management? • Choosing a facilities model suited to one’s company • How to assure reliability • How to maintain security
Issue 1: Public Infrastructure • What does the public infrastructure of the Internet mean to our business operations? • Are we leveraging this infrastructure to maximum advantage? • How dependent are we still on proprietary technologies? (open standards)
With internetworking, physical location of processing is less important • Thus new possibilities exist for . . . • Outsourcing • Partnerships • Industry restructuring • With these come drawbacks . . . • Rising complexities • Unpredictable interactions • New threats to businesses and consumers
Issue 2: Running in Real Time • How close do company operations come to running in real time? • What value creation opportunities can still be obtained by moving more in the direction of real-time value capture?
Emergence of Real-Time Infrastructures • Better data, better decisions • Consistency throughout organization • Improved process visibility • New technologies based on open standards and compatible back-office transaction systems let users instantaneously view transactions • Improved process efficiency • Based on data access • From Make-and-Sell to Sense-and-Respond • Highly responsive organizations • Real-time value added action
Issue 3: New Service Delivery Models • IT services can be obtained across internetworks • Service delivery depends on a growing number of service providers and partners • Concern: Reliability of vital services is only as good as the weakest link in the service provider chain • Can external services be integrated into the rest of the organization’s IT systems? (legacy issue)
Are we exploring new service delivery models aggressively enough?