Trends in the Enterprise

This article discusses a set of products and services that

will be used in large organizations. Before we get into the trends bit, let us

first define the Enterprise. There are as many definitions of the enterprise as

there are people attempting the definition. For the purposes of this discussion,

we will define the enterprise as any organization that has a physical presence

in more than one geographical region and which requires its IT infrastructure to

be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Heterogeneous network

Increasingly, enterprises, and even smaller corporates, are

using heterogeneous networks. That is, they are mixing and matching operating

systems (OSs) on their network servers, instead of having one OS on every

server.

Initially, the case for deciding on any one OS across the

network was very strong, particularly from the point of view of interoperability

and system administration. But today, almost no one will subscribe to that view.

There are two major reasons for this. First, migrating from one OS to another is

an even more difficult and time consuming task than making them interoperate.

Second, it is an accepted fact today that each OS and the applications that run

on it have their own areas of strength. And no single OS tops in all network

requirements. Combined, these two factors are ensuring that enterprise networks

are strongly heterogeneous.

SAN

Storage Area Networks (SAN) are the direct result of the

explosion of the number of servers on the corporate network, each with their own

terabytes of data. Managing all this can be quite a nightmare. With SANs, the

storage part is separated from the servers and set up on a separate system, with

high speed (fiber channel) connects to the rest of the network. This way, the

server is left to handle the applications it is running, without having to

bother about managing the data also.

Not every Tom, Dick, and Harry will need, or be able to

afford, SANs. SANs are for those who have a huge amount of live data on their

servers, running into terabytes. Also, the bill for setting up a SAN can be

pretty stiff, running into a couple of crores just to get started. So you know

why there are not too many SANs around.

ASP

In the world of the Application Service Provider (ASP), you

would not buy applications–you’d rent them over the Net. Again, you will not

rent full applications, but only those parts that you need to use. For example,

if your need is word processing, you will not buy Microsoft Word or Corel

WordPerfect. Instead, you will rent a word processing application. And while

renting it, you will not rent the thesaurus if you do not want to use it.

Basically, the service provider will set up and maintain the application. You

will access it over the Web, ideally on your browser. Your data could also

reside in the servers of the ASP.

ASPs were supposed to become big business this year, but did

not. This is primarily because of paucity of bandwidth. You need quite a bit of

bandwidth to run an application off a server and store and access all your data

there. We are not yet ready with all that bandwidth. Even where the bandwidth is

there, concerns of data security kick in. Not everyone is sure that they can

entrust their valuable data to someone else to store. Also, there has to be

significant savings in cost or effort for corporates to switch over from the

current owned model to the ASP model. ASPs are still in the process of

convincing corporates that that indeed is the case.

Call center

Customer support systems are becoming critical elements of

business success. For multi-outlet businesses like banks, chain stores,

e-businesses, etc, a centralized support center is fast becoming a must. A call

center is a place where customer telephone calls are routed to, and answered.

The advantages of having a centralized system instead of taking the call at

individual shops are many. To start with, you can install sophisticated customer

support systems and information databases far more easily at these locations, as

opposed to having them at multiple smaller locations. Call centers are rarely

set up at the business premises itself. Telephone calls can easily be switched

across the globe. So, you can choose a location that is the cheapest.

Today, many third-party call centers are coming up,

supporting multiple businesses off the same location. So, you need not go

through the trouble of setting up your own. Like with medical transcription and

offshore software development, India is emerging as a potential site for

offshore call centers.

Data center

A data center is something like an ASP, without application

rental being the primary focus. You use the services of a data center to host

your data off site. Data centers in their simplest form are huge server farms

with very fat pipes connecting them to the Internet. The most common use of a

data center is for Web hosting. So far, Indian companies were hosting their

Websites at data centers abroad. This was not because servers were not available

in the country, but because the required bandwidth was not available. As

bandwidth availability improved, we graduated to co-locating our Web servers.

That is, we put the Web server at the ISP’s backbone itself. A further

refinement kept the server at our own premises, with a fat leased-line

connection running to the ISP’s backbone.

Data centers are the next stage in this evolution. And they

have just started making their appearance. Today’s data centers are not just

Web hosting centers. In fact, they offer a multitude of services to their

clientele. For starters, many data centers do offer or plan to offer ASP

services. Then, they can manage all your data on their servers, instead of your

having to bother about backup schedules and anti-virus updates among other

things. In short, data centers can well be the next stage in the evolution of

the annual maintenance contract. What started off as hardware maintenance

contracts now include on site management of your network, and can tomorrow

evolve into the complete off siteing of your data. What advantages will this

have? The argument is that you do what you are good at–your business–and

leave those who are experts at managing data to them, as you are doing with your

systems today.

VPN

Setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a way of

connecting networks at different geographic locations into one, over the

Internet. Consider a company that has offices in multiple locations. Before VPNs

happened, the only way of connecting up these networks was to go in for leased

lines. VSAT connections were few and far in between. Leased lines are a costly

option and the farther the locations are, the costlier they become. VPNs

provided a way out. Here, all your offices connect to the Internet and the data

is sent over the Net.

This way, the length of the leased line is limited to, from

the office to the nearest Internet access point. You do not need crisscrossing

connects going all the way across. This could have been done even a few years

back. But the question of data security came in the way of that happening. Then

came the VPN. The development of tunneling protocols ensured that your data

could be secure even while traveling over public networks. And finally there was

a way for smaller (and even larger) organizations to connect up their offices

into one large network without paying for it through their nose. Expect more

action on the VPN front in the years ahead.

Broadband

Broadband is a hot topic, both for the home and the office.

Strictly speaking, broadband is discussed in the context of the home. Offices

are supposed to use leased lines. But that is not exactly the case in India.

Broadband options–DSL, cable modem, etc are being considered for offices too.

Why is it that broadband is not the primary option for the office? Broadband

technologies are mostly one-way technologies. That is, downstream speeds are

many times the upstream speeds with these options. In a home or individual

setup, more data is expected to flow from the Web down to the PC you are using,

while you will send back only a limited amount of data–e-mail, requests for

pages, etc. Unlike this, an office needs to send large amounts of data both

ways. This is partly because offices have many users connected and they need to

send a lot of data both ways over their Net connects. For example, if you have a

VPN running, or if employees need to frequently update portions of your Website,

etc, the ideal option for you will be a connect that offers the same data

transfer speeds both ways–something like a leased line.

For purely Web browsing needs, enterprises can opt for a

broadband solution, but pretty soon you will be looking for other options.

ERP

This is actually old news. Most large enterprises have

already been there and done that. Smaller organizations have also done that.

What makes ERP interesting again is that vendors are trying to move ERP to the

Net as an ASP offering. That is, you do not need to go through the rigors of

implementing an ERP solution and then maintaining it. All that gets taken care

of by the ASP. Theoretically, you can be up and going right from day one. This

model is supposed to be advantageous for both the small organization and the

large enterprise.

ERP applications are a hot prospect for ASPs. And all the

factors that are holding back generic ASPs are holding back this one too.

Data mining

Like ERP, data mining is also old stuff. But not too many

corporates in this country are known to be doing this seriously. A significant

part of the reason is the non-availability of details, like detailed buyer

profiles, etc. What is data mining? It’s simply taking available data and

searching in it for patterns that you can use for business advantage. For

example, consider the simple case of bills being raised and payment being

collected. Assume that you have collected a year’s data. If you analyze this

data carefully, you can make out patterns like, in which areas are your bills

paid faster, or clients in which age group and educational background are more

likely to default on payment.

Does the example sound familiar? Like something that you may

actually be doing? Data mining can be considered to be a highly evolved form of

good old MIS reports in action, where you work with much larger volumes of data

and more intelligent tools. Also, you are looking for patterns as opposed to

numbers. Obviously, the more the data (quantity and spread) you have, the better

the patterns will be.

Krishna Kumar