Chapter 5, Problem 5RQ

Explanation of Solution

Management challenges posed by IT infrastructure:

The different challenges for managing IT infrastructure are as follows:

• Platform and Infrastructure change:
  • Increase or decrease of the company size can create an insufficient infrastructure or lead to excessive, costly system, respectively.
  • The scalability of the system to manage expansion of user quantity without breaking down needs to be determined.
  • Establishment of policy and standards for utilization of mobile platform and cloud computing needs to be taken care by the management.
• Governance and Management:
  • There should be a clear definition on the controlling authority and their responsibility, a clear choice between central or distributed management, cost allocation on infrastructure among departments...

Explanation of Solution

Calculating the TCO of technology assets helping firms to make good infrastructure investments:

• The model of competitive forces helps to create an understanding on the IT infrastructure expenses and to determine strategic investments.
• The model helps to identify the market demand, determine company strategy, infrastructure costs, establish an assessment of the company’s IT infrastructure, services offered by competitors, and the expenditure on IT by the business competitors...