Stability in an Enterprise 2.0 data centre
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861 days ago
This is a re-post from my ICS blog to get started.
People who work in IT operations and look after data centres have to maintain stable systems because the organization depends on those systems for its day to day operation. In a University, we have systems such as Finance, email, human resources and payroll, student administrations, and others. These systems must be solid, reliable and available when people need to use them. They are typically applications that do not change very much over a 1-2 year timeframe.
Web applications are increasingly coming into the the core of organizations, and often these applications fall into a category that can be thought of as Enterprise 2.0. They are applications that evolve rapidly, and where the underlying infrastructure may also be evolving rapidly. At times, they use external APIs that are themselves changeable.
This creates two scenarios for creating stability in the enterprise data centre, and they approach cannot be the same for both of them.
Stability: Scenario 1
Where you have a stable application and you install it and leave it for a year or two.
In this case, a static system that is not updated with newer libraries and versions of underlying software will be the most stable. Updating libraries and underlying software will be more risky than leaving it static. Here an enterprise grade operating system is important, so distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise or Suse Linux Enterprise Server are suitable for creating a stable infrastructure.
Stability: Scenario 2
Where you have applications that evolve rapidly, consistent with the way modern web-based applications do.
A static system that is not updated with newer libraries and versions of underlying software will be the most unstable. A system that is reasonably up-to-date with libraries and underlying software that have a reasonable chance of being stable will be the most stable. Here enterprise grade operating systems present major risks to stability, so distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise or Suse Linux Enterprise Server are completely unsuitable for creating a stable infrastructure. Instead, what is necessary for stability under this scenario is to have a distribution that is able to evolve with the requirements of the web applications. If enterprises do not recognize these differences, they run the risk of creating instability in the web application space, and being unable to take effective advantage of Enterprise 2.0.
Of course, creating stability under this kind of rapid change means that special competencies are needed. These include knowledge of the underlying technologies and their current status, the ability to perform rapid changes and rollbacks, as well as still retaining a mindset that considers the enterprise.
enterprise 2.0
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862 days ago
Welcome to dkeats.com. I have changed the default page to be the blog. You can still access the CMS and its content, but I will not be updating it very much, and if I do I will post a link in the blog.
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