D.B4a Use Case Specification Enterprise IT – M17
To survive in today’s harsh business environment companies in all fields are implementing rationalisation programs and other cost cutting measures in order to stay competitive. The Information Technology sector is currently undergoing fundamental change as a result of the many threats and opportunities posed to it by the external and internal business environments. Many companies have found it necessary to adjust its offerings to consumer desires that change more rapidly and are more varied than in the past. This factor, combined with an increase in worldwide competition, is requiring IT companies to move faster in developing and producing products, while remaining profitable. To address these issues, many IT companies have had to revisit and reassess their strategic roadmap and strategic position within the Industry sector with a holistic outlook and approach. Choosing the correct strategic roadmap is imperative if a company is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Current market dynamics for IT organisations continue to create a challenging environment. There is a constant struggle with how to save money while continuing to meet the demands of customers, many of whom are demanding price reductions and better service. IT organisations continue to be impacted by global markets and stiff competition from global players. Current trends suggest that flexibility and responsiveness will be the most critical attributes of success for IT organisations in the future. Technology is constantly evolving and in order to remain flexible and responsive to evolving technology and markets an organisation must be agile or Lean and be capable of strategic change Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a significant trend with the potential to increase agility and lower costs. Today, however, security risks, lack of automation around formally specified Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and other concerns prevent widespread enterprise adoption of SOA architectures, either internally or externally. Typical SLAs today are high level specifications. Their implementation is abstract, requiring significant customisation efforts on a service by service basis. The instrumentation used to measure SLA performance is either absent or simplistic and SLA violations are hard to detect, relying primarily on the trustworthiness of the service provider. In addition to these problems, the relationship between the SLA document and the underlying physical infrastructure requires the Enterprise IT organisations to interpret the SLA.
