Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
14.3.1.4 Internal Interconnection
In case the pilot in one organizational domain is successful the next stage is the
internal interconnection of resources from different units of the company with Grid
and Cloud Computing, i.e. evolution towards an Enterprise Grid. Enterprise Grid
means the interconnection of the infrastructure from different domains and depart-
ments in the company. In an extreme case, an Enterprise Grid might interconnect the
whole enterprise infrastructure. The evolution towards an Enterprise Grid is in itself
a complex process, which should be justified by business needs and approached
step-by-step. This means to start from the beginning of the introduction process
and to first evaluate which tasks and processes require Enterprise Grids, to identify
an initial pilot implementation, to extend the pilot and to adjust IT governance and
policies (see also figure 14.2).
As described in the section 14.3.1.1 at the beginning the business needs for
Enterprise Grids need to be evaluated. Typically processes that might span over
several organizational units at different physical location, or collaborative tasks are
an indication for suitability of Enterprise Grids. Global, intra-company processes
that need adequate and efficient IT support might be considerably improved by the
support of Enterprise Grids. For example, global companies need to decompose
their highly complex processes into modular components of a workflow which run
on the infrastructure of several company locations. Such global processes usually
require on-demand availability and access to suitable IT resources. “
Application of
grid technology in these processes, guarantees seamless integration of and commu-
nication among all distributed components and provides transparent and secure
access to sensitive company information and other proprietary assets, world-wide
”
(Gentzsch 2007). The application of Enterprise Grids to support such processes has
the potential to considerably improve their effectiveness, productivity and time-to-
market and at the same time to reduce costs.
After the suitable business processes for Enterprise Grids are identified, the
implementation of the Enterprise Grid should be approached step-by-step. In case
the identified business process is complex, it is recommendable to start with a pilot
involving two to maximum three locations. The experiences gained with the pilot
can be applied to grow the Enterprise Grid by subsequently involving additional
locations.
The institutionalization of the Enterprise Grid should be supported by adjust-
ment of IT governance and policies (see section 14.3.2.1) and by change manage-
ment (see section 14.3.2.2).
14.3.1.5 Inclusion of External Resources
A successful pilot and roll-out in the company provides a good technical foundation
for integration of the internal Grid with external resources. Thus, the next evolutional
step might be the integration and resource sharing with external Utility Computing
and Cloud providers or with other partner companies in so called Partner Grids.
However, the step towards external Utility and Cloud Computing is again a substan-
tial strategic decision and needs to be business driven. First suitable processes that
