I recently came across this article by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (“The real promise of Cloud Computing”) which introduces a concept that they call “Evergreen IT”. So what is Evergreen IT?
According to PwC ,”An Evergreen IT environment is the end state that frees enterprises of costly, inefficient, legacy IT by enabling enterprises to build a more flexible and agile environment. Evergreen IT requires technology architecture and IT infrastructure management strategies consistent with the strategies used in cloud computing. It creates the potential for continually refreshing IT capabilities without distracting the business and for staying in alignment with business needs. Although this vision is inspired by external cloud computing providers, the goal is Evergreen IT, not cloud computing per se.”
Evergreen IT applies the principles of Cloud Computing inside a business, changing the way technology supports the organization.
The article also features a case study where they talk about how Evergreen IT was successfully implemented by a major construction company , Bechtel Corporation and how after the implementation
it now only takes them 1 – 2 days to setup the IT infrastructure for a project as compared to 60 – 90 days earlier.
References :
1. http://www.pwc.com/us/en/view/fall09/cloud-computing.jhtml
2. http://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology-forecast/summer2009/cloud-computing-evergreen-bechtel.jhtml
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14 years ago
nice post. the case study was good. I read the Geir Ramleth's interview, it is pretty interesting how they implemented the infrastucture at Bechtel and they suceeded.
ReplyDeleteNice Post there Tarun! A constant Dilemma for CIO's and IT leaders in various companies is to choose between the Legacy systems and the "cloud". I came across an article on the web which mentions that Evergreen IT gives IT managers the best of both worlds i.e. the security, control, and focus of legacy systems and the flexibility, ease of management, and cost-effectiveness of cloud computing. Evergreen IT seems to be the next 'big thing' in IT.
ReplyDelete@ Prachi : Thanks Prachi .. if you want more details you can actually refer to the "Technology Forecast :Summer 2009" ( http://www.pwc.com/us/en/forms/download-technology-forecast-summer2009.jhtml ) by PwC
ReplyDelete@Gautam : Evergreen IT seems to be a mid path between Cloud Computing arch. and your traditional enterprise arch .. tries to leverage the advantages of both.
Why is this called Evergreen IT? Is it because it's more environmentally friendly? I feel I missed something here.
ReplyDeleteIt says Evergreen IT also helps get rid of legacy systems. I do not think that is possible in any case. There is no way in which you can remove the legacy systems that your comapny holds. You just need to find ways in which you can integrate those systems with your new technologies or find a way in which you could migrate all legacy system data to your new integrated platform. Technology is changing at a fast pace and this means exploring new ways and options to integrate your legacy with th new installed base.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is to build up a desired IT environment which goes green, less costly, and more efficient.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is nice on the presentation front ... but i believe that this would be critical when you building the IT infrastructure from scratch .... which is a rare phenomena ...
ReplyDeletethe role of legacy systems/other monolithic applications cannot be denied in the real world .... generally these these technological innovations provide the impetus for presentation improvement but their role is replacing the old systems is highly questionable ....
I dont think cloud results in green it , for me green it is a term much more suited to help environment efforts(Dr. Kiels class case study on green it ), well it you move out the junk from your own backyard , you are using someone others backyard to store it. I dont think it may cause any significant effect on the environment front
ReplyDelete@lubna : thats why the article says tht it requires a change in mindset as well .. in most cases a company's legacy systems contain data that is not even used .. it might so happen that there are many servers and storage devices being supported which actually do not serve a meaningful purpose . .. implementing this sort of an arch would imply using the help of powerful s/w to avoid legacy complexities
ReplyDelete@avinash : the case study with this article talks about a construction giant,Bechtel,which requires setting up of IT based infrastructure for many proj in a very short duration of time .. and yes , the importance of legacy sys for company cannot be denied .. in most cases they contain very imp data such as the business rules which are very vital to the comp
@doomsburry : I'm nt sure if the main focus of this type of an arch is a greener environment .. but it does mention tht Bechtel reduced the no of data centers from 27 to 7 and the avge Data center center size reduced from 35000 sq feet to 1000 sq ft .. sounds like a step towards a greener env to me.
I'm not sure if I agree with the statement that Legacy systems cannot be completely replaced. If the Legacy system is not adding any business value then there is no point in keeping it. In this case integrating costs might be higher than replacing the legacy systems. One case that comes to mind is the Delta Airlines case where the entire legacy system was replaced.
ReplyDelete