HP—THE ADAPTIVE ENTERPRISE Hewlett-Packard's approach to autonomic computing is embraced in its Adaptive Enterprise strategy, as illustrated in Figure 14.2. HP's vision for this approach is to provide tools, services, and products that deliver IT service levels that match the flow of real-time business activities or changes whenever needed—during excessive load times and when there are lulls in business activity. HP Adaptive Management offerings are comprised of products that enable IT management to implement an adaptive infrastructure that is agile and can be swiftly changed as the business needs change. There is a dynamic link between the IT infrastructure and the business process. They are closely aligned and mapped together. Figure 14.2. The HP reference architecture named Darwin. Each business segment is defined and managed with interaction with the levels. The business applications interface through the infrastructure services that provide all the elements, such as Web services and security, that call the resources needed—printers, storage, servers, and so on. On the right of the diagram, the management and control elements are provided at three levels—the business level, the service level, and the resource level. Each level has layers, such as plan, provision, inventory, control, monitor, and maintain. 
The Adaptive Enterprise model is designed around the following policies. -
All IT resources are shared, not isolated or compartmentalized into specific departments, business units, or lines of business, as they are today. The "silo" approaches of the past cannot be tolerated any further. -
Business priorities are the determining factor for the allocation of IT resources. -
Service levels and detailed system expectations are defined preciously, and this will drive the business services. Corporations must respond in the on demand environment, given the global marketplace and the volatility of the economic landscape. HP responds to this challenge with the Adaptive Enterprise approach—establish an IT environment that can change quickly or respond to the market or clients. It should be able to deal with a number of demands such as: -
Mergers and acquisitions, the integration of new businesses. -
Dynamic changes in the global marketplace. -
Totally new business models. -
Fluid relationships with clients, partners, or suppliers. The Adaptive Enterprise is designed to provide business benefits that include: -
Better Quality Service— Through agility, senior IT management can meet the demands of the business and meet the terms of service level agreements. -
Simplification— Establishing a standard architecture that can adapt and change quickly leads to greater overall simplified systems, procedures and operations. -
Reduced Risk— If the total environment is simplified and streamlined, the risks of deployment of new applications and implementation are reduced. -
Business Costs— Budgets will be reduced and the total cost of ownership will be lower. Sharing IT resources eliminates underutilized or overdeployed pockets of resources; it spreads the load and smooths out any components. Sharing resources across lines of business can help corporations become much more agile, respond to threats or opportunities quicker, and be more responsive to existing customers. Further, sharing IT resources will reduce the costs by simplifying the task of managing those resources. It means few managers are needed to manage. The HP vision for the Adaptive Enterprise is build around the HP Darwin Reference Architecture, shown in Figure 14.2. This architecture includes the basic elements for an agile or adaptive infrastructure and includes HP software solutions, services, and products. |
