David Prosser, Channels Manager at Citrix Systems SA, discusses the role of access infrastructure and the value of an access strategy in driving an adaptive enterprise.
From our company`s experience, having worked with customers in over 120 000 organisations across the globe, CIOs the world over have one sure thing in common: the answer to the question of `What do you regard as the two most valuable assets to your company?` In almost all cases, an answer lies in the response - people and information.
As simple as these two components, and indeed their relationship to one-another, may seem on the surface, complexities abound in reality.
If we consider the first aspect - people in relation to their demand for information within the workplace, simplicity is far from an accurate association. For example, the types of devices used today in order to access information differ dramatically. Next, the type of operating systems that are in place in order to provide the information to the people differ vastly, along with the different profiles put in place in terms of differing access rights. And lastly, of course, are the locations from which people are trying to access certain information.
The chances that they are all situated in a single office are very rare in today`s business world. One has to consider the provision of information to people across multiple branches and we are seeing more and more people working remotely as the trend towards mobility and flexible working increases.
As for the information supply side of the coin, the complexity of this factor is even more apparent in today`s mercurial business world and is increasing at a rapid rate.
Heterogeneous IT environments, consisting of different IT systems, network connections, operating platforms and applications, are customary in most businesses. Gartner reports that a startling 80% of IT budgets are spent on managing the complexity of these environments, leaving very little to be directed into IT projects that have the capacity to drive business growth.
Ubiquitous computing
Critical business decisions are being made everywhere that business takes place - and business takes place everywhere: at a customer site, a partner`s facility, company headquarters, a branch office, a conference, an airport, on the factory floor, in a warehouse, a hotel, taxi, a home office.
People are constantly on the move, changing business roles, using multiple devices and connecting with applications over a variety of wired, wireless and Web networks. They need access to business-critical information anytime from anywhere, using any computing device and over any form of network connection. At the same time, CIOs need to ensure that information is securely guarded and that access to it is protected and available to only those who are authorised to receive it.
Access infrastructure can extend greater access to more users and improve security and business continuity, while lowering the total cost of IT and increasing business agility. By centralising and consolidating access to applications and information, access infrastructure enables IT staff to deliver, manage, monitor and measure an organisation`s resources on demand. This simplification dramatically reduces costs for an organisation, and ensures that end-users are supplied with secure information as and when they require it.
Taking a strategic approach
A strategic approach to information access is core to both an organisation`s IT and business strategies as it allows for the allocation of IT spend beyond management of the IT environment and toward business growth opportunities. An effective access strategy has the ability to connect two worlds of challenging complexity, the changing world of the user on one end who is constantly demanding information and the world of heterogeneous IT environments on the other, supplying the information. An access strategy is a well-conceived and holistic approach to connecting information supply with its demand and importantly, an approach that has the long-term sustainability to support the inevitably increasing complexity of both sides.
An access strategy is able to support key business drivers by ensuring employees, customers, partners and suppliers have flexible, easy, secure and on-demand access to information, as they require it. Business priorities such as cost reductions, increased efficiencies and business agility, reduced risks and better quality of service becomes a reality.
By ensuring the correct systems and processes that make up the access strategy are in place, the reality of information on demand is made possible, thereby enabling an adaptive enterprise. This is the value that a strategic approach to information access brings to a business.
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