Use Case: Enterprise IT
The Enterprise IT use case positions the issue of SLA aware dynamic provisioning through SOA in the context of Enterprise IT’s evolving role and priorities in the enterprise. Specifically it looks at how operating costs can be managed while value to the enterprise is increased via key business capabilities.
The following key points of context are considered:
- IT Maturity: specific aspects of IT evolution are charted in the Capability Maturity Framework (CMF) (building on the work of IVI, SEI, MIT-CISR and others). Managing the IT capability, one of four complementary CMF strategies, charts a progression model for the role of IT from that of a technical service provider/expert, through strategic business partner to a corporate core competency.
- Enterprise Capabilities: Enterprise architecture frameworks TOGAF, NASCIO etc) are extending to comprehend architecture via Enterprise Capability Frameworks (ECF), a topic associated with IT capability maturity. An ECF enables IT to classify enterprise functions and processes to a low level of detail, in terms of their impact to revenue and competitive advantage. An implied objective therefore is to concentrate the allocation of IT capability and investment to support optimized processes of highest impact.
- Scalability and Total Cost of Operations (TCO): large scale server consolidation and data centre efficiency, is envisaged as a result of dynamic workload allocation through virtualisation – substantial progress implies that workloads and services in support of significantly different business processes, can be simultaneously considered and prioritised. This introduces operational complexity and associated costs, requiring evaluation.
This use case will implement a realistic test bed environment including basic infrastructure, services and workload simulation. Business level SLAs, as currently expressed by deadlines or response times will be considered in the context of the relative priority and impact of the objectives that they support. Complexity introduced by shared services, supporting distinct SLAs, will be considered in the context of infrastructure provisioning and workload scheduling decisions at runtime. Workload representing business processes from unrelated parts of the enterprise, and associated SLAs will be comprehended.
For example, the ability to detect cyclical sensitivities within competing SLAs (Finance need to do a quarterly close, a design group needs to finalise a layout) enables fine grained scheduling leading to more aggressive consolidation and infrastructure sharing.
This use case will assess the ability to comprehend complex business SLAs and associated context, directly in the context of resource allocation, based on realistic scenarios. It will assess all associated costs, and map the results relative to IT capability maturity curves per the CMF.
The following output of this work package is now publicly available:
