1. Info-Tech Research Group1 Info-Tech Research Group, Inc. Is a global leader in providing IT research and advice. Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns. © 1997-2014 Info-Tech Research Group Inc. Improve IT-Business Alignment with an Infrastructure Roadmap Balance stability and agility to support evolving business demands. Info-Tech's products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns.© 1997 - 2014 Info-Tech Research Group

2. Info-Tech Research Group2 Use roadmapping to align with business goals, exploit emerging technology, manage legacy assets, and improve foundational infrastructure. Introduction IT infrastructure and operations managers who want to build an infrastructure roadmap. CIOs who want to show how IT investments support corporate goals. Infrastructure and operations managers who need an accessible way to communicate where they are and where they are going in infrastructure. Create a shared understanding of the overall infrastructure direction, opportunities, risks, and next steps. Optimize IT infrastructure by identifying dependencies and redundancies. Integrate various IT planning and budgeting processes. Show how IT investments support corporate goals. Anticipate emerging technology needs and opportunities sooner. This Research Is Designed For:This Research Will Help You:

3. Info-Tech Research Group3 Executive Summary Definition: Roadmapping is the practice of creating a holistic view of an organization’s direction and next steps, especially with regard to investments and long-term commitments. Challenge: IT is increasingly expected to be more agile and responsive to business needs and emerging technologies. But this frequently conflicts with the mandate of reliability, integrity, and efficiency. Technology roadmapping, when done well, is essential for balancing agility and stability. This is especially true with infrastructure, due to high capital costs and long-term strategic implications. When technology roadmapping is done very well, it helps IT contribute more directly in some aspects of corporate strategic planning. By participating more actively in corporate planning – or at least by using the roadmap to manage business perceptions and expectations of IT more effectively – IT leaders can mitigate much of the uncertainty that poses challenges in the roadmapping process. Resolution: There are three keys to building a successful infrastructure roadmap: 1.Focus on the roadmapping process itself — and improving the process — at least as much as the documents that come out of it. 2.Tailor the roadmapping process to your organization. Fit it to your IT org. structure and unique confluence of related processes. 3.Build adoption-drivers into the roadmap process. Designate triggers and milestones, validate the roadmap and process at each of those triggers and milestones, and make appropriate changes if necessary.

4. Info-Tech Research Group4 Guided Implementation Points in the Infrastructure Roadmapping project Book a Guided Implementation Today: Info-Tech is just a phone call away and can assist you with your project. Our expert Analysts can guide you to successful project completion. Here are the suggested Guided Implementation points in the Infrastructure Roadmapping project: Section 1: Prepare for annual roadmapping activities Establish workshop scope, goals, and gather relevant documents (asset end-of-life, project portfolio, architecture, strategy) to ensure the roadmap will be aligned with long-term business priorities. Section 2: Evaluate roadmap drivers, enablers, and inhibitors Brainstorm and prioritize with stakeholders and technology experts to ensure a sufficient range of emerging opportunities and challenges are identified and addressed. Section 3: Build the roadmap by defining target state, gaps, and action plans Analyze the information available to develop realistic, practical action plans with measurable outcomes and compelling benefits for stakeholders. To enroll, send an email to GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com or call 1-888-670-8889 and ask for the Guided Implementation Coordinator.GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com This symbol signifies when you’ve reached a Guided Implementation point in your project.

5. Info-Tech Research Group5 Artifacts and documents 1.Follow the steps outlined in Build an Infrastructure Roadmap (current document). 2.Conduct a roadmapping workshop to generate the analyses in the Infrastructure Roadmap Workbook and Emerging Technology Radar. Infrastructure Roadmap WorkbookEmerging Technology Radar 3.Where indicated, replace the blank/sample objects in this document with populated objects from the Infrastructure Roadmap Workbook. Infrastructure Roadmap Workbook Infrastructure Roadmap Blueprint Build an Infrastructure Roadmap (current document) Infrastructure Roadmap – Final Report 1 2 3 Emerging Technology Radar

6. Info-Tech Research Group6 What’s in this Section:Sections: Understand the benefits of roadmapping Balance stability and agility with an infrastructure roadmap. Understand the benefits and costs of roadmapping. Conduct smarter planning exercises rather than simply increasing your planning effort. Use the roadmap to highlight value of IT to stakeholders. Understand the benefits of roadmapping Plan an annual roadmapping workshop Evaluate roadmap drivers, enablers, and inhibitors Build the roadmap Workshop Facilitator’s Slides

7. Info-Tech Research Group7 Balance stability and agility with an infrastructure roadmap Stability itself isn’t the purpose of IT infrastructure. The purpose of stability is ultimately to support growth, change, and continuous improvement. So the roadmap will fail to serve its purpose if it is not designed for agility. IT is increasingly expected to be responsive and agile around changing business needs. But this doesn’t reduce the need for stability, reliability, and efficiency. Infrastructure and operations managers are fundamentally responsible for ensuring stability. Build an Infrastructure Roadmap to Improve IT-Business Alignment Devices Data Center Networking 20132014201520162017… Strategic Initiatives Infrastructure Roadmap This solution set shows how to initiate or improve your infrastructure roadmapping process. Special attention will be paid to dealing with uncertainty and change, and communicating value to stakeholders.

8. Info-Tech Research Group8 Understand the benefits and costs of roadmapping Roadmaps ensure you acquire the right technology at the right time – which comes with additional benefits: Make better decisions and build capabilities before you need them; this will enable faster, more coordinated, and successful execution. Optimize for efficient spending and IT effort by buying in volume and deploying right-sized batches. Avoid latency by building or buying capabilities at the right time when there is sufficient demand and there are supporting systems in place. Recognize risks, dependencies, and other implications of aging legacy infrastructure. Generate foresight into changing landscapes and exploit emerging technology more effectively. Manage stakeholder expectations by giving them a clear, rationalized view of the future. Mitigate impulsive decisions, and produce effective, business case- quality responses to impulsive demands. Develop business cases that are aligned with longer term organizational goals. Virtually every IT leader Info-Tech talked to said they have “a roadmap,” i.e. they have a shared understanding of their direction and next steps. Such ad hoc approaches fall short in accountability and alignment, making it difficult to grow, mature, and exploit new technologies effectively. Costs: 30 hours annually for 1 infrastructure manager. 70 hours annually for 15 other participants (team members and stakeholders). Quantifiable Benefits: ~10% improvement of IT efficiency due to optimized operational spending. ~10% long-term improvement in performance and productivity due to compatibility planning.

9. Info-Tech Research Group9 Business Strategy IT Strategy Infra/Ops Goals Long-TermMid-TermShort-Term Goals Cascade: Roadmapping highlights how infrastructure investments support higher level IT and business goals. Roadmapping helps describe and manage a continuous transition from current to target state. Technology lifecycles are getting shorter and new technologies are disrupting current/legacy architectures. Clients that Info-Tech talked to are moving from standard five-year lifecycles to three-year lifecycles to keep up with change. There is a significant risk that the technologies IT is looking at, preparing for, or investing in for three to five years in the future will become incompatible, obsolete, or unnecessary around the time of planned implementation. No organization will achieve both maximum stability and maximum agility. However, technology roadmapping helps organizations maintain stability and agility in the right areas/capabilities in order to meet business objectives. Focus as much on the roadmapping process itself and improving the process, as on the documents that come out of it. It’s often necessary to change direction in response to emerging opportunities; other times it’s better to see long-term initiatives through, rather than react to present circumstances. Roadmapping helps make those decisions by putting short-term details into the context of long-term, big-picture goals. Every leader should think of their company as a technology company. IT is helping to innovate and create value in most industries today. This broad trend will continue as technologies like big data and the internet continue to mature. Organizations that don’t find new opportunities to leverage IT in customer touch-points will be disrupted by innovators, alternatives, new market entrants, and shifting customer expectations. Infrastructure managers can use roadmapping workshops to kick-start more discipline around management activities such as technology architecture, portfolio management, and strategy. The question isn’t, “how much of a priority is the infrastructure roadmap?” The question is, “how do we get the most value for the time and effort we already spend on infrastructure roadmapping?” Take a long-term, wide-angle view of the roadmap

10. Info-Tech Research Group10 Conduct smarter planning exercises rather than simply increasing your planning effort Look at opportunities and challenges in the big picture to make better decisions. Most infrastructure managers’ greatest strength is having a deep understanding of a broad range of technologies. This technology focus sometimes creates a blind spot when it comes to strategy. While most infrastructure managers are primarily accountable for technology, there are some techniques that any IT manager can use to periodically deliver on strategic job requirements without losing focus on day-to-day responsibilities. The exercises in this blueprint combine these techniques to help infrastructure managers improve their organizational and team capabilities. 1.Long-term business goals. Look at IT the way business stakeholders see it. 2.Medium-term corporate and IT goals. Look at infrastructure in the context of the IT projects and applications it supports. 3.Current / short-term infrastructure decisions. Prioritize present activities and decisions according to broader business and IT requirements.

11. Info-Tech Research Group11 Use the roadmap to highlight the value of IT to stakeholders Just as vendor roadmaps are critical for long-term IT planning, IT roadmaps are critical for long-term business strategy. Roadmaps are simple, adaptable, ‘strategic lenses’ through which the evolution of complex systems can be viewed, [and which support] dialogue and communication.* Technology roadmaps have traditionally been associated with product development. Product development roadmaps are largely focused on creating technologies, while IT roadmaps lean more toward adopting technologies that have been developed elsewhere. Trends are forcing IT leaders to think more like product developers, who define the future rather than simply accept it: 1.Technology-enabled business models are emerging in industries where IT was previously a back-office function. 2.Disruptive technologies are emerging from more directions. *Robert Phaal and David Probert, “Technology roadmapping: facilitating collaborative strategy development.” IfM Briefing: Vol 2 No 1, 2010. University of Cambridge.

12. Info-Tech Research Group12 Info-Tech Research Group Helps IT Professionals To: Sign up for free trial membership to get practical solutions for your IT challenges www.infotech.com Quickly get up to speed with new technologies Make the right technology purchasing decisions – fast Deliver critical IT projects, on time and within budget Manage business expectations Justify IT spending and prove the value of IT Train IT staff and effectively manage an IT department “Info-Tech helps me to be proactive instead of reactive – a cardinal rule in a stable and leading edge IT environment. - ARCS Commercial Mortgage Co., LP Toll Free: 1-888-670-8889