Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
IT governance policies should reflect the changed situation and support the attitude
towards sharing own resources and using external resources. The change manage-
ment process should be designed in a way to address all affected parties in the
company (management, employees in the IT department and end users), and to
include a comprehensive communication plan.
14.3.1 Technical Implementation Activities
14.3.1.1 Initial Analysis of Demand and Readiness for Grid and Cloud
Computing
Grid and Cloud Computing has the potential to provide many advantages, but not
in any case. An initial analysis is necessary that should provide a first check if Grid
and Cloud Computing are suitable and possible solutions in the specific context
of a company (Murch 2004 and Gentzsch 2007). The initial analysis involves the
following activities:
• Check of the demand for grid computing based on the strategic objectives of the
company
• Assessment of the readiness of the company's infrastructure for Grid and Cloud
Computing and based on that, an estimation of needed action and investments
to improve its readiness
• Identification and conception of the business case for Grid and Cloud Computing
• Preparation of an initial business, implementation and project plan.
Each of the above listed activities will be described in detail below:
Checking the demand for Grid Computing:
The initial analysis for the
demand of Grid and Cloud Computing in a company has two perspectives: a busi-
ness and a technology perspective. The institutionalization of Grid and Clouds in
a company needs to be justified with concrete business needs and aligned to the
business strategy of the company. Thus, a first step of the analysis is the assess-
ment of the company's strategic goals and based on that deduction of requirements
upon business processes necessary to achieve them. The requirements of the busi-
ness processes need to be compared with the potential and opportunities provided
by Grid and Cloud technology. This very first analysis step should ensure that the
introduction of Grid and Cloud Computing is strategy and business driven.
The analysis from the technology perspective is dedicated to the evaluation of
the existing IT support for the identified strategic business processes. The goal is the
identification of gaps and opportunities for improvement based on Grid and Cloud
technology. The most important aspects in this context are:
• Are there any type of tasks and business processes that require high computing
capacity or additional scalable and flexible IT infrastructure and cannot be
supported with the available infrastructure? For example, the case of Novartis
described in chapter 3, showed that some important tasks that have direct impact
on the innovation capability of the company became possible only after the
establishment of the Enterprise Grid.
