管理下一代的IT基础架构.docx

1、管理下一代的IT基础架构Managing next-generation IT infrastructureThe days of building to order are over. The time is ripe for an industrial revolution.James M. Kaplan, Markus Lffler, and Roger P. RobertsThe McKinsey Quarterly, Web exclusive, February 2005In recent years, companies have worked hard to reduce th

2、e cost of the IT infrastructurethe data centers, networks, databases, and software tools that support businesses. These efforts to consolidate, standardize, and streamline assets, technologies, and processes have delivered major savings. Yet even the most effective cost-cutting program eventually hi

3、ts a wall: the complexity of the infrastructure itself.The root cause of this complexity is the build-to-order mind-set traditional in most IT organizations. The typical infrastructure may seem to be high tech but actually resembles an old-fashioned automobile: handmade by an expert craftsperson and

4、 customized to the specifications of an individual customer. Today an application developer typically specifies the exact server configuration for each application and the infrastructure group fulfills that request. The result: thousands of application silos, each with its own custom-configured hard

5、ware, and a jumble of often incompatible assets that greatly limit a companys flexibility and time to market. Since each server may be configured to meet an applications peak demand, which is rarely attained, vast amounts of expensive capacity sit unused across the infrastructure at any given time.

6、Moreover, applications are tightly linked to individual servers and storage devices, so the excess capacity cant be shared.Now, however, technological advancescombined with new skills and management practicesallow companies to shed this build-to-order approach. A decade into the challenging transiti

7、on to distributed computing, infrastructure groups are managing client-server and Web-centered architectures with growing authority. Companies are adopting standardized application platforms and development languages. And todays high-performance processors, storage units, and networks ensure that in

8、frastructure elements rarely need hand-tuning to meet the requirements of applications.In response to these changes, some leading companies are beginning to adopt an entirely new model of infrastructure managementmore off-the-shelf than build-to-order. Instead of specifying the hardware and the conf

9、iguration needed for a business application (I need this particular maker, model, and configuration for my network-attached storage box . . .), developers specify a service requirement (I need storage with high-speed scalability . . .); rather than building systems to order, infrastructure groups cr

10、eate portfolios of productized, reusable services. Streamlined, automated processes and technologies create a factory that delivers these products in optimal fashion (Exhibit 1). As product orders roll in, a factory manager monitors the infrastructure for capacity-planning and sourcing purposes.With

11、 this model, filling an IT requirement is rather like shopping by catalog. A developer who needs a storage product, for instance, chooses from a portfolio of options, each described by service level (such as speed, capacity, or availability) and priced according to the infrastructure assets consumed

12、 (say, $7 a month for a gigabyte of managed storage). The systems transparency helps business users understand how demand drives the consumption and cost of resources.Companies that make the transition gain big business benefits. By reducing complexity, eliminating redundant activity, and boosting t

13、he utilization of assets, they can make their infrastructure 20 to 30 percent more productiveon top of the benefit from previous efficiency effortsthereby providing far greater output and flexibility. Even larger savings can be achieved by using low-cost, commodity assets when possible. Developers n

14、o longer must specify an applications technical underpinnings and can therefore focus on work that delivers greater business value; the new model improves times to market for new applications.Nevertheless, making this transition calls for major organizational changes. Application developers must bec

15、ome adept at forecasting and managing demand so that, in turn, infrastructure groups can manage capacity more tightly. Infrastructure groups must develop new capabilities in product management and pricing as well as introduce new technologies such as grid computing and virtualization.1 As for CIOs,

16、they must put in place a new model of governance to manage the new infrastructure organization.The road forwardDeutsche Telekom knows firsthand the challenges involved: over 18 months, hoping to balance IT supply and demand, it implemented this new infrastructure-management model at two divisions (s

17、ee sidebar, Next-generation infrastructure at Deutsche Telekom). In the old days, the companys IT infrastructure, like most, was a landscape of application silos. Today accurate forecasts of user demand are critical, so newly minted product managers must take a horizontal view, across applications,

18、to assess the total needs of the business and create the right products. They must then work closely with infrastructure teams to align supplyinfrastructure assets such as hardware, software, and storagewith demand.In the past, employees of the infrastructure function were order takers. Now, they ca

19、n be more entrepreneurial, choosing the mix of hardware, software, and technology that optimizes the infrastructure. To keep costs low, they can phase in grids of low-end servers, cheaper storage disks, and other commodity resources. Factory managers now focus on automating and industrializing produ

20、ction. Although Deutsche Telekoms two divisions didnt radically change their organizational or reporting structures, IT governance now seeks to ensure that product and service levels are consistent across business units in order to minimize costs and to improve the infrastructures overall performanc

21、e.What weve seen at Deutsche Telekom and other companies suggests that creating a next-generation infrastructure involves action on three fronts: segmenting user demand, developing productlike services across business units, and creating shared factories to streamline the delivery of IT.Segmenting u

22、ser demandLarge IT organizations support thousands of applications, hundreds of physical sites, and tens of thousands of end users. All three of these elements are critical drivers of infrastructure demand: applications require servers and storage, sites need network connectivity, and users want acc

23、ess to desktops, laptops, PDAs, and so forth. To standardize these segments, an IT organization must first develop a deep understanding of the shape of current demand for infrastructure services and how that demand will most likely evolve. Then it needs to categorize demand into segments (such as up

24、time, throughput, and scalability) that are meaningful to business users.When grouped in this way, most applications fall into a relatively small number of clusters. A pharmaceutical manufacturer, for instance, found that most of a business units existing and planned applications fell into one of fi

25、ve categories, including sales force applications that need around-the-clock support and off-line availability and enterprise applications that must scale up to thousands of users and handle batch transactions efficiently.In contrast, a typical wholesale banks application portfolio has more segments

26、, with a wider range of needs. Some applicationssuch as derivatives, pricing, and risk-management toolsmust execute computation-intensive analyses in minutes rather than hours. Funds-transfer applications allow for little or no downtime; program-trading applications must execute transactions in mill

27、iseconds or risk compromising trading strategies.Although simple by comparison, the needs of physical sites and user groups can be categorized in a similar way. One marketing-services company that evaluated its network architecture, for example, segmented its sites into offices with more than 100 se

28、ats, those with 25 to 100, and remote branches with fewer than 25. A cable systems operator divided its users into senior executives with concierge-support needs, professional employees, call-center agents, and field technicians.Most companies find that defining the specific infrastructure needs of

29、applications, sites, and users is the key challenge of segmenting demand. Major issues include the time and frequency of need, the number of users, the amount of downtime that is acceptable, and the importance of speed, scalability, and mobility.Standardizing productsOnce the infrastructure group ha

30、s assessed current and future demand, it can develop a set of productlike, reusable services for three segments: management and storage products for applications, access products such as desktops and laptops for end users, and network-access products for various sites. For each of these three produc

31、t lines, the group must then make a series of decisions at both the portfolio and the product level.At the portfolio level, it has to make decisions about the scope, depth, and breadth of product offerings, with an eye toward optimizing resources and minimizing costs. Exceptions must be detailed up

32、front. The group may decide, for example, against offering products to support applications with stringent requirements, such as very-low-latency processing; these applications may be better built by hand and from the ground up. Other applications, such as legacy ones, may be better left outside the

33、 new model if theyre running well and cant easily be ported to new hardware. The group should also decide how to introduce new technologies and to migrate existing applications that are easier to move.At the product level, the group must define the features, service levels, and price of each product. Fo