Technology Consolidation

Hello Ramesh,

On a recent engagement, I focussed on business consolidation and rationalisation. I noticed that the technology stacks simply followed across, and the decision making became much easier. To put it plainly, it is very difficult to choose between potatoes and onions. But, once you know what the end goal is, your decision becomes much easier.

However, many organisations are driven bottom-up rather than the top-down approach used above. In that case, your technology consolidation might end up driving business consolidation. Good luck, in that case! If you don't end up with any business consolidation, I see no business benefits from technology consolidation. IT, in this case, is a white elephant needing to be sorted on its own, or thrown out!

Technology roadmaps from vendors or suppliers are very helpful to understand the cost/benefits of remaining with any particular technology. Throw out any technology which continues to increase in annual costs, without any corresponding increase in business benefits.

Evaluate from a business perspective, whether it might be worthwhile outsourcing, if your business finds it very difficult to make IT decisions. But, the key to successful outsourcing is in having a business partnership, rather than a pure technology supplier relationship. A totally different topic... :-)

Explore the potential of the cloud... another topic on its own! But, something to be considered, if you are evaluating your options. Get a cost-analysis done, and present to your business owners, rather than to IT. This option is best suitable for startups, or organisations going through a radical overhaul. Sounds like yours might be one!

Best regards,
Joseph

_______________
Joseph George
+44 (0)78250 15480
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/josephg

On Jul 12, 11:29 pm, ramesh appat wrote:

> Hello,

> Do any of you have a process or methodology that you have used/executed in
> your company or with a client to help them arrive at technology
> consolidation? Any material pertaining to this will be helpful.

Scope of Enterprise Architects in Cloud Computing World!

That entirely depends on where you, as an architect, are sitting - inside the cloud within the cloud operator or outside the cloud within the cloud user. Either way, the architecture principles remain the same, but the operations and business model are radically different.

Best regards,
Joseph

On May 24, 7:00 am, N Gowthaman wrote:

> Group,

> I am curious to understand the scope an Architect will be having in his
> profession with the advent of cloud computing space. Your thoughts pl

> N. Gowthaman

Response: Hack Work

Hack Work, Ian Marchant blog post dt 08/03/2010

Another thing from the Harvard Business Review. The challenge is how do we, as a large company, respond when our IT resources at home or even on our mobile phones are more powerful and flexible than the large corporate systems can be. It seems from the article that our problem is a common one - to quote, "the tools we use in life have leapfrogged over the ones we use at work. Business's lingering love of bureaucracy, process and legacy technology has fallen completely out of sync with what people need to do their best".

The articles solution is to 'hack work' - i.e. rule bending for the good of all. We all do this anyway so why not make it a virtue - "the illusion of corporate control is being shattered in the name of increased personal productivity". We can all think of examples where we have to do things 'outside the system' just to get things done. I know I do and I'm sure there are lots of good examples throughout SSE.

Feedback in response to Ian's Blog

Post Title - Hack Work
Date Posted - 08/03/2010
Name: Joseph George
Department: IT Architecture
Location: Havant
Comments:

Ian,

Thanks for highlighting the challenges we face today. I haven't seen this HBR article you quote, but would very much like to read in entirety.

Some years ago corporate systems had much more oomph than anyone could afford personally. And this discussion wouldn't have happened. The scenario has dramatically changed now.

Our current systems force us to work within constraints set for enforcing mediocre resources to output mediocre quality. It is a sorry state when we find ourselves in a situation where the corporate systems restrict us, rather than enable us to increase personal productivity. And you are quite right that SSE is not in this unique situation, and also that Corporate IT is a product of the business' lingering love of bureaucracy and process. Too much of which makes everything legacy very quickly in this age of incredible business changes happening within extremely short time-scales. I think we should loosen the chains a bit, rather than tightening the noose further. I also refer to your previous blog post. Google and its various products (including mail, calendar, collaboration, etc.), Zoho apps (goes one step further in enabling business productivity), Salesforce and many other cloud products are available everywhere except inside our corporate systems. These products are much cheaper and far more efficient than the legacy technology employed by the business.

You mention "IT resources", where I suspect you refer to physical hardware rather than to value-added services. And I concur that hardware is largely redundant, as any hardware lock-ins are a business risk, which makes physical hardware a white elephant in terms of Capex, Opex, and Security.

Thanks once again for your highly illuminating blog posts, which allow people to widen their thinking horizons. There seems to be some legitimacy to "thinking outside the box", when aided (prompted, supported) by the Chief Exec.

Kind regards,
Joseph

From: Ian Marchant
To: Joseph George
Date: 12/03/2010 16:30
Subject: Re: Hack Work
Sent by: Eilidh Marshall

Joseph,

Thanks for the feedback. Getting the balance right between robustness and routine and the need for agility is a key issue.

Regards,
Ian

Amazon's Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) solution

http://allthingsdistributed.com/2009/08/amazon_virtual_private_cloud.html
This is hot, and is going to be a catalyst in causing a strategic shift in IT's CAPEX leviathan.

Can the principles of enterprise architecture be inherited from a Saas solution?

> There
> are lots of "theories" and even some packaged solutions that basically
> ignore some principles of Computer Science, to consider them as a
> possible solution to any enterprise level problem would be
> irresponsible at best.

I agree. The vendors sure do try very hard.

> However, if you're looking at specific
> implementations then you are asking the wrong question; at that level
> you are asking if one can design a building by looking at how the
> plumbing has been done in other buildings.

At that level, I don't consider it to be Enterprise Architecture. Though, it is helpful to understand the details at lower levels, to consider how this might impact upon your upstream solution.

Kind regards,
Joseph

On 13 Feb, 15:34, Peter Hunsberger wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 4:44 AM, Joseph George

> wrote:

> > IMHO, architecture is just common sense. Consequently, any principle
> > which is open, makes business sense and aligns with corporate
> > objectives, even if based on some other theory is worth considering.

> Sorry, I'm going to have to some what disagree with you here.
> Architecture is a lot more than common sense. You cannot design a sky
> scraper using common sense, you need to know something about real
> engineering principles. Similarly, you cannot design enterprise
> solutions without knowing some basic IS engineering principles. There
> are lots of "theories" and even some packaged solutions that basically
> ignore some principles of Computer Science, to consider them as a
> possible solution to any enterprise level problem would be
> irresponsible at best.

> One can debate to what degree SAAS is general set of principles vs. a
> particular mode of systems implementation. To the extent that you
> lean towards general principles then sure, consider it part of the
> architecture tool kit. However, if you're looking at specific
> implementations then you are asking the wrong question; at that level
> you are asking if one can design a building by looking at how the
> plumbing has been done in other buildings.

> --
> Peter Hunsberger

Can the principles of enterprise architecture be inherited from a Saas solution?

IMHO, architecture is just common sense. Consequently, any principle which is open, makes business sense and aligns with corporate objectives, even if based on some other theory is worth considering.

Architecture needs to consider all stacks and layers of the company in defining and maintaining the Architecture Principles. We would need to consider the ground realities in conjunction with the people who are actually doing the work, as much as, if not more than, those sit in their ivory towers. If not, our architecture wouldn't be realistic.

Continuing further, I don't expect the Achitecture Principles to be cast in stone. More so, in these days, when the ground realities are changing faster than many businesses can adapt or even cope with. The principles need to be driven by both upstream and downstream.

For example, if SaaS is acceptable to your company, then there should be some architecture principle which accepts this solution. In fact, you should already have had this principle on your list, or accept that as a gap to be rectified. If not, SaaS should not be acceptable to your company, as it would potentialy conflict with one of your principles.

Hope this makes sense...

Kind regards,
Joseph

On Feb 11, 10:28 pm, Mark Cowan wrote:

> Is it possible or even desirable to gap fill EA principles by choosing
> a solution that aligns it. For example - in looking at a particular
> Saas solution that was based on the principle of "loose
> coupling" (insert the principle of your choice here) could its
> adoption force the desired design pattern?

> The solution doesn't have to be Saas or technology - it could be
> process based as well.

> All the best,
> Mark

> First Spike
> Information Management Simplified

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