IT Organization : Building a Worldclass Infrastructure

by Kern, Harris; Galup, Stuart D.; Nemiro, Guy

• ISBN13: 9780130222985
• ISBN10: 0130222984
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-15
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

2229H-4 Organizing IT for excellence in 21st century distributed environments Few organizations are achieving their goals for reliability, availability, and serviceability in distributed environments-and the obstacles aren't technical, they're organizational. How does one structure an IT organization to succeed with today's tools and architectures? IT Organization: Building a World-Class Infrastructure delivers realistic, specific answers that draw upon the experiences of more than 40 leading companies. You'll discover how to: bull; bull; Design your organization to deliver "any data, anywhere, anytime" bull; Combine mainframe-class discipline with 21st century flexibility bull; Treat your network like you treat your data center bull; Organize around business-critical support functions instead of trendy technologies bull; Establish standards without imposing rigidity -- and achieve discipline without bureaucracy bull; Overcome the myths that prevent IT organizations from succeeding Harris Kern and his colleagues have built a worldwide reputation for evaluating IT organizations and identifying solutions -- fast. This concise, to-the-point book will help you do the same. Here are the right questions to ask, specific "people and process" techniques that work, sample SLAs and internal support agreements -- everything you need to make change happen, now!

Author Biography

Harris Kern is currently a leading IT consultant with Sun Microsystems. He is also a noted speaker and worldwide columnist. Stuart D. Galup is Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems at Florida Atlantic University, a Certified Computing Professional, and a consultant. He resides in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Guy Nemiro has been in the corporate IT and writing worlds for two decades. He is currently at Sun Microsystems. He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and he has lectured at UCLA and UC Northridge. He resides in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
IT Infrastructure Assessment	3	(2)
What Is the Infrastructure?	5	(4)
What We Found in Our Travels	9	(10)
What's Wrong with Client/Server?	10	(1)
The Problems	10	(6)
The Excuses	16	(1)
Applications Development Is Not an Issue	16	(1)
The Impact	17	(1)
Processes Are Not First	17	(2)
The CIO's Role	19	(10)
Executives Out of Touch with Their Infrastructure	20	(2)
How Can the Infrastructure Catch Up Quickly?	22	(1)
Lack of Time and Resource	23	(1)
Assure That Your IT Budget Provides for RAS	23	(2)
Marketing and Selling IT Services	25	(1)
Duplication of Efforts	26	(3)
Case Studies	29	(22)
The Problems Short-Listed	34	(1)
Current Organizational Structures	34	(17)
The Problems Short-Listed	51	(20)
The Top Three Missing or Broken Processes	52	(9)
The Other Issues	61	(7)
Internal Support Agreement	68	(3)
Learn from the Past to Build the Future	71	(12)
The Organization	73	(7)
Processes	80	(3)
Building a Worldclass Infrastructure	83	(12)
Start Simple	84	(3)
Designing and Adhering to Your Key Methodologies	87	(6)
Know That Success Equals the Change You Manage	93	(2)
The New Order	95	(6)
Splitting the Technologies	97	(1)
Who's in Charge?	98	(3)
The Organization for the Twenty-First Century	101	(22)
Enterprise Services	102	(1)
Mission-Critical vs. Non-Mission-Critical	103	(1)
Structuring Technical Staff	104	(1)
Functional Responsibilities	105	(18)
Epilogue The ``Worldclass'' Infrastructure	123	(2)
Appendix A Frequently-Asked Questions	125	(12)
General	125	(3)
People	128	(2)
Process	130	(3)
Technology	133	(4)
Appendix B Infrastructure Assessment Program	137	(4)
The Industry Problem	137	(1)
People Issues	138	(1)
Process Issues	138	(1)
Technology Issues	138	(1)
The Program	139	(1)
Customer Requirements	139	(1)
The Deliverable	140	(1)
The Cost	140	(1)
Appendix C Service Level Agreements	141	(8)
Information Systems Services Cost Options Definitions	141	(8)
Appendix D Internal Support Agreement	149	(4)
Root Authority	149	(1)
Server Availability Hours	150	(1)
Backups	150	(1)
Support Responsibility	150	(3)
Appendix E Marketing Materials for an Internal Audience	153	(10)
Enterprise Center	153	(1)
Systems Management	153	(1)
Quality Assurance	154	(1)
Customized reports	154	(1)
Data storage	154	(1)
Mission	155	(1)
Enterprise Center Tours	155	(1)
High-Tech Equipment	155	(1)
Information Technology Survey	155	(1)
Consulting Services	156	(7)
Bibliography	163	(6)
Index	169

Excerpts

Preface Structure, Not TechnologyThis book brings an urgent message for any Information Technology professional who is responsible for planning, implementing, managing, and supporting client/server (or networked) computing environments. If you want to survive in the networked, client/server world, you must stop, analyze, reorganize and prioritize your infrastructure now.We spent two years analyzing 40, cross industry Fortune 1000 companies. We were engaged to assist IT organizations in their quest for reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) with client/server environments. This book is based on these case studies.We found that organizations everywhere have serious latent infrastructure issues. Too often IT managers deal only with the symptoms of their problems by blaming technology, the complexity, or the architecture of client/server environments. The fact is that all of these companies have infrastructure issues that inhibit their ability to have RAS in client/server environments.All of the companies we analyzed are committed to client/server computing and the transformation to the new paradigm (i.e., any data, anywhere, anytime) which is becoming more prevalent every minute in Internet time. IT organizations must get their acts together to support their business requirements, but the terrifying fact is that IT organizations aren't prepared for the onslaught of the networked world because of the organizational problems we highlight.The first section highlights the issues and problems of networked computing we found in our travels around the world. This section highlights what not to do.The second section tells you how to look at the past for answers to the problems in today's environments. This section also shows you how to build that elusive world-class infrastructure.The third section deals with how to structure your IT organization for the twenty-first century and how to give it a competitive advantage in the "dot comming" world.And last, but so very important, are the questions we are asked most frequently by IT professionals during our travels.This book is different than any other book we've written and any other books in the marketplace on IT organization structures because of the 40 case studies. This book is about the non-technical issues that IT organizations need to address to succeed in a client/server environment. This book is about basics-how to structure an organization so that it works. Through case studies and recommendations, we'll show you how to set up procedures, policies, and metrics to make sure the organization is effective.