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IT STRATEGY LEADERSHIP

Chapter #2: Data Governance and IT Architecture Support Long-Term


Performance

1 Why is a strong market position or good profit performance only temporary?


A strong market position or good profit performance is temporary because the
market today is very dynamic. In todays market, the competitors can quickly emulate
a strategy negating the competitive advantage gained by using that particular
strategy. Competitors today, can quickly imitate management techniques, new
technologies, input improvements, and superior ways of meeting customers needs.

2 If business data is scattered throughout the enterprise and not synched until the end of
the month, how does that impact day-to-day decision making and planning?
If the business data is not synched until the end of each month, following will be
the challenges for a business:

Getting an accurate daily or weekly inventory report will not be possible which
can lead to inaccurate new stock orders. The firm might lose business in case it
runs out of something due to an inaccurate inventory which translates to a
stock order.

The business will not be able to offer something new to the customers based
on last fortnights or weeks sale.

3 What two problems can EA solve?

An enterprise architecture can solve the problem of identifying accurate SLAs. As


each applications prominence and its criticality could be established via
Enterprise Architecture, it is in turn possible to establish SLAs based on the
criticality of an application in the enterprise.

With a well-established enterprise architecture, application and product


duplications can be avoided. For e.g., a product or application which is used in
one project could be reused in another project which may save license expenses.

4 What are the immediate benefits of cloud computing?

The firm can save some real estate.

Comparatively less human resources will be required in Firms on site data


centers.

Power savings.

Patching, maintenance, upgrading and human resources required for doing


these are all inclusive and usually will be taken care by the cloud service
provider.

5 What protection does an effective SLA provide?


An effective service level agreement leads to short or no downtimes or outages.
Less or no service interruptions leads to more productivity.

6 How can virtualization reduce IT costs while improving performance?


Virtualization minimizes power consumption and air conditioning cost, lower real
estate
cost and maintenance. There will be a reduced need of human resources.
Physical maintenance needed at data centers will be reduced.

Online and Interactive Exercise

1) Visit Rackspace.com and review the companys three types of cloud products. Describe
each of those cloud solutions.
Rackspace.com offers following three types of cloud products:
1. Cloud powered by VMware vCloud:
This is a proven technology and most firms out in the market are using
VMware for Cloud and Virtualization in their IT solutions already. By using this
technology firms can get a superior control on their environment. Common
uses are:

Light weight applications like Web tier applications (LAMP stack, IIS +
SQL Server) can be hosted.

Packaged and Ecommerce applications can be hosted.

Data center consolidation becomes easier.

Ideal for Situations where Collaboration yields superior results, Microsoft


Exchange and SharePoint for e.g., the combination leads to a high quality
document sharing.

2. Cloud powered by Microsoft Cloud Platform:


This is a proven technology as well and most educational institutions and
firms are using Office 365 for their day to day already. The Platform can be
used for more than just Office 365, like:

Disaster recovery.

Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint Collaboration for document sharing.

High availability by taking advantage of Geographic redundancy between


service providers data centers.

3. Cloud powered by OpenStack:


Preferably used in new environments where there is a requirement of
building Cloud native applications which are scaled horizontally. Common uses
are:

Big Data

SaaS

Rich media

Light weight applications like Web tier applications (LAMP stack, IIS +
SQL Server) can be hosted.

Case
Video Case: Cloud Computing: Three Case Studies
1) Explain the value or benefits of each organizations cloud investment.
Benefits with Software as a Service Cloud investment:
1. Low Costs:
SaaS Clouds usually reside in a shared or multitenant environment where
the hardware and software license costs are low compared with the traditional

model. Reduced maintenance cost since the provider (here Google) owns the
environment.
2. Scalability:
Capacity planning will be easier. SaaS provider usually will take care of it
once additional requirement specifics are provided.
3. Patching and upgrading:
Reduced time and resources needed to perform patching and upgrading as
the provider will own and take care of these.

Benefits with Infrastructure as a Service Cloud investment:


1. Cost savings:
This is a pay as you go model, so it provides significant cost savings for
small and start up IT infrastructures. There are no upfront charges, utilization
fees or minimum term commitments with IaaS.
2. Scalability:
When demand increases and when there is a need of additional
infrastructure, it can be obtained by simply spinning up a Virtual machine and
when there is no need of an infrastructure piece, it can be removed from the
environment by terminating the Virtual machines.
3. High Availability:
The infrastructure can be accessible from anywhere over the Internet. So,
the data is available from anywhere in case a disaster strikes where an employee
resides. Employees can simply move to another geographical location where
there is access to internet and continue their work.

Benefits with Platform as a Service Cloud investment:


1. Human Resource and cost savings:
Comparatively fewer technical support staff are required as most of the
infrastructure is hosted offsite. The upfront costs for purchasing servers, other
hardware, and the necessary software licenses are eliminated.
2. Increased employee mobility:

Employee mobility is increased, as everything is accessible via web-based


tools.
The wide range of external tools available make it possible to adapt the
programming environment to an ever evolving software concept.

Chapter #3: Data Management, Big Data Analytics, and


Records Management

Critical Thinking Questions


1)

List three types of waste or damages that data errors can cause.

Data errors can cause serious impacts.

2)

It effects the companys customer relationship


customers from doing business with company.
Most of the time will be wasted in fixing the errors.
There will be a considerable decrease in revenue.

and

hinders

future

What is the role of a master reference file?


Master data management links and synchronizes all critical data from those
disparate systems into one file, called a master file that provides a common point of
reference. [1]

3)

Explain the four Vs of data analytics.


The four Vs of data analytics are:

Volume: Volume is the amount of data that is generated and stored.


Velocity: Velocity is the rate at which data flows in from sources.
Variety: Variety refers to the data collection from different sources and
forms.
Veracity: Veracity is the accuracy of data and degree to which we can use it
for decision making.

Online and Interactive Exercise

1) View the Edgenet Gain Real time Access to Retail Product Data with In-Memory
Technology video on YouTube. Explain the benefit of in-memory technology.
The main advantage will be enhanced performance. The Video talks about SQL
Server,
so reading data directly from and writing data directly to memory is faster
than manipulating data on a disk or on a flash drive. This is as long as the entire data
fits in memory.

Case
Video Case: Hertz Finds Gold in Integrated Data
1) Describe Hertzs new strategy and data solution
To scale with their complex and competitive business Hertz implemented following:

Tailored messages to distinct segments.

Real time interaction with customers.

Consistency in the experience for all customers, no matter the channel.

Avoiding one size fits all mentality and avoiding mass communications which
involve same emails. Instead, they used the customer data that was available by
Integrating and standardizing to communicate messages that are relevant
specifically to them.

Offers are all customer specific now.

2)

How did Hertz strengthen customer loyalty?


Hertz strengthened customer loyalty through

Customer specific special offers.

Customer specific communication messages via email based on the data they
have from customer data Standardization and Integration. A drivers license
expiry alert is certainly a useful alert for any customer.

Consistency in the experience for all customers, no matter the channel.

Confirmation sends the customer a text or an email which has the details of the
stall where the car is parked. This makes things easier and faster for the
customer who is picking up a vehicle.

References:

1) Information Technology for Management: Digital Strategies for Insight, Action,


and Sustainable Performance (10th Edition) by Turban, Volonino, Wood.

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