Nof S.Y. Springer Handbook of Automation

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

Automating Information and Technology Services 71.4 Information Technology Services 1275

tools (AD/Cycle) were also available. They focused

on structured systems analysis and design methods

(SSADM) and managed to automate database schema,

data ﬂow diagrams, and entity relationship diagrams

successfully. Developing program speciﬁcations and

user documentation were partially automated. However,

their attempt to automate codegeneration wasof limited

success. During this period, the requirement analysis

and functional speciﬁcationstages werenot amenableto

automation as they had to begin from ambiguous states.

SSADM [71.27]is a derivative of the traditional wa-

terfall method of development. It called for performing

each stage adhering to strict sequence. The premises

were that inefﬁciency multiplies when one attempts to

retroﬁt any function after the project has moved beyond

design stages. Thesigniﬁcant negative impact ofthis ap-

proach has been to extend the project duration to years

and that the code becomes difﬁcult to understand or

to maintain later. Responding to the industry need for

shortened implementation cycle and quick deployment

in the ﬁeld, rapid prototyping methodology in conjunc-

tion with the iterative mode of development have been

evolved.

The advent of object-orientedmethodologies (OOM)

in the early 1990s called for binding logically deﬁned

data objects with their processing logic. Hence objects

that are fully self-contained to deliver a speciﬁed func-

tion can be easily reused. This philosophy gave rise

to object-oriented data modeling and object-oriented

development. However, the signiﬁcant change was to

introduce the use case method of requirements capture.

Tools such as RUT and Rational Rose helped to develop

use cases efﬁciently. OOM has received signiﬁcant help

in implementation with the invention of the C++ lan-

guage [71.28].

Yet another challenge was requirement traceabil-

ity. An agreed functionality has to be captured in the

beginning and it has to be ensured that it is carried for-

ward all the way. It has not been easy to automate this

task [71.29].

Often it is noted that the software development en-

vironment may consist of PCs, Unix machines etc. but

the operational environment could include mainframes.

Hence it became necessary to manage the conﬁgura-

tion well during development so that issues confronted

in transferring the software from one environment to

another are minimized.

In addition, many, often 50 or more, programmers,

testers, and designers were working simultaneously

on different segments and stages of a large software

project, and maintaining tight control over many ver-

sions became vital. Conﬁguration management and

version control aids such as WinRunner have come into

play.

The emergence of web-based technologies during

the past decade has given a great impetus to rapid

prototyping and iterative method of development. The

popularity of traditional CASE tools has reduced in this

process.

71.4.2 Independent Software Testing

and Quality Assurance

Testing has been an integral and essential activity in

both the development and maintenance phases of any

system. What needs to be tested, when, how, and by

whom, are issues that continue to engage the attention

of users and service providers.

The objectives of testing, however, have remained

focused on fundamentals since the beginning. The es-

sential role of testing before commissioning is to ensure

that the system delivers the expected functionality with

consistency and high reliability. However, there are

many add-on objectives arising at various stages, which

form part of testing and quality assurance.

Ensuring that the functional speciﬁcations of the

desired system are drawn up accurately and compre-

hensively is a basic need for quality assurance. Only

then can the system be designed to deliver what was

intended. Requirements tracking across the life cycle

stages however calls for both enabling processes and

testing.

These two terms, namely testing and quality as-

surance, are not synonyms. Quality assurance goals

overlap with testing goals during the testing phase to as-

sure that the system performs as intended. It crosses the

testing phase andexistsin delivery, implementation, and

maintenance phases as well. User experience in these

subsequent phases needs to be captured and feedback

loops created to ensure the expected level of quality of

service.

It is necessary but not sufﬁcient to draw the in-

tended performance of the system only in terms of its

functionality. Conﬁguration, installation, interoperabil-

ity, security, usability, performance parameters such as

transaction processing and response time, privacy ad-

equacy, etc. need to be comprehensively stated and

tested as well. Furthermore, the likely variations in ex-

ternal environment within which the system needs to

function have to be deﬁned. Only then can the speciﬁca-

tion for testing be drawn up adequately. Both unit-level

testing and integrated system-level testing are essen-

Part G 71.4

1276 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

tial. Coupling interfaces to other systems must also be

performed. Other than the above, regression testing,

which means retesting the system comprehensively af-

ter a change has been incorporated, is often found to be

mission critical. Practical circumstances have necessi-

tated both black-box and white-box testing procedures

to be adopted in a judicious mix. Planning the testing

function, at a high level, is presented in Fig.71.4.

Comprehensive testing for all possible data and en-

vironment conditions is time and resource consuming;

in many cases it is impossible [71.30]. Given that many

major systems need to be implemented in deﬁned time

periods (of between 6months to 1year) the daunting

task is to determine what needs to be tested essentially

and with priority. Hence the goal of testing has to be

tied to the business goal itself. The testing phase and

hence testing tasks have to stay within the time and bud-

get constraints arising out the business goal. The testing

speciﬁcation has to take account of the functional and

nonfunctional requirements, the environment, and ex-

pected data conditions.

Preparing test data is tricky. It has to be repre-

sentative of all major scenarios. It also has to include

occasional but mission-interrupting conditions. Ex-

treme conditions are to be included as well. Preparing

expected results is not easy or straightforward in many

cases. This is due to the planned functionality of the

system being new compared with what exists now, or

sequential dependency among test results.

Note the steps involved in the test execution phase.

Creating a proper test environment is coupled with

checking to ensure its stability. Training staff who

Study business

goals

Study data

conditions

Study data

availability

Develop test data

Derive expected

test results

Study current or

similar system

Define context

comprehensively

Check staff

skills

Execute the

test plan

Analyze

results

Provide feed-

back to

developers

Train staff

Plan for

retests

Derive test

plan and

sequence

Scope system

performance

expectations

Draw up

testing

specification

Create

proper test

environment

Check

environment

for stability

Derive testing

goals

Fig. 71.4 Planning the testing function

would perform the testing role also requires ﬁrst ensur-

ing that they have adequate skills. Once the test plan

is executed and the results are analyzed, feedback is

given for changes needed, and simultaneously planning

for retesting has to commence.

The opportunity to automate the testing tasks has

tempted many researchers and service providers to aim

high. Their quest to automate the entire function has

met with no success. Instead, numerous support tools

have been developed to set up and stabilize the test

environment, execute test scripts, compile test results,

and analyze them. Performance testing and load-testing

functions have been automated to a high level.

Automated tests create a log of pre-existing condi-

tions, test data, test plan to be executed, and test results.

One of the major advantages gained here is repeatability

of error conditions. They further facilitate shared learn-

ing from one test sequence to a similar test performed

subsequently.

The market is full of products for facilitating auto-

mated testing. HP’s WinRunner (to test user interfaces)

and LoadRunner (to test performance), and IBM’s Ra-

tional Suite of products (for testing across the life cycle

and managing the test environment), are the tools com-

monly used in automating testing.

Quality assurance, with a broader mission of ensur-

ing quality across all stages of software life cycle, has

leaned on ISO 9001 and Six-Sigma approaches. The

Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mel-

lon University chose to tackle this issue using a speciﬁc

model for the software industry. It is called the capabil-

ity maturity model (CMM). Level 1 of CMM represents

ad hoc development while the highest level 5 stands

for well-structured, disciplined, and self-learning pro-

cesses. Templatesare provided for self-assessment, then

guidelines are given for moving up the CMM levels.

Rigorous quantitative techniques and metrics form

part of this methodology. They measure quality param-

eters such as delivered defects, and time and cost over-

runs, and include customer satisfaction measures too.

The IT services industry has embraced these mod-

els and approaches to gain competitive advantage in

the marketplace. Implementing these quality assurance

measures has called for using numerous tools for auto-

mated capture of efforts, output, defects, etc. Most ﬁrms

have developed tools predominantly in-house for these

functions.

Offshore companies, who prefer to get nearly 75%

of the development or maintenance work accomplished

offshore, rely very heavily on these approaches for mul-

tiple reasons [71.31,32]. Being higher up on the CMM

Part G 71.4

Automating Information and Technology Services 71.4 Information Technology Services 1277

level isa formidable marketing weapon.Combining this

with the labor cost advantage, they are able to garner

a larger share of outsourced assignments from ﬁrms in

the USA and Europe. The client ﬁrms get both a cost

and quality edge when they send work offshore. Sec-

ondly, the offshore ﬁrms usually employ a large number

of young engineers with limited work experience. By

enforcing strict adherence to processes they are able to

deliver a consistent level of quality output to customers

and not allow the inexperience of their workforce to im-

pact on software quality. Finally, climbing the CMM

ladder also means greater automation, which gives con-

tinuous improvement in developer productivity.

Long-term initiatives have a radically dramatic

proposition, namely toeliminate the need for any testing

and rework. Cost of quality (COQ) is measured as the

total cost of testing and rework activities and resources.

If quality is built into the software at every life cycle

stage starting from requirements analysis then COQ can

be minimized. Componentization and object-oriented

development methodology, when combined, can lead

ﬁrms towards achieving these challenging objectives in

the future.

71.4.3 Package and Bespoke Software

Implementation and Maintenance

During early stages (Fig.71.5) all components of

systems (hardware, operating system, programming

language tools, applications and subsequent mainte-

nance services) came bundled together from a single

vendor (stage 1). However, it did not take long for

the languages to break out of this pack. Fortran was

followed by Algol and Pascal within the scientiﬁc com-

munity while COBOL remained strong in the business

arena. Application development services along with

continued maintenance were taken over in-house in

many ﬁrms (stage 2). The unbundling phase expanded

into every component of the system and, by the 1970s,

total unbundling had come into play. Emergence of

Unix as a dominant mid-range operating system was

particularly endorsed by the scientiﬁc community. This

played a critical role in unleashing the unbundling revo-

lution during the 1980s (stage 3). However, the world

woke up to an unprecedented level of segmentation

when the PC and subsequent Internet era dawned. Com-

ponents within the hardware are unbundled now and so

are the development tools and application software.

With all this unbundling the business community

was faced with a new crisis.When a system failed in op-

eration, attributing responsibility became difﬁcult and

Stage 1

Hardware

Operating

system

Programming

language

Application

Maintenance

Evolution

stage

All bundled Unbundling

begins

Stage 2

All unbundled

Stage 3 Stage 4

All unbundled

but single

sourcing

Fig. 71.5 Stages in solution implementation (ﬁrst column cells in-

dicate totally bundled solutions, second column indicates start of

unbundling, third column indicates complete unbundling, fourth

column indicates complete unbundling of the software, while cus-

tomers tend to prefer a single source for their software and services)

a contractual nightmare. Many ﬁrms also discovered

that the range of expertise required to govern and man-

age a myriad of systems was vast and distracting from

their mission. Hence a new wave has emerged since

the 1990s, focused on integrated or bundled services.

Many ﬁrms have chosen to go with a single vendor to

provide the entire suite of services and manage the di-

versity of platforms and applications. Outsourcing the

entire IT function on a multi-year basis is common for

large ﬁrms. Coupled with this is the integration of ap-

plications into three large segments, namely, enterprise

resource planning (ERP), supply chain management

(SCM), and customer relationship management (CRM).

The SCM pack is to link up with the suppliers and

the CRM with the customers. ERP is the middle piece,

where the ﬁrm converts supplies to goods and delivers

to customers.

Custom-developed applications always took more

time than budgeted. They were delayed in development.

The software was also found to be bug ridden. The IT

services industry responded to this challenge by build-

ing packagedsolutions suchas JD Edwards for ﬁnancial

accounting, ManMan for factory operations manage-

ment, PRISM for project management, etc. Over the

years, transaction integrity concerns and processing ef-

ﬁciency requirements have led to the integrated suit of

ERP applications such as SAP, MfgPro, and others.

A typical ﬁrm is likely to have a large set of custom-

developed applications and packaged solutions running

together. Thishas happeneddue to constantmergers and

acquisitions.

Part G 71.4

1278 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

Once implemented, these applications call for con-

siderable dedicated resources to maintain and operate.

The maintenance function covers detection and re-

moval of bugs, dismantling existing manual or outdated

technology interfaces, interfacing with newer systems,

and changes to comply with changing regulations or

enhancements to provide additional functionality. Fur-

thermore, when one of the system components is

updated and changes have to be effected on the ﬂy, it

creates additional work load of a disproportionate level

in an organization (i.e., when Microsoft upgrades its

desktops from the Windows XP to Windows Vista op-

erating system, thousands of PCs need to be worked on

over a weekend).

Implementing a packaged solution is also a difﬁcult

process. Existing system functionality and processes

have to be mapped onto the functionality and process

structure of the package. If they differ substantially,

the ﬁrm has to decide between a quick implementation

with minimal changes to the package (but large inter-

nal changes to the organization, including retraining)

and substantial modiﬁcation to the package to align it

with existing processes (thereby delaying installation

by many months). Converting data from an old system

to the requirements of the new system is an added and

signiﬁcant work element in this scenario.

Service providers have evolved numerous tools to

automate many ofthe tasksinvolved; forexample, when

moving over a set of applications from IBM COBOL to

Unisys COBOL, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)de-

veloped a series of software ﬁlters which, when applied

sequentially, accomplished the conversion to almost

80%. Hence the manual effort required came down sub-

stantially. Developing libraries, subroutines, and other

reusable components has been a standard technique

among bespoke service providers. The well-known

Y2K bug created a huge one-off service opportunity for

them. It was successfully executed by creating software

factories where hundreds of programmers used tools to

detect and rectify the error. Similarly SAP and other

package implementers have excelled in developing tem-

plates that are speciﬁc to industries. These templates cut

down implementation time dramatically.

Remote diagnostic and repair services will come

into play in the future. Sophisticated tools facilitate

simulation of error conditions offsite and identiﬁcation

of environmental conditions that cause system failure.

When object-oriented systems are fully functional then,

with remote access, the defective component can be re-

moved and the properly functioning component bound

to the system. Acceptance testing can also be performed

from afar. The industry is aspiring to automate these

functions in the coming decades.

71.4.4 Network and Security Management

Computer networks consist of not only processors but

storage devices, routers, printers, sensors, etc. These

are not mere hardware devices but contain embedded

or loadable software too. They have grown in size and

complexity from local to wide to metropolitan area net-

works. Their scope and coverage has been extended

from the corporate to mass segment with the inclusion

of PCs. Laptops, smart mobile phones, and devices such

as Blackberry and the IPhone with their ubiquitous In-

ternet connectivity have stretched the network delivery

and management challenges to higher orbits. An exam-

ple is shown in Fig.71.6.

Clemm [71.33] deﬁnes network management to en-

compass activities, methods, procedures, and tools that

pertain to the operation (running the network), admin-

istration (managing network resources), maintenance

(repair and upgrade), and provisioning (intended use

assurance) of networkedsystems. Usagemonitoring, re-

source logs, device simulations, and agents deployed

on infrastructure form the data sources for network

management. Cisco systems, a leader in networking

management, provides many tools for performing these

functions [71.34].

Networks are differentiated in terms of the topology

(line, bus, star, hub and spoke, tree, etc.) that deﬁnes

the logical or physical connection between the de-

vices, network protocols containing a language of rules

and conventions for communication between network

devices (hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), transmis-

sion controlprotocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), simple

mail transfer protocol (SMTP), etc.), and standards

facilitating interoperability. Designing a speciﬁc net-

work for a given role is a function of the involved

devices, their locations and cost, and many other

speciﬁcations.

Managing networks for performance is mission

critical. However, no network can function without em-

bedding security considerations throughout. Security

concerns cover access rights, person authentication, and

transaction validity at a person level and the threat of

viral attacks, intrusion of spies, and denial of service

(DoS) at a macro level [71.35].

Every system deﬁnes who is a legitimate user

and what usage rights the person has; for example,

a transport department employee may have access to

the names of employees in all other departments of

Part G 71.4

Automating Information and Technology Services 71.4 Information Technology Services 1279

Web

server

Application

server farm

FirewallPDA client

Mobile PC

Operational

database

Data

warehouse

Payment

processing

gateway

Desktop

Registration DB

MVS

mainframe

Data

extract

Fig. 71.6 Network diagram for the university system (after [71.36])

the ﬁrm but not to their personal details. A customer

may do an online query about the account balance

in a bank account but may not be authorized for on-

line funds transfer. Over the years these requirements

have extended to time of day and location too. Certain

transactions cannot be performed outside ofﬁce hours

and cannot be executed from a nondesignated place or

terminal even within ofﬁce hours. Likewise, denial of

legitimate access can also invite trouble to the organi-

zation. It then becomes the responsibility of the system

to ensure that access rights are adhered to. Users, loca-

tions, and devices are assigned unique identities (IDs)

to ensure this.

The second aspect of security is person authentica-

tion. One has toensure that the system is being accessed

only by the authorized person and by no-one else.

Protection against impersonation is the key concern.

Earlier systems relied heavily on passwords associated

with each identiﬁed user (user ID). Password protec-

tion systems have been strengthened over the years.

Frequent change in password is mandated along with

selection of passwords that are difﬁcult to guess. At

the next level, systems seek additional personal details

(such as date of birth) to validate the person’s identity.

These are found to be inadequate in modern systems.

Impressive advancement in signature recognition and

ﬁngerprint (a biometric) recognition technologies has

enabled ﬁrms to integrate these devices into computer

systems. Voice print is used in some cases to validate

identity [71.37].

Transaction validity facilitates fraud prevention.

A separate password is associated with the transac-

tions and nowadays a one-time key is generated speciﬁc

to each transaction. After use, the key is destroyed.

Digital certiﬁcation technology has come into play to

authenticate the combination of person and transaction

relating to transmitted documents. One of the most sig-

niﬁcant inventions is the encryption mechanism. Data

is encoded prior to transmission over a network and de-

coded at the ﬁnal point. Seminal work has been done by

RSA [71.38] in designing and implementing a public-

key approach. Encryption standards have emerged and

are being mandated for critical transactions.

Vendors and products have ﬂooded the market with

services for virus protection and intrusion prevention.

Firewalls are being built at various levels to ﬁlter out

unwanted visitors. The black list is no longer static; it is

updated dynamicallyby mostvendors. New upgrades or

patches are issued routinely to protect against emerging

new threats. It has become a legal necessity to subject

Part G 71.4

1280 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

most systems to a periodic security audit and to obtain

a compliance certiﬁcation.

The developments for further automation have pro-

gressed along the biometric path [71.39]. Eye or facial

feature recognition and their combination with ﬁn-

gerprints are coming into play. Pattern recognition

algorithms are becoming sophisticated. Sharing of data

about events, impersonators, and system loop holes or

bugs is being attempted within select special interest

groups. Other attempts cover mapping data from dis-

parate systems and intervening and ﬁltering suspected

transactions.

An interesting development has been the research

efforts directed towards psychological proﬁling of the

imposters and cybercriminals. Many of them seem to be

technology savvy, young, and motivated by altogether

different reasons compared with other types of crim-

inals. Hacker conventions are held annually to learn

from them and to recruit experts among them to provide

protection services.

71.4.5 Hosting

and Infrastructure Management

IBM, the industry leader, preferred to lease the ser-

vices of its hardware, software, and human resources in

the formative years. This practice continued for nearly

two decades and was followed by its competitors as

well. However the unbundling phenomenon, as it took

roots, encouraged ﬁrms to own the equipment, license

the software, and build in-house teams for system de-

velopment and maintenance. The entry of mid-range

systems in the 1970s and the proliferation of PCs from

the 1980s gave further impetus to this trend; however

not for long.

Many large enterprises found that the tasks of

selecting the hardware, upgrading the software, and re-

cruiting and retaining staff were draining management

resources. They were caught between decisions to go

for centralizedversus distributed systems, to select best-

of-breed solutions or integrated suite of applications,

and to insource or outsource application maintenance

function over the years. The rapid pace at which ﬁrms

in multiple industries were merging or acquiring others

compounded these management issues. Multiple con-

tracts with multiple vendors had to be negotiated often,

large volumes of data had to be often merged or mi-

grated, and it was difﬁcult to hold any individual service

provider responsible when failure occurred.

Soon they also realized that information technol-

ogy is a service function, essential for their survival,

and sometimes an enabler of competitive advantage, but

not their core activity. The retail chain had to focus on

customer acquisition and retention while the ﬁnancial

services ﬁrms had the challenge of product innovation.

They opted to outsource the IT function in part or full.

Thus a market opportunity was created for ﬁrms with

expertise in managing IT infrastructure.

The infrastructure usually consists of processors,

storage units, printers, desktops, networking equipment

such as routers and switches, security devices, power

supply sources, voltage regulators, surge protectors, etc.

It could include operating personnel too. This oppor-

tunity is aggressively pursued by many large vendors,

extending their services to data center management as

well [71.40]. Firms had the advantage of signing one

contract with the infrastructure management services

(IMS) service provider instead of many contracts with

multiple vendors, service providers, contractors, etc.

There was further ﬂexibility in owning versus not own-

ing the equipment to the client ﬁrms.

Automation has a central role to play in IMS.

The agreement between the client ﬁrm and the ser-

vice provider is governed by a service-level agreement

(SLA) that calls for device uptime on a category basis

and transaction response time on a type basis. Imple-

mentation of the monitoring, reporting, and managing

functions related to SLAs is automated to a high degree.

Many times, self-diagnostic and repair tasks are per-

formed by the respective devices through sophisticated

software.

The Internet has added a major dimension to this

ﬁeld. Until its arrival IMS was popular only in large

commercial ﬁrms. Now, in a new avatar called web

hosting, IMS has reached out to small and medium-

sized enterprises (SMEs) and the masses. Today, it is

estimated to be a multibillion-dollar market. Hosting is

a subset of IMS. The server equipment can be installed

anywhere geographically (typically on the premises of

the host ﬁrm), and the Internet or private network is

leveraged to provide services to client ﬁrms and end

customers of client ﬁrms seamlessly. Normal web ser-

vices include email, static pages, help desk, auction

sites, etc. IBM, the largest web hosting service provider

globally, has included managed events such as Wimble-

don, the Grammy Awards, and the Ryder Cup within

this service ambit [71.41].

Web hosting services rely almost 100% on web

and automated tools to perform their roles. Specialist

software ﬁrms write the required application for web

hosting to cover performance, content delivery, and se-

curity aspects. The need for a hosting and IMS service

Part G 71.4

Automating Information and Technology Services 71.5 Impact Analysis 1281

provider to tie together multiple products is apparent

when we note that IBM’s service portfolio embraces

Equinix, ATT, Akamai Technologies, Keynote Systems,

Cisco, i2, Ariba, and others [71.41].

Web-hosted services often cross international bor-

ders. A customer living in London can be accessing

a US car company site hosted in Ireland to order an ac-

cessory. Countries often debate over the territorial rights

of such transactions and try to ﬁgure out who sold what

to whom.

Both IMS and hosted services are evolving with

technological advancement and globalization. They are

spinning out new business models. Pay per transac-

tion (including software as a service (SaaS) [71.42])

as opposed to ownership of devices and resources is

emerging. As it gains acceptance, automation of such

services has to include robust mechanisms for service

accounting, billing, and receivable management on the

businessside, andtransaction integrity, authenticity, and

nonnegation aspects on the technical side.

71.5 Impact Analysis

Computers and IT-based services are not mere au-

tomation aids that enhance resource productivity. Their

impact on corporations and society is deep and wide.

They have created new channels, markets, products, la-

bor markets, and business paradigms. The have also

had societal impact in terms of higher level of trans-

parency and fairness, and helped to eliminate system

leakages and root out corruption in many countries. At

an individual level they have changed perceptions, al-

tered human behavior, enhanced aspirations, and acted

as catalysts to feed the innovative spirit of humanity.

With direct access to the Internet to every cus-

tomer or stakeholder a new channel of delivery has

been opened up. It has the advantage of low cost, high

reliability, and asynchronous communication possibil-

ity. With the convergence of technology, the Internet as

a channel is also the most cost-efﬁcient means of de-

livering data, text, voice, and images. Companies face

a wide range of options in terms of how they wish to

leverage this channel. Many traditional organizations,

including banks such as ICICI in India, have chosen to

use it as the primary vehicle for service delivery.

Newer products have emerged to meet both pri-

mary and secondary needs. The iPod delivers digital

music and in the process has eliminated all inter-

mediate storage media such as compact discs (CDs)

and digital versatile discs (DVDs). Books need not be

printed anymore as their content can be digitally de-

livered. GPS-based navigation systems guide travelers

to their destinations. Conﬁdential delivery of sensitive

and business-critical documents through the Internet

has created the demand for digital certiﬁcation and per-

son identiﬁcation services.

Newer markets for teleconferencing, online auc-

tions, buyer–seller meet, and telemedicine have

emerged. Further ﬁner segments of the markets to cater

for the needs of aged, handicapped or people on the

move have been created.

Information asymmetry in earlier society created

many intermediary roles that facilitated bridging be-

tween supply and demand sides. These have been

destroyed in the Internet age. Any new role can emerge

now only on the strength of demonstrable value. Conse-

quently enhanced skill levels have to be closely related

to market needs. An effective example of this is the

role of distributors and retailers as intermediaries. They

bridged the communication gap between the manufac-

turer and end customer while moving goods across the

supply chain effectively. The Internet has limited their

role as a communicator. Consequently they need to

excel in providing comparative value of goods from dif-

ferent manufacturers to enhance their value proposition

to end customers.

Since many tasks can be executed unbounded by ge-

ography, outsourcing has crossed international borders

with ease and has created employment opportunities

for millions in developing countries. Concerns about

the ramiﬁcations of this for jobs in developed countries

have emerged [71.43]. However, the market for high-

end products and services has expanded globally due to

rising affordability in emerging economies.

The emergence of new business models is notewor-

thy. Fixed costs are presented as variable costs, thus

altering investment requirements. Development costs

are overshadowed by marketing and customer reach

costs. The economics of the information society is very

different from that of the engineering society. Compa-

nies have to make an appropriate transition to ensure

their survival and growth

With individuals, face-to-face interaction has been

replaced with virtual meetings, sequential exchanges

are now concurrent, and judgment or wisdom, if not

Part G 71.5

1282 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

supported by data and evidence, is not accepted. New

paradigms have emerged in interactive behavior. Age

as a proxy to accumulated knowledge is no longer

revered.

Governments have been aggressive in introducing

Internet-based services to reach out to the citizens.

Apart from ﬁling tax returns, registration of land

records and motor vehicles, disbursal of pension funds,

updating voter registry, and government-to-business

transactions fall within the purview of eGovernance.

When implemented, these initiatives have made opera-

tions faster and more cost effective and have rooted out

sources of corruption in many instances.

The impact on society at large, with respect to vol-

unteer activities, is explored in [71.44]. The legislative

support required for use of information technology to

the physically disadvantaged is documented in [71.45].

The societal impact of computers, the Internet,

and information technology is even more signiﬁcant

when we transcend the corporate sector. Facebook and

LinkedIn are Internet-basednetworks of special-interest

groups that demonstrate what viral growth is all about.

YouTube has given the world on a platter as a platform

to showcase one’s talent at virtually no cost. These de-

velopments are altering many paradigms that we have

grown up with.

71.6 Emerging Trends

As stated earlier technology convergence,real-time ana-

lytical processing, digital delivery of integrated and

multimedia information, and software as a service

(SaaS) are the visible trends within the information

and technology services industry. Web services are

leading to services-on-demand (SoD) business mod-

els. Both SaaS and SoD are rewriting business models

by converting ﬁxed costs to variable costs. It makes

eminent business sense to adopt these models at the

early growth stages of a ﬁrm and then switch over

to the traditional ownership model when the ﬁrm

has reached a higher sales volume. The entire IT in-

frastructure consisting of bundled hardware, software,

and services is treated akin to a utility [71.46]that

is essential for business operations but may not be-

stow any competitive advantage. The later can come

only through market and product innovations and

analytics.

In the scientiﬁc community, a model that is be-

ing tested is grid computing [71.47]. It is focused

on leveraging the widely dispersed processing power

of the Internet for faster execution of complex and

time-consuming calculations. Weather forecasting and

genetic mapping fall into this domain. Geographical in-

formation systems (GIS) that combine location maps

with other attributes are already common [71.48]. Mul-

tilayering of GIS and recognizing patterns for effective

design of systems is on the anvil.

Computer animation services are poised for a giant

leap with sophisticated tools and high-speed devices.

Movie production and postproduction work, integrated

with special effects, is being automated at a relentless

pace by companies such as Pixar and DreamWorks.

Simulation combined with animation is turning out

niche products such as factory layout and work ﬂow

sequencing for the manufacturing industry.

Object-oriented design awaits the development of

completely interchangeable, plug-and-play components

for corporate functions. It will then be coupled with

automated and remote diagnostics, repair, testing, and

maintenance services.

Legal acceptance of digitally ﬁled documents in

place ofprinted matteris growing worldwide. Standards

are being enacted and enabling legislation is being in-

troduced in many countries. Cross-border transactional

validity and resolution of attendant tax issues is com-

plex. It is expected that the digital highway will become

integral to many aspects of human life when these chal-

lenges are tackled. The day is not far off when every

legal entity, be it a person or a ﬁrm, has a unique digital

identity, although this is likely to happen faster in some

nations compared with others.

References

71.1 Indian Electrons: The electronic voting machine.

http://www.indian-elections.com/

electoralsystem/electricvotingmachine.html

71.2 ESI Group: Engineering simulation industry.

http://www.esi-group.com/corporate/news-

media/press-releases/2007-english-pr/esi-group-

Part G 71

Automating Information and Technology Services References 1283

visual-environment-optimized-for-intel2019s-

platforms-offers-premium-performance-in-

simulation (2007)

71.3 A.D. Chandler, J.W. Cortada (eds.): ANation

Transformed by Information (Oxford Univ. Press,

Cambridge 2000)

71.4 B. Yenne: 100 Inventions that Shaped World History

(Bluewood Books, New York 1993)

71.5 B. Russel: The printing press: technology that

changed the world forever.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/

324287/the_printing_press_technology_that.html

(2007)

71.6 C. Price: The Gutenberg device: the printing press.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/82603/

the_gutenberg_device_the_printing_press.html

(2006)

71.7 E. Sebastian: The history of mass media in America.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/13499/

the_history_of_mass_media_in_america.html

(2005)

71.8 M. Bellis: Your guide to inventors. http://inventors.

about.com/od/gstartinventions/Famous_

Invention_History_G.htm (2007)

71.9 E.G.Swedin,D.L.Ferro:Computers, The Life Story of

a Technology, Greenwood Technographics (Green-

wood, Westport 2005)

71.10 Thomson Reuters: Thomson Reuters company his-

tory. http://thomsonreuters.com/about/company_

history/#1890_-_1799 (2008)

71.11 Bloomberg: Bloomberg company website.

http://about.bloomberg.com/ (2008)

71.12 F. Hacklin: Management of Convergence in Inno-

vation (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg 2008)

71.13 J. Blasewicz, W. Kubiak, T. Morzy, M. Rusinkiewicz

(eds.): Handbook on Data Management in Infor-

mation Systems (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg 2003)

71.14 J. Gray: Evolution of data management, IEEE Com-

put. 29(10), 38–46 (1996)

71.15 E.F. Codd: A relational model of data for large

shared data banks, Commun. ACM 13, 377–387 (1970)

71.16 BPO: What is business process outsourcing? The ba-

sics of business process outsourcing. http://www.

sourcingmag.com/content/c060405a.asp(2008)

71.17 Deepa: Financial value of outsourcing I–IV, BPO J.

Online http://bponews.blogspot.com (2007)

71.18 T.H. Davenport: Competing on analytics, Harvard

Bus. Rev. 84(1), 98 (2006), reprint R0R01H 1–10

71.19 P. Balasubramanian: Future of operations re-

search, a practitioner’s perspective. In: Handbook

of Operations Research and Management Science,

ed. by A. Ravi Ravindran (CRC, Boca Raton 2007),

Chap. 26

71.20 A.F. Mayadas, R.C. Durbeck, W.D. Hinsberg,

J.M. McCrossin: The evolution of printers and dis-

plays, IBM Syst. J. 25

(314), 399–416 (1986)

71.21 C.D. Hansen, C. Johnson: Visualization Handbook

(Academic, New York 2004)

71.22 RSA: Digital certiﬁcate solutions. http://www.rsa.

com/node.aspx?id=2604(2008)

71.23 J. Mylopoulos: Characterizing information model-

ing techniques. In: Handbook on Architectures of

Information Systems, ed. by P. Bernus, K. Mar-

tins, G. Schmidt (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg 1998),

Chap. 2

71.24 W. Kozaczynski: Software engineering methods. In:

Handbook on Architectures of Information Systems,

ed. by P. Bernus, K. Martins, G. Schmidt (Springer,

Berlin Heidelberg 1998), Chap. 17, pp. 385–403

71.25 G. Booch: Object Oriented Analysis and Design with

Applications (Benjamins/Cummins, New York 1994)

71.26 H. Erdogmus: So many languages, so little time,

IEEE Softw. 25(1), 4–6 (2008)

71.27 E. Yourdon, L.L. Constantine: Structured Design

(Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River 1979)

71.28 M. Swaine: Dr. Dobb’s excellence in programming

award 2008, Dr.Dobb’s J. 4, 16–17 (2008)

71.29 R.J. Wirfs-Brock: Connecting design with code, IEEE

Softw. 25(2), 20–21 (2008)

71.30 C. Kaner, J. Falk, H.Q. Nguyen: Testing Computer

Software (Van Nostrand Reinhhold, New York 1993)

71.31 P. Jalote: Software Project Management in Practice

(Addison-Wesley, Boston 2002)

71.32 P. Jalote: CMM in Practice: Processes for Executing

Software (Addison-Wesley, Boston 1999)

71.33 A. Clemm: Network Management Fundamentals

(Cisco, Indianapolis 2006)

71.34 Cisco: Cisco website. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/

products/sw/netmgtsw (2008)

71.35 E. Turban: Information Technology for Manage-

ment (Wiley, New York 2006)

71.36 Agile Modeling: Figure 1, network diagram for the

university system. http://www.agilemodeling.com/

artifacts/networkDiagram.htm (2009)

71.37 D. Tynan: The next 20 years, PC World Mag., 109–112

(2008)

71.38 R. Rivest, A. Shamir, L. Adleman: A method for

obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryp-

tosystems, Commun. ACM 21(2), 120–126 (1978)

71.39 N.K. Ratha, V. Govindaraju: Advances in Biometrics,

Services, Algorithms and Systems (Springer, Berlin

Heidelberg 2008)

71.40 HP: HP infrastructure management services: tai-

lored solutions put you in control. http://www.hp.

com/pub/services/infrastructure/info/in_service_

brief.pdf

(2008)

71.41 IBM: IBM – the world’s choice for web hosting.

http://www.c2crm.com/c2/c2web/collateral.nsf/0/

2CB826453C7D68FF862571C400697E18/$ﬁle/why

-ibm-hosting.pdf

71.42 Microsoft: Microsoft’s software as a service.

http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/saas/

default.mspx (2008)

71.43 McKinsey Global Institute: Who wins in offshoring?

http://www.cfr.org/content/meetings/innovation_

rt/2_4_2004/Farrell.pdf(2004)

Part G 71

1284 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

71.44 T. Yoo, M. Wilson, T. Shorters, M. Becton:

The impact of information technology on civil

society. http://www.independentsector.org/pdfs/

factﬁnd4.pdf (2001)

71.45 J. Recktenwald: Technology for the disabled: What

does federal law mean for IT? http://articles.

techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878-1036687.html

(2000)

71.46 N.G. Carr: Does IT Matter? (Harvard Business School

Press, Boston 2004)

71.47 R. Buyya, S. Venugopal: A gentle introduction to

grid computing and technologies, CSI Commun.

29(1), 9–19 (2005)

71.48 GIS: What is GIS?

http://www.gis.com/whatisgis/index.html (2008)

Part G 71