response week 3

1/20/22, 10:58 AM Enterprise Architecture and Information Technology Infrastructure

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Enterprise Architecture and Information Technology Infrastructure

Enterprise Architecture

While the growth of IT provides opportunities for new business models and processes,

management teams face many challenges in making sound IT investments. Investments in

technology do not guarantee the viability and profitability of an organization. Too often,

firms adopt a solution just because it uses the latest technology and then find that is not a

good fit for the organization.

The financial impact of a failed IT project can include not only the expenditures for

hardware and software but also the time spent implementing a failed solution, including

the time spent redefining business processes and training employees.

In previous weeks, we focused on how organizations analyze their environment, seek

competitive advantage, and set business strategy. Now it’s time to begin focusing on how

information systems fit into that picture. Organizations analyze their business and identify

processes for opportunities to improve profitability and performance with the use of

information technology.

Enterprise Architecture is the management practice of identifying an overall design to

help organizations with understanding, managing, and expanding their IT infrastructure

and systems. This is a strategic high-level design that looks at the organization’s business

vision, strategy and goals, and identifies how information technology fits into that design.

Enterprise architecture is composed of three major components: the application

architecture, the information architecture, and the technical architecture. The application

architecture is a breakdown of the business processes and shows which processes are

supported by which application systems and how these applications integrate and relate

to each other. The application architecture also has functional applications, such as

finance, human resources, etc.

Learning Resource

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The information architecture defines where and how the important information is

maintained and secured. Frequently, the information architecture includes information

about all the data, how the data relate to each other, and how data flows throughout the

organization and its systems.

The technical architecture (sometimes referred to as the IT infrastructure) describes the

hardware and software used to design and build the systems. The technical architecture

describes what is already in place in an organization and how the organization wants to

evolve technically. You could think of the technical architecture as a blueprint, much like a

blueprint of the architecture of a building. The blueprint shows where everything is

located and how it fits together. If a system were developed without consideration of the

technical architecture, the chances are very high that it would not work in the

environment. For example, if a web-based system were developed or acquired for an

organization with no internet access, the effort would be futile. Technical architecture also

defines the standards and protocols for the organization, including security requirements.

A fully developed enterprise architecture should be able to tell us anything we need to

know about the business processes, the data used, and the underlying technology and

how it supports the business strategy. A solid enterprise architecture includes everything

from documentation to business concepts to the components discussed above.

IT Infrastructure

The major components of the IT infrastructure are:

1. Services—the people or organizations that run, support, and manage the other

infrastructure components; can be internal staff or external contractors or service

providers.

2. Hardware—devices that perform the input, storage, processing, and output

functions.

3. Software—instructions that enable the hardware to perform its functions, enabling

these assets to meet the needs of the business; includes (1) operating systems that

control the hardware, (2) data management software that stores and provides access

to data, and (3) application software, which supports the business processes.

4. Telecommunications—the tools that provide connectivity and communication among

individuals, companies, governments, or hardware assets; includes networking

hardware and software and telecommunications services (audio, video and data).

This includes internet access.

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5. Facilities—the buildings or spaces that house the equipment and staff that provide

service and support.

Individuals need to understand the basics of these components to help the organization

recognize what is necessary to effectively implement and maintain information systems.

Because a business IT infrastructure can be regarded as the "nervous system," it is

imperative that it be stable, robust, secure, and flexible so that it can support business

requirements reliably, especially in times of heavy usage. Consistency with the

infrastructure and enterprise architecture is an important consideration in making IT

decisions. The infrastructure must be able to accept both changes in the business and

radical changes in technology. Because of the constant changes in technology, an

infrastructure must change to take advantage of those changes that will provide a

business benefit to the company. This must be part of the IT plan so that transitions to

newer technology can be integrated smoothly, with no disruption or degradation of

service.

Suppose a new computer is under evaluation to replace an aging computer to gain the

advantages of increased speed and more storage. The impact on all of the components of

the infrastructure must be considered:

Will our existing peripherals operate with the new computer?

Will our existing software work on the new computer?

If it does, will it still permit us to achieve the benefits of the new computer?

If not, will new software have to be purchased?

Will our applications run on the new computer, or will changes have to be made?

Will our communication protocols work?

Will our networks support the higher volume of data, or will there be a bottleneck

that will prevent the new computer from functioning as well as we planned?

Will users or the technical staff require training to support the new computer

hardware and software?

Will our physical facilities (may or may not be a dedicated data center) have the

power, cooling and space capacity and space required by the new computer?

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