Corporate Information Factory

CHAPTER 16

Managing the Corporate Information Factory

Once the corporate information factory (CIF) is built—in whole or in part—it requires ongoing systems management. Because of the diversity of processing that occurs within the CIF, it is no surprise that many different types of systems management tools are needed to monitor and run day-to-day operations. The CIF is simply much too big and diverse for any one suite of systems management tools to suffice. Indeed, the parameters of importance from one component of the CIF to another are so different that no one approach to systems management can be undertaken. Instead, the need for systems management must be considered on a component-by-component basis (see Figure 16.1):

   In the applications environment, systems management needs are characterized by transaction response time and availability.

   In the I & T layer, systems management needs are characterized by the ability to handle complexity, and the ability to gracefully and efficiently orchestrate maintenance with an ever-changing set of requirements.

   In the ODS environment, systems management needs are characterized by workload incompatibility and growth. As discussed earlier, ...