Access Strategy for the On Demand World

Global enterprises frequently grapple with the problem of providing uniform

information access to end users who log in from multiple locations across

various computing platforms. In this scenario, IT often adopts a tactical or

reactive approach to giving users the access they need.

While IT honchos are constantly under pressure to provide partners, customers

and employees access to information so that the business can drive more revenue,

few enterprises have the requisite access strategy in place as part of the

overall IT infrastructure.

There are several reasons for the poor state of access infrastructure in many

enterprises:· As per Yankee Group estimates, 80% of a typical company's IT

budget today is spent just on maintaining the complex mix of existing systems

that has built up over time.·

Each successive wave of computing ? mainframe, minicomputer, PC,

client-server, the Web, Java, and Web services ? has not superseded previous

waves but rather has been piled on top of what came before.

As a result, IT infrastructures in most companies are spaghetti-like. When it

comes to solving computing problems, most CIOs and department heads have

traditionally resorted to an 'if-then' approach. If this happens, then let

us do this, and so on.

Tackle Future Challenges



To meet future enterprise challenges, companies must move away from the

disparate access methods of the past and develop an effective and efficient,

enterprise-wide information access strategy. An access strategy is a holistic,

well-conceived approach to connecting information supply and information demand,

supporting the inevitably increasing complexity at both ends.

This is important because information demand has become more challenging to

satisfy. End users have become more dynamic and unpredictable, using an array of

access devices such as PCs, workstations, PDAs, and mobile phones. Today,

productivity depends on being able to access corporate information wherever end

users are and from whatever device or network they are using.

Tactical Strategy



A forward-looking global company has not just to meet all these challenges,

it has to incessantly adopt innovative, cost-effective computing strategies to

keep and grow its business. Take the case of growing regulatory compliance

requirements, HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley for instance. Or, in the face of growing

economic and political turmoil, the need for implementing business continuity

solutions. The goals of the CEO, CFO and COO are to increase revenue and

efficiency while managing risk. At the same time, the CIO's mission is to

support growth by building an on-demand enterprise, giving the members of the

extended enterprise flexible, secure access to all the information they need.

Access Infrastructure



The foundation of an access strategy is access infrastructure: the software

used to create, operate, integrate, and manage the multiple application systems.

While traditionally, most enterprises have taken an ad-hoc approach to building

this access infrastructure and almost always repented, they do have the option

of building a separate access infrastructure. An access infrastructure includes

all the components of an ad hoc approach but in a more integrated and

interoperable way. Enterprises can deploy an access middleware, abstracting the

access method from the application, the application platform, and client

devices. It is more than a migration strategy; it is a lifecycle strategy

because organizations will continue to deploy new technologies that promise

benefits.

An access strategy that is scalable, fault-tolerant, secure, and manageable,

transforms the organization into an on-demand enterprise and delivers secure

access to information, regardless of the complexities in information supply or

information demand. It makes all those information access problems much more

easy to deal with.

Souma S Das



The author is MD, Citrix Systems India