AI3  Acquire and Maintain Technology Infrastructure
Control over the IT process of ...
acquiring and maintaining technology infrastructure
    with the business goal
    of providing the appropriate platforms for supporting business applications
     
      is enabled by
      • judicious hardware acquisition, standardising on software, assessment of hardware and software performance, and consistent system administration

        and takes consideration

        • Critical Success Factors that leverage
        • specific IT Resources and is measured by
        • Key Performance Indicators

Record of Assessment
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  Control Objective:

Acquire and Maintain Technology Infrastructure. 
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
Selected Status
Description
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The acquisition and implementation methodology is strongly supported by senior management
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Acquisition practices are clear, understood and accepted
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There is ease of integration across different technology platforms
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Well articulated business strategy and related architectural requirements are defined and supported by senior management
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An up-to-date inventory of hardware and software infrastructure is available
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Relationships with vendors are well developed
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The ability exists to adequately establish the cost of overlap between different technology platforms
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Policies are defined to promote well considered choices between internal development, leveraging external infrastructures and outsourcing
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The selection process focuses on using reusable components
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Policies are defined to manage dependencies on single source suppliers
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There is coordination with the change management processes and systems
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A well defined life cycle methodology is used to select, acquire, maintain and remove infrastructure technology
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Acquisition duly considers performance and capacity requirements by integrating with capacity and performance management processes
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An appropriate set of automated support tools is available, saving time on selection by focusing on the best of breed
KEY GOAL INDICATORS
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Reduced number of platforms diverging from the agreed technology infrastructure
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Number of delays in systems implementation due to inadequate infrastructure
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Reduced ratio of maintenance efforts relative to new development
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Reduction of time to market of systems due to a predefined and flexible infrastructure
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Reduced downtime of infrastructure
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Reduced number of systems with serious interoperability problems
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Number of application performance problems related to inadequacies in the technology infrastructure
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
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Reduced number of different platforms
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Age of platforms
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Number of shared functions and resources
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Number and frequency of changes
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Number of breakdowns due to a lack of preventive maintenance
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Number of breakdowns due to system software changes
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Costs, based on effort and lapsed time, for major modification to system software or infrastructure
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  Conclusions:
* Non-existent 
Technology architecture is not recognised as a sufficiently important topic to be addressed.
* Optimised 
The acquisition and maintenance process for technology infrastructure is proactive and closely aligned with critical business applications and the technology architecture. Best practices regarding technology solutions are followed and the organisation is aware of the latest platform developments and management tools, including organisation-wide approaches and the need for increasing levels of reliability, availability and network security. Costs are reduced by rationalising and standardising infrastructure components and by using automation. The organisation maintains a high-level of technical awareness and can identify optimum ways to proactively improve performance, including consideration of outsourcing options. It is able to monitor and measure the performance of its existing infrastructure for timely detection of problems. The IT infrastructure is seen as the key enabler to leveraging the use of IT. Single-source supplier risks are actively managed.
* Managed and Measurable 
The acquisition and maintenance process for technology infrastructure has developed to the point where it works well for most situations, is followed consistently within IT and is component based and focused on reusability. Attempts to make changes to the infrastructure without following agreed defined processes would be detected and prevented. It is likely that the IT infrastructure adequately supports the business applications. The process is well organised, but often reactive rather than proactive. The cost and lead-time to achieve the expected level of scalability, flexibility and integration is not optimised. Outsourcing all or some of the IT infrastructure is part of the tactical plan.
* Defined Process 
A clear, defined and generally understood process for administering the IT infrastructure emerges. It supports the needs of critical business applications and is aligned to IT and business strategy. However, it is not possible to determine that the process is consistently applied and it is therefore not likely that the infrastructure fully supports the needs of the business applications. Outsourcing all or some of the IT infrastructure usually occurs in reaction to problems or specific opportunities.
* Repeatable but Intuitive 
There is a consistency between tactical approaches, when acquiring and maintaining the IT infrastructure; it is, however, not based on any defined strategy and does not consider the needs of the business applications that must be supported. 
* Initial / Adhoc 
Changes to infrastructure are made for every new application without any overall plan. Although there is an awareness that the IT infrastructure is important, there is no consistent overall approach.
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