Sewers
It’s unfortunate that media and analysts have introduced the wording "utilities" and "commodities" to name IT infrastructures, a vocabulary that usually covers services such as gas, electricity, water, cleaning, maintenance, and basic goods. Even more amazing are French who created the barbarism "commodités" for "commodities" while "commodités" actually designate the "toilets" in French! The IT profession should not have accepted this language that suggests that the IT infrastructure would be relegated to the rank of plumbing or electrical wiring. Recently the director of operations at an international group told me that in his country it is called by derision "sewers" ...
Hammering these words has created confusion among executives and non-IT managers (CEO, CFO, procurement, operational). They ended up believing that the infrastructure has become trivial and operations can be outsourced at a low cost. I am afraid we’ll need an effort to correctly inform many decision-makers and users.
Yes IT infrastructure is complex
Over time IT infrastructures were not simplified but rather have become more complex. Best practices and standards like ITIL have considerably industrialized and secured IT operations. However, architecture design remains a matter for rare specialists. One should stop believing that it is commonplace and easy to install, manage and monitor workstations, networks, servers and security. Finally the use of virtualization and sophisticated software (CMDB, asset management, service desk, etc.) requires highly skilled specialists and reflects this growing complexity.
In my career as a consultant, I have seen client projects turning into a nightmare or failure: Windows migrations, changing messaging, active directory implementation, DRP implementation (DRP: disaster recovery plan – PRA : plan de reprise d’activité in French), and even simple moves of data centers - issues that were thought easy to control, but are still delicate and dangerous. Continuing to call it commodities makes everybody wrong, devalues IT operators, and underestimates the strategic importance of IT foundations.
The America's Cup
Allow me an analogy between a racing sail ship and the information system. Two components are critical for the performance of America's Cup racing ships:
- A structure and a profile consisting of the keel, the hull and masts. They are optimized to improve stability and penetration in the water, and bear the sails.
- The choice and adjustment of the sails by the skipper for the race.
I like to call the structure (keel, hull and mat) "strategic foundations" and adjusting the sails "real-time strategy". In the information system, infrastructure is the keel, the hull and masts, and the applications are the sails. The infrastructure must be properly shaped and robust. Expensive and deficient infrastructure may ultimately affect the business outcome: declining productivity, lost of sales, leaving customers, costly and slow processes.
Yes infrastructure is strategic
IT organisations maintain, improve and redesign their IT infrastructure as well as the ship architects rethink and improve the structures. This work is no less noble or less critical than selecting and designing sails by the skippers or applications by IT architects. It should be recognized as an element of the IT organisation strategy. Indeed the technical structures have a direct impact on the availability, reliability and quality of the information system.