Information Systems Planning

1

2 Distributed Systems Architecture

Information Systems Planning

Paradox of IS Planning

Most organization's survival now depends on ITPlanning of its effective use is a matter of organizational life and death

IT is changing so fastIs it useless to do IS planning?

A variety of approaches, tools and mechanisms available for IS planning

No best way to do it.

Mindset for Planning

Traditional viewDetermining what decisions to make in the future

A better viewDeveloping a view of the future that guides decision making today

Difference : strategy making instead of planning

Strategy: stating the direction in which you want to go and how you intend to get there

Types of Planning

Horizon Focus Issues Primary Responsibility

3 - 5 years

Strategic Vision, architecture, business goals

Senior management, CIO

1 - 2 years

Tactical Resource allocation, project selection

Middle management,IS line partners, Steering committees

6 month -1 year

Operational Project management, meeting time and budget targets

IS professionals, Line managers, partners

Why Planning Is So Difficult? (1)

Business goals and systems plans need to alignStrategic systems plans need to align with business goals and support those objectivesWill be difficult if CIO is not part of senior management

Technologies are rapidly changingContinuous planning based on monitoring and experimenting new technologiesAdvanced technology groups

Why Planning Is So Difficult? (2)

Companies need portfolios rather than projects Evaluation on more than their individual meritHow they fit into other projects and how they balance the portfolio of projects

Infrastructure development is difficult to fundOften done under the auspices of a large application projectChallenge: develop improved applications and improve infrastructure over time

Mainframe C/S ERP Web application Web Services

Why Planning Is So Difficult? (3)

Responsibility Needs to be JointSystems planning has become business planning, not just a technology issueIt is better done by a full partnership of C-level officers

Other planning issuesTop-down Vs. bottom-up

Radical change Vs. continuous

Planning culture in which the systems planning must fit

Tradition Strategy Making

Assumptions:The future can be predictedTime is available to do these 3 partsIS supports and follows the businessTop management knows best (broadest view of firm)Company: like an "Army"

Business Strategy•Business decision•Objectives and direction•Change

System Strategy•Business-based•Demand-oriented•Application-focused

IT Strategy•Activity-based•Supply-oriented•Technology-focused

Supportsbusiness

DirectionFor IS

Infrastructure and services

Needs and priorities

Step 1Where is the business going and why?

Step 2What is required?

Step 3How can it be delivered?

A World of Rapid Change (1)

Today, due to the Internet and other technological advances, these assumptions no longer hold true:

The future cannot be predictedDiscontinuous change

Who predicted Internet, Amazon, eBay etc.?

Time is not available for the sequenceNever enough time in Internet AgeIT implementation planning needs to go ahead of business strategizing

A World of Rapid Change (2)

IS does not JUST support the business anymore

Top management may not know best

Inside out Vs. outside in approach

An organization is not like an army

Industrial era metaphor no longer always applies Core

andCustomer

Today's Sense-and-Response Approach (1)

Let strategies unfold rather than plan them:

A sense-and-respond approach when predictions are risky

Sense a new opportunity and immediately respond by testing itMyriad of small experiments

Time

TimeStrategic envelop

Old-era strategyOne big choice, long commitment

New-era strategyMany small choices, short commitments

Case Example: Microsoft

Abandoned proprietary network despite big investment when it did not capture enough customersMoved on to buying Internet companies as well as aligning with Sun to promote JavaOver time, they moved into a variety of technologies:

Web, Cable news, Digital movies, Cable modems, Handheld OS, Video server, Music, Xbox, .Net, Search engines...

Not all strategies came from top managemente.g. first server came from a rebel's unofficial project

Getting its fingers into every pie that might become important

Today's Sense-and-Response Approach (2)

Formulate strategy closest to the action:Close contact with the market

Employees who interact daily with customers, suppliers and partners (organizational edges)

Employees who are closest to the future should become prime strategists.

In the Internet Age, this means younger employees

Today's Sense-and-Response Approach (3)

Guide strategy-making with a “strategic envelope":

Having a myriad of potential corporate strategies being tested in parallel could lead to anarchy without a central guiding mechanismTop management set the parameters for the experiments, and then continually manage that context

Experiment by territory (as Microsoft did)Strategic conversationMeet regularly with the experimenters

Today's Sense-and-Response Approach (4)

Be at the TableIS executives should be actively involved in business strategizingThe IS function needs to be strategy-orientedCIO need to make their departments credible and outsource most operational work

Test the FutureNeed to test potential futures before the business is ready for them (thinking ahead of the business)

Provide funding for experimentsWork with research organizationsHave an emerging technologies group

Today's Sense-and-Response Approach (5)

Put the Infrastructure in Place:Moving quickly in Internet commerce means having the right IT infrastructure in place.IT experiments are recommended to include those that test painful infrastructure issues

Create and maintain common, consistent data definitionsCreate and instill mobile commercial standards among handheld devicesImplement e-commerce security and privacy measuresDetermine operational platforms (ERP, Supply Chain Management …)

Stages of Growth (1)

Richard Nolan et al observed four stages in the introduction and assimilations of a new technology

Early SuccessesIncreased interest and experimentation

ContagionInterest grows rapidly; growth is uncontrolled; learning period for the field

ControlEfforts begun toward cost reduction and standardization

IntegrationDominant design mastered; setting the stage for newer technology

Stages of Growth (2)O

rgan

izat

iona

l Lea

rnin

g

Time1960 1980 1995 2010

DP EraMicro Era

Network Era

Technological discontinuity

Stage 1:Initiation

Stage 2:Contagion

Stage 3:Control

Stage 4:Integration and Stage 1 of Micro Era

Stage 2:Contagion

Stage 3:Control

Stage 4:Integration and Stage 1 of Network Era

Stage 2:Contagion

Stage 3:Control

Stage 4:Integration

Stages of Growth (3)

The importance of the theory is understanding where a technology or company resides on the organizational learning curve

e.g. Web Service is currently in Stage 2, too much control at the learning and experimentation stage can kill off new uses of technology

Management principles differ from stage to stageDifferent technologies are in different stages at any point in time

Competitive Forces Model (1)

Michael Porter's Five Forces ModelA model that determines the relative attractiveness (competition) of an industry.

Five forcesBargaining power of customers and buyers

High when buyers have many choices of whom to buy from, and low when the choices are few.

Bargaining power of suppliersHigh when buyers have few choices of whom to buy from, and low when there are many choices.

Competitive Forces Model (2)

Threat of substitute products or servicesLow if there are very few alternatives to replace the product or service.Switching costs

Costs that can make customers reluctant to switch to another product or service.

Threat of new entrantsHigh when it is easy for competitors to enter the market

The intensity of rivalry among competitorsHigh when the industry is less attractive.

Competitive Forces Model (3)

Industry Competitors

Rivalry among existing firms

Suppliers Customers and Buyers

Potential Entrants

Substitutes

Bargaining power of buyers

Threat of substitute products or services

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

How will the business react to threats (and opportunities)?

Competitive Forces Model (4)

Industry Competitors

Rivalry among existing firms

Suppliers

Potential Entrants

Substitutes

Bargaining power of buyers

Threat of substitute products or services

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Customers and Buyers

The strategy and actions an organization adopts depend upon its perceptions of itself and these threats.

Porter’s strategies:• Product differentiation (non-duplicable product or service)• Low-cost producer • Market niche (market segment or geographical market)

Five Forces Analysis of the Internet

The Internet tends to dampen the profitability of industries

Increases the bargaining power of buyersDecreases barriers to entryIncreases the bargaining power of suppliersIncreases the threat of substitute products and servicesIntensifies rivalry among competitors

Success depends on offering distinct valueFirms should focus on their strategic position in an industry and how they will maintain profitability

1

2 Distributed Systems Architecture

Information Systems Planning

Definition: IT Architecture VS. IT Infrastructure

An IT architecture is a blueprint showing how the parts will interact and interrelate.

System, information, departments...Multiplicity of structures and views

An IT infrastructure is the implementation of an architecture.

processors, software, databases, electronic links, data centers, standards, skills, electronic processes...We now tend to divide computing into applications and infrastructures

The Evolution of Distributed Systems

Mainframes: with dumb terminalsMinicomputers moved computing into departments

The master-slave computing model persisted and processing was mainly centralized

Microcomputer moved processing power into desktop, briefcase and handhelds

Client/server computing

Internet: a globally distributed systemInteresting twist: power returning to a type of centralized processing with networks of servers

Four Attributes of Distributed Systems

The degree to which a system is distributed can be determined by answering four questions:

1. Where is the processing done? 2. How are the processors and other devices

interconnected?3. Where is the information stored?4. What rules or standards are used?

Distributed Processing

Limited processing power of a single node VS. increasing application demands

Balance the load and improve overall performanceLet machines handle the work they do best

Interoperability: information exchange between heterogeneous computing platforms

ProtocolsTwo-way message passing between user applications

Connectivity Among Processors

Data exchanges through electronic communication links

TCP/IPEthernet, ATM, FDDI, Frame relay...

Planned Redundancy for reliabilityTwo or more independent paths between two nodes to provide automatic alternate routingTopology and reliability of the Internet

Distributed Databases

Two distributed database schemesDivide a database and distribute its portions throughout a system without duplicating the data

Transparent user access

Store the same data at several different locations, with one site containing the master file

Synchronization issueE.g. edge servers

System-wide Rules

Rules governing communication between nodes, security, data accessibility, program and file transfers, and common operating procedures

Open standards after 1990sOSI Reference ModelSQLAPI: standardized interfaceTCP/IPOpen source

Internet---A Scale-free Network (1)

Internet is not designed, but evolvedInternet is a scale-free network

Scale-free networks are very common and a very important category of real networks.

Scale-free networks are the direct result of self-organized growth

Growth: networks continuously expand by the addition of new nodesSpecial type of growth called preferential attachment

Preferential Attachment : The attachment is NOT uniform A node is linked with higher probability to a node that already has a large number of links

Internet---A Scale-free Network (2)

Five nodes with most linksFirst neighbors of red nodes

27% reach

60% reach

Random/

Internet---A Scale-free Network (3)Poisson distribution

Exponential Network

Power-law distribution

Scale-free Network

P(k)~k-γ

Internet---Topological Robustness

Topological robustness: the Internet is robust in the presence of random failures.

At any given time hundreds of routers are down but the performance is not impactedIt will function even if we remove randomly 80% of the nodes.

Theoretical and experimental investigations show that scale-free networks are topologically robust

Internet---Vulnerability to Targeted Attacks

Scale-free networks such as Internet are vulnerable to attacks.

If a malicious attack could simultaneously remove 5% of hubs (the highly connected nodes) the network would disintegrate

Internet---Virus

Scale-free networks like internet are vulnerable to spreading viruses

Hubs are passing them massively to the connected multiple nodes.

This suggests immunizing hubs.

When to Distribute Computing Responsibilities (1)

The decision of distributing computing responsibilities is rather managerial than technical

People deciding how their portion of business operates should also decide how they use IT

When to Distribute Computing Responsibilities (2)

Systems responsibilities can be distributed unless the following are true:

Are the operations interdependent? For interdependent, their planning, development, resources, and operations must be centrally coordinated

Are the businesses really homogenous? Processing may be distributed, but planning and hardware selection should be centralized

Does the corporate culture support decentralization? Corporate culture might centralize finance, HR, and systems planning

An Organizational Framework

Systems may be needed for all 7 levelsInter-organizational links can occur at all six internal levels

The current hot levelsLevel1: inter-enterprise computingLeve5: where business processes resideIndividual

Work Group or Team

Department or Process

Plant or Site

Country or Region

Enterprise

Business Ecosystem1

2

3

4

5

6

7

A Technical Framework (1)

The SUMURU architecture developed in 1982, has stood the test of time.

It provides a clear conceptual framework for understanding various components of a distributed architecture.

A Technical Framework (2)

A Technical Framework (3)

Processors Services

Single-user systems (SU) Terminal access

Multiple-user systems (MU) File transfer

Remote utility systems (RU) Computer mail

Networks Standards

Local network (LN) Operating system

Remote network (RN) Communications protocols

Database systems