Readers of this blog know that it is mainframe centric. They might be surprised that there is no mainframe nor, for that matter, any other platform mentioned in the paper. Why? It's not about technology. It's about business. Saving money and growing profits. If that doesn't get attention, I don't know what will. When systems are built together collaboratively, instead of fiefdoms, any business can save on a wide variety of server platforms.
In the paper, you'll see that IBM and Vicom Infinity are working together with infrastructure that can be used to demo or develop proof of concepts to put these ideas to work. Don't hesitate to reach out to me for additional information.
Can you reduce your operations budget by $2 million or more?
I've written earlier about silos of computing and the value of hybrid computing. Typically, any business with 250 server instances or more should be able to save or actually avoid $1,000,000 in IT expenses. Businesses with over 500 servers may be able to reduce budgets by over $2,000,000! What's the catch? A business or government agency must let a small team of qualified people analyze their current operational environment.
The approach is simple enough. Take a look at complex or tortured data flows: Where do transactions begin and end? Where is that data copied to other systems for analysis or sharing with other departments or organizations. Our team of experts, using a proven method, will look at how a business can share that data across multiple organizations. Instead of moving the data to the applications and users, we look at moving the applications to the data.
The result should be a reduction in complexity. The added benefits should include improved security, business resilience and end to end response time.
The analysis of the current IT environment is a no charge service. We look at your current deployment model and costs and suggest a different deployment model that addresses sharing. Will it be disruptive? The goal is to keep it as simple and transparent as possible to end users – a businesses' consumers and its own staff. It will change operational processing but it should be an easy transition for knowledgeable IT workers. It's about cost avoidance, not savings. The business may need to spend some money to get to the new operational model. I say may because they might already have many of the components available today. We expect a quick return on investment that results in an annual cost avoidance in IT operations.
Sometimes, it's hard to look at a spreadsheet and say, sure, I believe these figure. As they say, figures don't lie, liars figure. There is no subterfuge going on here. In fact, for many of the future states that get proposed, our team can create a proof of concept demo of the end state. We've got a lab that has a wide variety of servers, operating systems and middleware installed. Cloud, analytics and mobile computing are all in scope. Most important, a lot of skill and experience behind the operations of the lab.
Our team will create documentation of the "As Is" state and the proposal. This can be used by the business to get funding from management, to create a Request for Proposal (RFP) or for anything else that benefits the organization.
In addition, we can offer continuing services on how to carry out our findings by working with the customer or third-party of choice.
This exercise can fail. But why?
The primary reason for failure is "organizational inefficiency". Better stated, internal politics. I've written about silo's of computing. Well, each silo has a leader. If a new operations model reduces the silos and shares operations and facilitates collaboration across organizations, it could scare some leaders that are attempting to protect their fiefdoms. History shows that true leadership is looking at the good of the business. Leaders that return profit to the business become better leaders in the long run. That's the kind of business that will benefit from this service.
The business also needs to make their people available to answer questions about the current state. Yes, this might interfere with their current jobs, but it is a focused interview to reduce the time spent by those employees.
We've got qualified people ready to work with businesses wherever there is a need. Feel free to contact me and we'll begin working with you immediately. Happy programming.