Technology Management TechKNOWvatioN

The Technology Management TechKNOWvatioN involves those processes and activities needed to establish standards and monitor industry directions in all areas of the distributed computing industry which affect the company’s computing environment. Technology Management focuses on which computing technology the IT organization implements for the company. Examples of standards and industry directions include operating systems, network cabling, LAN/WAN topologies, hardware, applications, and networking protocols.

Technology Management takes a long term view of configuration issues and tends to be more static, less changing by nature, giving it a much more proactive focus.

• Standards Monitoring TechKNOWvatioN Service

The Standards Monitoring TechKNOWvatioN Service is the set of services that follows and/or participates in the development of new and significant distributed computing environment standards and technology in order to determine which standards and technology to apply to the business. Concerned with tracking events in the distributed computing industry with respect to standards (such as TCP/IP or ATM) and technology (such as NT or CPU Architectures), Standards Monitoring has an external focus.

• Industry Standards

The Industry Standards Element is the service that monitors the development of standards in a technically complex environment to determine which standards may be applicable to the business. This element includes tasks such as attending conferences and seminars and monitoring standards committee activities.

• Technology Evaluation

The Technology Evaluation Element is the service that monitors and evaluates new technologies in a technically complex environment to determine which emerging technologies may be applicable to solving business needs. This element looks at mid to long term technologies, rather than near term.

• Standards Development TechKNOWvatioN Service

The Standards Development TechKNOWvatioN Service is the set of services that develops architectural, configuration, and product standards for a technically complex environment. Standards Development focuses on standards that the business will be using in the near term or is currently using. It focuses on the development, evaluation, and selection of these standards.

• Product Standards Selection

The Product Standards Selection Element is the service that selects physical standards (hardware and software) for a technically complex environment. Product Standards Selection is concerned with the development, evaluation and selection of products to be used by the organization.

• Configuration Standards

The Configuration Standards Element is the service that develops logical standards for a technically complex environment. Configuration Standards is concerned with the development of standards including naming conventions for hardware and user accounts, file structure conventions, and network addressing conventions.

• Architectural Standards

The Architectural Standards Element is the service that develops architectural standards for a technically complex environment. Architectural Standards is concerned with issues such as network topology and server topology. This element drives the configuration and product standards. It requires close cooperation with the user community and is related to Strategic Planning, but the focus is much more on technology and IT, rather than business issues.