Organisations are often obsessed with saving money - cutting operational and capital expenditure to the bone. But is this a wise strategy to adopt when addressing the corporate computer network infrastructure, asks Chris van Niekerk, country manager of 3Com SA. He addresses the pros and cons of legacy network optimisation and gives some pointers as to how the benefits - if any - can be measured.
New today, obsolete tomorrow. Especially in the networking industry product lifecycles are short, and long-term success, particularly in terms of return on investment (ROI), centres on maximising the life expectancy of legacy systems.
Quality and service support are no longer the only criteria when selecting networking solutions. ROI is today a key consideration as the economic slowdown has shelved update plans and turned the spotlight on more efficient service delivery and smoother IT operations - from existing systems.
With budgets at a low ebb, IT departments now beginning to use asset management processes to reclaim and repurpose their outdated networking resources, making the best possible use of available equipment and software and eliminating unnecessary expenditures.
The question is how successful are these endeavours?
Does it pay to optimise products that are viewed as "obsolete" by network management but not the company`s executive management that is intent on squeezing every last drop of functionality from current assets?
ROI does, in fact, provide a core foundation for calculating the benefit - or handicap - of optimising legacy systems. In its broadest sense, it works off a simple formula: add "savings" and "derived income", and divide the sum by the "investment" value.
In this formula, "savings" refers to savings in capital costs from maintaining existing systems, derived income can be calculated in part from the levels of efficiency - or inefficiency - of the business services provided by the systems in question.
In addition to this equation, new approaches such as "return on opportunity", which focuses on revenue generation from new technology, and "return on asset", which focuses on long-term profitability, can be added.
The key to an accurate ROI assessment is a thorough knowledge of a particular networked environment and its needs. No organisation is generic, no networking infrastructure is generic and no business process is generic.
New vs old
The decision to re-engineer an existing networked solution, keeping legacy systems, or to opt for a new generation alternative will require an objective look at the potential improvements of both routes, based on the unique needs of the network in question.
For example, will there be a significant reduction in trouble-ticket generation across the network if troublesome unintelligent switches are replaced with path optimising intelligent switches?
From a security perspective, will the network be able to protect sensitive customer data and financial records - bearing in mind that employees, telecommuters, strategic vendors, temporary employees and business partners require access to the network on a daily basis ?
Will the retention of obsolete components have a significant impact on mean time to repair (MTTR) and mean time between failure (MTBF) figures which are critical to the availability of the network?
There are less obvious metrics, such as the possibility to achieve new organisational dynamics with a new system, and the benefits of the integration of servers and desktops into the management of a broader infrastructure to be considered.
Asset management
Today, network managers are hunting for the means to reclaim assets from users or groups that are no longer present. This has meant a change in the way assets are viewed and managed.
While older asset management tools were designed to aid in deployment of new assets, emerging tools must focus on the complete lifecycle - from evaluating requirements, to deployment and upgrade, to disposal of unused or outdated hardware and software.
Today`s asset management tools are more likely to be used to help control costs than to facilitate simple IT inventory functions.
Convergence: The clincher?
It is a documented fact that convergence in the IT arena is well underway. Will this trend fuel greater demand for new network technologies and network upgrades?
Voice and data networks are now commonplace in local area networks and, legislation permitting, will be adopted in the wide area as well.
E-business is beginning to be a key driver for network innovation as links with a broader IT community are sought.
In addition, Internet technology is increasingly being used internally, for line-of-business transactions and communications. This is putting increasing pressure on network performance and capacity.
Corporate governance: The dampner
Putting the brakes on innovation is the legion of conservative thinkers who have emerged following the US corporate scandals of the past two years.
Much has been said about the so-called "out-of-the-box" thinkers who characterised many of the companies that fell from grace.
In a backlash, a systemic structure with core, conservative guidelines seems to be taking precedence over individual future-oriented thinking.
Pragmatically, there will probably be a mixture of both in the corporate structures of the future. Logic and common sense would dictate a balance between these two poles of opinion.
Just as Chinese philosophy tried to reconcile governance between legalists (focused on law and system) and humanists (focused on individual talent), IT planners, network planners and business planners will want to reconcile both.
This approach will present the best opportunities for IT convergence, without either excessive rigidity or the chaos of individual, silo fiefdoms.
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