Uprating Capacities is about expanding existing capacities – compute, storage, network bandwidth, and usability. At first glance, this may seem simple but considerations get complex as the costs of compute, storage, and bandwidth drop. The complexity is evident when looked at from broader perspectives such as Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), opportunity costs, and objectives for agility, resilience, and sustainability (ARS).
A view of uprating capacity (such as updating servers, expanding and changing storage media, and increasing network bandwidth) is incomplete if just viewed in isolation. Some TCO costs are never about simply lowering costs:
1) Establishing “disaster recovery”, “failover”, or redundancy for tactical resilience
2) “Buffer margins” used for peak seasons (such as fall retail) or surge conditions to capture short-term revenue events (tactical agility)
3) “Warehouse storage” (near-line) to store data warehouse and already curated data
4) Qualitative improvements that lower exposure to common risks (better security, better backup/restore, better monitoring)
Opportunity costs in short- and long-term scenarios are best viewed on enterprise grounds, and not technical isolation.
1) Revenue/top-line events tied to marketing and promotional spend
2) Acquisition and merger activity presenting entire new scenarios
3) Focusing talent resources on non-strategic objectives
Large enterprises that are looking at substantial costs to market participation (in financially material measures) can pursue strategic agility, tactical resilience, and strategic sustainability by mergers and acquisitions. This can be seen frequently with business combinations designed to:
1) Enter “web presence” business by acquiring a leading market player
2) Acquire “logistics competency” by acquiring operations where the investment has already been made
3) Enter new market segments by acquiring talent and focusing on specific needs narrowly
4) Replace inhouse talent pools that have not sustained competitiveness with external pools
Summary and Conclusion
Clear actions to evaluate Uprating Capabilities must include broader perspectives than technical recommendations.
A) Align all forms of “spend” (money, time, talent, risk) with enterprise goals. This needs to be done on solid quantified ground.
B) Consider risk and management scenarios of alternate enterprise paths (merger/acquisition, de-merger/reduction, transformational changes for sustainability)
C) Spend rapidly to fix critical issues (security, applications resilience, exploiting curated data for gains)
This cannot be done purely by enterprise management nor technical management. A team driven with clear objectives and schedules can rapidly put together scenarios, recommendations, and priorities.
AKwong
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