Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
specification. A commonly encountered version of this involves
the dominant enterprise Microsoft platform, which includes both
desktop (Access) and server (SQL Server) relational database solu-
tions. Both solutions use a similar interface for query/view design
and share many elements in common; however, the workgroup-scale
Access application is not suited to the same level of concurrent use as
its more robust SQL Server counterpart. Conversely, training to sup-
port each relational database (RDBS) application differs greatly in
the level of expertise required, because the workgroup product lacks
many of the index, trigger, stored procedures, and other features
necessary in its enterprise counterpart. Proper project management
practices during the planning phase will aid in achieving an effec-
tive transformation by identifying existing solutions that are in place
and compiling skills and responsibility matrices to identify available
resources, both human and technological, as well as any shortcom-
ings that must be met by acquisitions or training.
• Partner organizations may not follow the same standards, creating
difficulties when the platform architecture must interoperate with
that of another organization whose decisions are made along a dif-
fering standard or cycle of upgrade. This problem becomes more
apparent as organizations are increasingly coupled with partners
for service provision, regulatory mandate, or business opportunity.
Poorly selected platform architecture or the choice of little-used
technology standards can create barriers to business integration and
lose opportunities for the organization well beyond simple issues of
whether the solution meets an originally identified specification.
This problem arises often during mergers and acquisitions when
platform architecture decisions have followed different courses in
the originally separate organizations. As an example, elements of
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security experienced difficul-
ties with e-mail between organizational elements when the depart-
ment wa s created from previously separate f functional l orga nizations.
Platform differences caused communications difficulties between
some divisions of the new organization, even though all were using
the same underlying standard (SMTP) for e-mail. Use of common
platforms and applications in architectural redesign will reduce the
likelihood of poor interoperability with partner organizations or
external services, such as hosting or cloud computing providers.
