EMC IT Strategic Plan EMC: Strategic IT Plan

The corporate IT governance environment of EMC Corporation was analyzed in the previous papers and it was indicated that the firm is challenged with issues related to data security, data mobility, and data backup for cloud customers. For the highlighted issues of IT governance, some solutions were also recommended that included encryption of data, application of Firewalls, VLANs and other securitization throughout the EMC IT infrastructure. For data mobility, it was recommended that EMC should adopt an efficient data mobility model to decrease end-to-end delay in data mobility (Camp, Boleng & Davies, 2002). Gauss-Markov Mobility Model was recommended as the optimal model of data mobility for the firm. Remote data integrity standards and state as well as national level data back legal provisions were recommended as solution for data back-up issue. This paper will highlight the implications of recommended IT solutions followed by strategic IT plan for EMC for the next five years.

Implications of proposed solutions

There will be several implications for EMC within her internal and external environment after the proposed solutions are applied. For instance, the company will have to decide which encryption format it has to use when applying throughout the IT infrastructure. It must be noted that data encryption standard (DES) may not serve EMC's purpose well therefore the company will have to implement high cost and time consuming solution of applying Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). There will be both pros and cons of this solution. The major pros will be the up gradation of cloud infrastructure according to Moore's Law recommendations (Kelly, 2006; Nadeem & Javed, 2005). The EMC IT infrastructure will be permanently saved from distributed attacks on DES. The company may not require specific personnel for bi-monthly security audit. This is because the proposed AES will suffice the securitization on quarterly basis. Downside of this solution may the spiraling of costs of securing the cloud infrastructure and increase in retrieval time to access information through cloud infrastructure. Since cost of confidentiality loss is high in case of breach of data security in EMC's IT infrastructure, it is worth investing in this solution for long-term sustainable competitive advantage of the firm. Individual level analysis indicates that the customer as individual entity will benefit from the solution whereas there will be no significant implication for EMC individual employees. For traditional and virtual teams the implication of this solution set will be multidimensional. The traditional work team as well as virtual teams will have secure access to their networked data through cloud applications as well as increase in lead-retrieval time of data.

Implication of altering data mobility model

For the implications of choosing Gauss-Markov data Mobility Model, the most obvious implication will be the larger number of hops of data as compared to existing Way point model of data mobility (Meghanathan, 2010). Other implications include change in format that data is initially stored in the database of EMC by the technical staff and managers. At individual level, these solutions will ensure that there is increased reliability to carry access data through BYOD phenomenon. At team level, both in traditional and virtual teams, the traditional teams will be more at benefitting from the change as opposed to virtual teams. This is because the proposed model does increase the data hop count that makes it difficult for virtually working staff to access data within smallest possible real time window. This however may not impact actual working as the delay is minimal for virtual team mates. At the corporate level, the change in model will include training need analysis to be conducted for top IT managers that have supervisory roles in data administration. The vendors providing mobility model administration may provide the training service to EMC's employees.

State and national level data back-up provisions

An important implication at an individual level will be the requirement to hire a compliance manager for the proposed solution. The compliance manager will be performing data backup audit for all IT infrastructure of EMC located throughout North-American region. At the corporate and partnership level, the company will have to improve the communication between the vendors and company herself. The compliance manager will work along with many stakeholders and role-performers within and outside the company. Changing the supplier standard operating procedures may also be an outcome of applying the proposed solution.

Strategic IT governance plan

The strategic plan of IT governance for EMC will be based upon following framework.

Source: (Agile Path Corporation, 2013)

Source: (Agile Path Corporation, 2013)

Plan Year 1

As part of the 5-year strategic IT governance reformation plan, year one (1) will be dedicated to developing...

From an asset-based perspective, the cloud leaders will develop the whole infrastructure of EMC to become a service based infrastructure. Integrated resource management (IRM) will be relying on governance lifecycle principles. Relationship management will be practices by designated cloud leaders. The summary analysis of governance transformation is given below.
From: Business managers To: Cloud centric leaders

Plan Year 2

After designating cloud centric leaders with the role of transforming the meaning and use of IT governance within EMC, the cloud centric IT unit will be redesigned to work as a unified broker of IT resources, thus allocating optimal combination of resources within EMC. Resources, services, and capabilities will be distributed irrespective of the source of items. The resources will be deployed based on life cycle returns over investment.

Plan Year 3

After the transformation of key personnel roles and responsibilities and systematic shift of whole IT governance system from asset-based to service-based perspective and development of the whole unit as unified broker, the benchmarking schema will be developed and applied throughout the IT governance infrastructure of EMC. The performance indicators of 3rd party service providers will be taken and performance of new unified broker, the IT governance model will be assessed against the benchmarked services providers. The main variables that will be included in benchmark analysis are:

IT Capabilities

Processes

Rating of service

Customer satisfaction

Efficiency, agility, and innovation (Kundra, 2011) measured against a base score (assessed at the start of this strategic plan implementation in year 1) will also be part of the third year governance assessment criteria. Agility refers to the consolidation of fragmented IT infrastructure, both of EMC and her clients. Efficiency will be measured by reduction in system interfaces and removal of duplication in same-system applications. Innovation will be measured by numbered improvement in SharePoint Application, office communications, and Live Point meeting, both for the firm as well as the client firms.

Plan Year 4

The main goal of EMC in year 4 will to optimize the company's own, as well as the customers' IT spending. This includes assessment of IT spending returns for internal customers (EMC's own cloud users), company's external customers, and channel partners that provide software solutions. The company aims to develop highly differentiated IT services for her internal as well as external customers. New revenue opportunities as well as 'innovation paths' will be developed in the fourth year of this strategic plan. The main goals of fourth year plan are as follows.

Development of innovative IT service models

Product development for internal and external customers

Plan Year 5

EMC will implement the proposed solution in other geographical regions where the firm operates, either directly or through business partners. Four regions except North America i.e. Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin and Central America will be the target regions where proposed changes in IT governance model will be applied. The results and assessments of changes deployed in North American regions will help the company tailor the solutions and better transform the governance model in other regions.

The implications of Strategic plan

The implications of strategic plan being devised for IT governance transformation of EMC will help the company increase its competitiveness in global IT services industry. The company will be able to leverage the knowledge-based resources for optimizing her IT investment returns. The cloud service industry is an increasingly competitive industry whereby innovation in service models as well as performance and agility of services is proving to be the fuel of growth for IT service firms. At the individual level within EMC, there will be new vacancies as well as career growth paths for existing individuals. The internal environment of EMC will become more challenging in context of performance but rewarding in terms of knowledge and career growth for individual employees. At the team level, there will be increased coordination and collaboration between the members of team as new service models will be developed through group project format. At the corporate level, executive leadership of the firm will be required to display strategic thinking in terms of committing resources for EMC's growth and expansion. The transformation of IT governance at EMC will require the top leaders to transform the meaning of IT capabilities, thus taking the capabilities from functional to a strategic level. At the firm's global competitive level, EMC will be able to differentiate from other cloud service providers on the basis of innovation, service leadership, and…