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| Web Exclusive: Extracting value from a smart infrastructure |
| Ramesh Narasimhan / Mumbai Sep 02, 2009, 17:30 IST |
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 We have long known that organizations are living systems – made up of smaller components and systems. As the planet becomes a smarter planet and more human beings, man-made systems, and natural systems become interconnected, instrumented, and intelligent – we begin to achieve unprecedented freedom to build, assemble, reassemble, loosely couple, and link resources in the organization. Organizations that are prospering most are those that are dynamic and resilient enough to stay ahead of the change required of them.
And it’s not just about pervasive connectivity. For the first time, massively powerful computers can be applied affordably to processing, modeling, forecasting and analyzing just about any workload. New approaches to service delivery are taking hold, like cloud computing models – creating a new kind of user experience particularly in the consumer Web space – in search, social networking, retail and productivity applications. From the user perspective, cloud computing holds promise for all organizations to acquire services without needing to understand the underlying technology. Utility wires, automobiles, packaged goods are becoming increasingly “instrumented” with sensors, transistors, or RFID tags. We are all now “interconnected” no matter where we are, thanks to the Internet, and becoming ever more “intelligent” thanks to advanced software that communicates with vast supercomputing data centers.
A major shift is underway
A whole host of rapidly accelerating changes are unfolding: mergers of hundred year old companies, creation of new industries and the demise of others, the emergence of new economies, the opening of long isolated markets, the imposition of new government regulations and the relaxation of others and so on. Today, the PC model of the 1980s and the highly distributed model of the 90’s must be replaced by a new, more integrated paradigm, based on openness, networks, powerful new technology and the integration of digital intelligence into the fabric of everyday work and life.
The Change Gap
Recent surveys indicate that 98% of CEOs plan business model changes and 83% expect substantial or very substantial change. But the gap between those who expect change and those who believe they can handle it has tripled in the past 2 years.
For instance, take the food industry, consumer pressure and government regulations now mandate that food producers ensure the safety of the food supply across the supply chain. Yet headlines about salmonella and E. coli outbreaks are way too frequent. They don’t have an infrastructure in place that connects the farm, to the truck, to the supermarket shelves which can help them monitor and control the temperature of their perishable goods.
So whether it is Food or any other industry - while they are totally different industries, they all share something in common.
What’s holding them back? It’s what we call a “change gap.” Their business—or “operations” and IT assets are highly fragmented and highly distributed thereby creating an environment that has business and IT operations working in silos. There is a large gap between our progress digitizing and instrumenting critical applications and processes and the rigidity of the underlying infrastructure.
A smart infrastructure for a smart world
What is needed today in this digitally-connected world is an infrastructure that supports the convergence of business and IT needs and assets, creating integrated “smart” assets that will enable organizations to reduce costs, manage risk and improve service while reducing costs.
The key requirements that such an infrastructure has to address includes the integration of digital and physical infrastructure, the need to manage, store, and analyze a massive amount data and reduce massive inefficiencies of energy, data centers, server utilization etc.
The underlying technical capabilities like Virtualisation, Energy Efficiency, Service Management, Asset Management, Security, Business Resiliency and Information Infrastructure allow the development of such a converged, dynamic and smart infrastructure includes:
These are unique and challenging times but these times bring with them great possibilities. Smart systems are transforming energy grids, traffic systems and supply chains ensuring the security of financial transactions and the safety of our food supply. They are changing our business models and how we work together. Rising cost pressures, higher service expectations, new risks and threats and emerging smarter and more adaptive technologies are some of the driving forces that are further accelerating the need for this change. In fact, in this globally integrated economy, a converged, dynamic infrastructure that enables a business access and extract value from all types of assets, whether it’s physical, digital, or virtual is becoming the basis of competitive advantage.
The author is Director–General Business, IBM India/South Asia
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