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Now that the economy has matured beyond "irrational exuberance," perhaps the most intelligent move you can make is to keep your existing customers happy (or, in New Economy parlance, to ensure a "positive customer experience"). These days, that's no easy challenge for IT, which now has the task of giving fragile and overextended information systems the aura of invincibility.
Unfortunately, as I reported previously in "Castles of Sand" (Editor's Page, Aug. 3, 1999), too many IT and business leaders approach the availability of customer-facing systems in reactive mode. Availability is often regarded as a "tombstone" issue - one addressed only after a disaster occurs.
The situation has improved, largely because of the emergence of content delivery networks such as Akamai Technologies and Inktomi, Web hosting specialists such as Exodus Communications, and Web performance management solutions from Keynote Systems Inc. (the subject of that 1999 column) and Mercury Interactive Corp. Now, new solutions are appearing that represent even more proactive approaches to the problem. As we've seen in other segments recently, the developers of these solutions have found inspiration in the IT junkyard: from the field once known as artificial intelligence.
One particularly good example comes courtesy of IBM, which announced that it has developed a class of "software rejuvenation" tools designed to enable "self-healing" systems. According to IBM, the tool, which will bundle with xSeries Intel processor-based servers, can assess whether server software is under sufficient stress to warrant proactive downtime, and if so, shut it down - thereby potentially redefining the meaning of predictive capacity planning.
InterBiz, a division of Computer Associates International, extends this concept even further. Its BizWorks suite purports to enable a "single-image" enterprise that relies heavily on CA's Neugent neural-net agent technology to proactively sense and respond to changing data or business event patterns. In this ambitious framework, a stressed-out server is just one wrinkle in the enterprise fabric.
Perhaps neural-network technology, once derided as a solution in search of a problem, has finally found a home.
Expert Advice
On a different note, I'd like to proudly introduce the 2001 edition of the new Intelligent Enterprise Reader Advisory Board. (See sidebar.)
These individuals, loyal subscribers from a cross-section of industries and backgrounds, have graciously volunteered to assist the editors in invaluable ways: to serve as an early warning system for emerging issues associated with intelligent business processes and technologies, help us continually clarify and flesh out Intelligent Enterprise's editorial mission, and perhaps share with other readers their own organizational and IT objectives in 2001. With their help, we hope to do an even better job of spotlighting the business transformation challenges confronting you this year. We thank them for their generous efforts.
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