VKSF 423 System Administration III Enterprise Computing and The Role of IT

Announcements Lab Overview The goal for the lab portion of this course is for you to form an “interesting” network that simulates some of the challenges that are facing enterprise system administrators today. Seven labs. Groups of three people, Each group will use eight PCs (two benches).

Lab Overview cont. Lab 1. VMWare configuration and installation of guest operating systems, configure core services: Servers should be mostly configurable from a client desktop. Lab 2. Authentication -PAM, RSA Secure ID *Lab 3. Virtualized Storage- Veritas Storage Central ? Lab 4. Clusters

Lab Overview cont. *Lab 5. Update Services/ Back-up and Restore SUS RIS Alteris Ghost *Lab 6. Terminal Services LTSP Citrix Windows Terminal Services *[1]Lab 7. Alternative Desktops[1] Sun Java desktop Lindows Xandros

Lab Topology (Under Development) PC #Client/ServerOperating SystemServices 1ServerChoiceCore services 2ServerHost: Win2k Guest: Linux 3ServerHost: Linux Guest: Win 2k 4ServerWin2kAD, SFU, VStorage 5Server 6ClientChoice 7ClientChoice 8ClientChoice

What is an “Enterprise” Many points of access Many devices Increasing reliance on Internet for: voice and centralized data stores. Scale Complexity

IBM’s Take on Security Enterprise issues eg>. The IRS has 5000 servers and 125,000 workstations. To manually install a patch takes on average 45 minutes/workstation. 125,000 * 45 minutes =93,750 hours 2000 hours/year= 47 employees fulltime $45,000/employee= $2,000,000/year

IBM’s Take on Security cont. T. Rowe Price 120 enterprise applications running on their network 3 to 5 accounts/person NYSDOL 1996 Zero PCs Federal medicare and medicaid system incompatibilities almost forced two PCs/desk. Supply chain issues relating to software licensing.

IBM’s Take on Security cont. Evolution of Disaster recovery From: flood or fire maintaining tape libraries To: Protection against “regional” disasters Highly resilient infrastructure (Internet outages) Awareness of business interdependencies Data explosion (including paper records) Complete primary facility loss Loss of personnel Old paradigm: Experience and react New Paradigm: anticipate and adjust

IT Doesn’t Matter Who is the author? What is their incentive? “Scarcity – not ubiquity – makes a business resource truly strategic. Companies gain an edge by having or doing something others can’t have or do.”

IT Doesn’t Matter cont. IT is now ubiquitous Other ubiquitous resources include: Electricity Railroads Natural gas Skilled, and literate workers Access to markets

IT Doesn’t Matter cont. How do you manage a ubiquitous resource? Focus on risk, not opportunities Spend less Follow, don’t lead Greatest risk with IT: Overspending Goal: provide computing resources to users like any other utility

IT Doesn’t Matter cont. IT as a utility comparable to electricity? Have we overbuilt capacity? Will standardization in IT lead to standardization in business process? Can strategic value be gained through the application of IT?

Carr’s New Rules For Management Because the opportunity to gain strategic value from IT are disappearing managers should do the following: Spend less. Follow, don’t lead. Focus on vulnerabilities, not opportunities.

Brown and Hagel Response Carr captures zeitgeist of managers. Broad lessons regarding IT: Extracting value from IT requires innovations in business practices. IT’s economic impact comes from incremental innovations rather than “big bang” initiatives. The strategic impact of IT investments comes from the cumulative effect of sustained initiatives to innovate business practices in the near term.

Brown and Hagel Response cont. It has never been true that IT matters in isolation. It only matters in the context of a concerted effort to innovate based on new possibilities and opportunities created by technology. Then it matters- and will continue to – a lot.