Adopting Information Technology Infrastructure Library for Managing IT Service - Case Study Example

Adopting ITIL for Managing IT service in Terra Firma Student’s name: Institution: Instructor: Subject: Adopting ITIL for Managing IT service in Terra Firma The IT Function in Terra Firma 1.1 Overview of the IT function Terra Firma was founded on the platform of technology and therefore IT is core element in its operations. Majorly, IT is being used in communication; corporate functions and organization. Most of the major communications within the company are facilitated through an IT based communication network. This way the internal and external operations of the company are done through use of IT equipments. Staffs communicate through use of telephone and emails all of which are established on an IT network. The company have established branches in Malaysia, Penang, Germany, Japan, United States, United Kingdom and Australia all of which share information through the network. This network facilitates the regular communications of different levels of management and staff members. Furthermore, there are field officers in different parts of the continent who have to report or request information from the colleagues. This is easily facilitated through use of the communication equipments that are accessed through the IT network. Critical information is stored in an IT infrastructure to be shared among members working in the company. Some of the information used in the development of the medical imaging equipments or in the operation of the company is stored on the network so that relevant staff can access them any time. To succeed this, an online database that stores this information has been established. In this database, the relevant information is conveniently stored in a manner that it can be shared from different points. The diagnostic medical imaging equipments that Terra Firma takes role in production relies heavily on information technology. Over the time the company have been operational, IT have been taking different forms that have resulted to the company adjusting its operations. Initially, the company was only associated with design of imaging devices, however with time it started engaging in production of softwares that would support these devices. As the market for its products widens, there is need to ensure that its facilities integrated with most of the machines already in the market and the way to do this is through production of compatible software to integrate these devices. The software production team is one that heavily relied in IT. Since 2004, the company established and put in place a team of programmers that are responsible for ensuring the imaging equipment can be able to give additional features such as 3D and 4D. Ensuring that the softwares produced are compatible and works with specific equipments produced by Terra Firma is very important for the success of the company. Additionally, there are periodic changes in technologies outside the control of Terra Firma are developing by day. It is the responsible of the software development teams those technologies that are relevant to the operation of the company and find a way of developing softwares that supports these technologies. To develop these softwares, the team heavily relies on IT infrastructure in order to share and store information and data used during the design of these products. The main products that are produced by Terra Firma heavily rely on IT for them to operate effectively. The different type of scanners and imaging devices relies on IT supported infrastructures to make them fully functional. Visualizing softwares, image processing software and image storing software are incorporated in the devices that are developed together with the final hardware. Testing of such equipment is very critical before it goes to market. Softwares used for testing of these equipments before they go to the market are all supported by the IT system. Research of new products and equipment is also facilitated using IT. For Terra Firma to reach the position it is in today, it has used many resources trying to refine its operations to suit the needs of the market. Most of the activities that are done in research heavily rely on IT. A lot of tests and analysis have to be done to generate new ideas. The design of how the equipments shall look like to the smallest component is also a matter of great concern during research. IT structure provides a quick way of storing information, accessing it and facilitating studying of these equipments. The ability of the IT system to store large amount of information and speedy accessibility of this information has also made it possible for the researchers to modify different research variables to optimize the conditions that best suits the design of the equipment under research. 1.2 Issues and Problems with the current IT function Although the IT facilities in Terra Firma are serving the purpose they are intended to, there are numerous challenges that comes with them. At the time of the design and establishment of the initial IT architecture, priority was given to meet the short-term goals of the company at that moment. The IT team now never fully considered the future trend that the technology might take. Because of this poor initial planning, the company have not been able to successfully match its operation with the technological changes. Over time, new technologies have been developed in field of imaging and picture processing (Shaam, 2008). However, making this new technologies work for Terra Firma has been difficult since the IT infrastructure is not capable of adequately adjusting and align itself in a position that it can accommodate them. In the situations where it have had to make the necessary changes, this have only happed in units without the full support of the entire IT infrastructure. As a result, the cost associated with upgrading the individual units has been costly. When new features ought to be incorporated in the system while there the main IT system is disorganized and lacks standards, it results to messy and heterogeneous mix of software and hardware that persists company. The main reason for this major setback is lack of setting proper standards in the design of effective IT infrastructure. A properly organized IT infrastructure should have standards that ensure that softwares are organized in hierarchies in a manner that it is possible to maintain the entire system (Shaam, 2008). The applications running in this system are organized in a way that it is possible to upgrade them individually or collectively. However, with the current Terra Firma IT system, most of the applications do not adhere to the required global IT standards. Moreover, the company never created the standards to be followed in running the different applications. This is what has made it difficult to upgrade the entire system and makes the cost of maintenance high. More problems that are serious are experienced due to too much traffic of data in the network. The network is overloaded yet there are not proper avenues through which they can upgraded without affecting the operation of the over 200 different applications that runs on the network. This jamming has resulted to observed failures in VOIP and inability of some members of staff failing to access their emails. Issues of spikes being observed from incoming network traffic are now being observed. This chain of problems extends to the point where it causes disruptions of the network, failure of router and network switches in the main data canter. At one point, the company had to even stop for days when serious problems involving communication, inaccessibility of data and crashing of some database files. Whenever problems concerning the IT infrastructure and its components occur, it has been difficult to collect the problem effectively due to lack of proper standard in design of the infrastructure. Many resources are used to prevent the system from creating severe problems. Additionally, there are numerous resources used to collect the already existing problems. 1.3 IT Function redefined It is evident that IT is the root of Terra Firma. However, now, the operation of the company is experiencing numerous challenges all whose roots are due to poor IT structure. To ensure that the company still maintains its position in the industry, it needs to take urgent measures to rectify the situation through offering a permanent solution to the roots of the problems. Now, design of new IT infrastructure that has all the necessary standards is the sure way of returning the IT facilities on track. In the design of the new IT system, among the major factors that should be considered is the ability of the system to be periodically upgraded and proper organization of data at different levels. For an IT system to accommodate upgrading, the applications should be loaded in the system in a manner that they independently interact with the main system (Gustavo & Ilan, 2006). Now, the main problem that is making it impossible to properly maintain the entire system is its inability of the different components of the IT system to effectively integrate. Therefore, the new system should enable the different components of the network to independently work and still support the operations of the entire network. According to Ronald (2004), a good IT infrastructure should also be able to support expansion without affecting the functionality of the existing infrastructure. Currently the network is experiencing high level of data traffic while it is impossible to expand some of the systems without affecting the entire network system. The current infrastructure is poorly organized which makes it impossible to expand without isolating some of the applications. The IT system should also be reliable. Now, it is difficult to predict when the network will fail and the possible consequences. This makes it even harder for the IT team to prepare for unexpected situation that might arise. A reliable system is one, which gives consistent quality results even in situations where there are complicated IT systems. Terra Firma is a firm that heavily relies on IT to effect its operations and therefore a reliable system is mandatory for the success of its operations. Richard & Michael (2009) observe that speed and capacity of data storage are also very important for one to realize a good IT system. In this case, Terra Firma needs a system that is able to allow flow of information between the various users fast. The server should facilitate the users to not only communicate among themselves but also access internet. Moreover, the company should ensure all data transmitting cables have enough bandwidth to facilitate communication. Data should also be stored conveniently in the system to enable speedy access (Myers, 2011). Ensuring that there are more than enough data storage facilities also contributes to improvement of communication speed. Overall, the system should be able to perform the main functions accurately and efficiently to the end user. There is need to have a well organized interface for the user to use in video conferencing, messaging, and offering the basic form of communication in secure ways. (Braa et al., 2007) observes that accessing the functionalities of the end user should be made in a way that it is easy to upgrade the server without necessarily adding extra softwares on the client side. This will make it easier to maintain the entire system. Additional functions that maintain the IT system should be put in place. Softwares that are able to detect faults, inconsistency or errors in the network should be put in place. Additionally, software that can be able to correct some of these minor errors and fault should be put in place to ensure there is speedy response upon detection of problems in the system. For the problems that cannot be easily corrected by human beings, the system should be designed in a way that upon detection of such problems, alarm is raised to enable the IT team act on it (Lee, 2011). The IT structure would also need to be periodically reviewed as to whether it matches the technological trend. Where it is possible to improve the operations of the company through upgrading of the system, the IT team should do so regularly. This would definitely solve some of the problems that results from use of outdated technologies. References Braa, J., Hanseth, O., Heywood, A., Mohammed, W. and Shaw, V. (2007).Developing Health Information Systems in Developing Countries: The flexible standards strategy, MIS Quarterly 31(2): 381–402. Gustavo, M. & Ilan, T. (2006). Online Friendship Formation, Communication Channels, and Social Closeness, International Journal of Internet Science, 1(1): 29-44 Lee, A.S. (2011). IS Research Methods: Inclusive or exclusive? Journal of Information Technology, 26(4): 296–298. Myers, M.D. (2011). Is There a Methodological Crisis? Journal of Information Technology, 26(4): 294–295. Richard, H. & Michael, T. (2009). Identity in Online Communities: Social Networking Sites and Languages, International Journal of Emerging Technologies & Society, 7 (2): 109-124. Ronald, L. (2004). The Analysis of Social Network, 7 (2):3-12. Shaam, H. (2008). Communication Networks India: Shar books Centre Read More