MOPS

Standards.

The topic of Standards was included in MOPS because it is a key technical imperative for the management of IT Production costs in the long term.

The modern IT Production datacentre is a very heterogeneous environment. Sometimes this simply reflects the “march of technology” as new technical solutions (blade servers etc.) become available. However, this is not necessarily the sole reason for the heterogeneous nature of IT Production.

The technology that is managed today is a result of technology choices which were made when the application or service was first deployed.

In some cases, the choice of Technology for a new Application can be driven by Developers’ choice.

For example, there may be:

• Useful Development Tools associated with a technical solution.
• Key Design and Development Features to speed development.
• Familiarity with certain technologies on behalf of IT Development.
• A desire to try out the latest technology?

There may be valid reasons for choosing a specific product stack.

However, without considering the support implications of such technology choices, it can lead to Applications whose Development costs may be Low, but whose Support Costs may be high (or even prohibitive).

Defining and Managing Standards from an IT Production perspective can redress this balance.

As part of this initiative, it is necessary to formally create an IT Production Architecture function.

Such a team should have a specific remit to look at the “Production Suitability” of technology choices, and ensuring that Infrastructure Architecture is created with an eye to the supportability of applications, as well as their business functionality.

Introducing simplicity and standardisation in production can lead to economies of scale in Support and can also contribute to controlling the costs of Maintenance and Support within IT.

Establish Technical Strategy and Architecture Standards to ensure that future applications can be supported at optimal cost.