Corporate inertia is commonplace everywhere, but business goals are still the key to having innovation be constructive and not just disruptive. The problem is for the company to learn to construct itself with innovations. The strategy is about migrating to the future.

1. Migration to Innovation
Planning the adaptation to the New
An archestra notebook.
© 2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

2. MIGRATION TO INNOVATION
Information Technology is the “vehicle” driven by the business in its pursuit of
operational impacts that create opportunities, grow gains from interactions, and
maintain positions of advantage and readiness over time.
Increasingly, market conditions point to the need for identifying innovations that change
operations, leaving them running in ways no longer constrained by the support
mechanisms of a previous generation – mechanisms including the modes of technology
acquisition, configuration, distribution and maintenance.
The key to capitalizing on innovations begins with an adequate awareness of the
business requirements (goals) that should be affected. However, the actual efficacy of
innovations is dependent on absorbing them into routine, rather than tending to them
indefinitely as exceptions.
For innovations to be creatively constructive instead of surprisingly disruptive, a
capability for strategic adaptations must be pursued even more than the particular
innovations themselves. Otherwise, the result is more highly probable to result in
wasted opportunity than in advantageous progress. Operations themselves must
migrate, through adaptation, to the future offered by innovations. Migration planning is
the critical prerequisite.
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

3. Innovations tend to cycle through different levels and phases of production and provision. New
innovations may revisit and revise foundation work, alter intermediary delivery methods, or
reformulate the packaged scope of functionality that touches the end-user who requests access
and support.
Because the ongoing introductions of innovations occur in a scope largely independent of the
decisions of any one company, IT operations for business must include a research function that
continually discovers and assesses upcoming and maturing offers – in terms of their probable
relevance to adaptation plans, not just to future business goals.
The overview of issues includes decisions that expand or relocate facilities and user access to the
functionality of IT operations:
- Translations that provide a same given functionality to different local users
- Transformations that alter the users’ supported portfolio of options in ways to execute
functionality
- Transpositions that take functionality and redeploy it on a new baseline foundation
- Implementation that minimizes redundancy and waste of resources
- Integration that fortifies compatibilities while avoiding and eliminating complications
- Instrumentation that signals the relevant conditions for determining whether a deployment’s
alignment to, and retention for, given business requirements is satisfactory
Understanding the importance and current state of these issues, the company can make better
decisions on how to divide responsibilities amongst producers and providers, keeping them
mapped to an iterative plan for continuing forward progress.
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

4. Operating your vehicle – a car – provides a point of view on identifying how the vehicle itself must combine
what appears to be a small number of major functions, and the support of those functions, to allow a
sustainable balance of usability and progress. The support of the functions is structural, and the functions
themselves must be manageable in operation.
PROPULSION
NAVIGATION
CONTROL
Power supply
Steering
TRACTION
Accelerator
Clutch
It is almost unimaginable that one could predictably benefit from depending on a vehicle in which any two, or
usually even any one, of the four key functions was dysfunctional or missing. This same realization corresponds
directly to the objectives (below) of the managed business technologies solution – which is serving as the
vehicle for growth and relationship management through business operations. We can see the major
characteristics needed of the provided operational capability. The task is to map a transition to these states.
LONG-TERM COST
SEVICE DIVERSITY
PROCESS
MODULARITY
Pay-as-you-go
Fast realignment to requirements
SCALABILITY
Expand to demand level
Critical mass @ point of demand
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

5. This perspective on the overall technology “vehicle” for business sees the company pursuing basic operational
platforms, options for the platform, and agility in applying the options to address the two big realities of
operations: simultaneous variety, and continual change. The result of this is an ongoing struggle to attain
adequate stability without rigidity – and to sustain that profile over time. In this picture, process modules are
options, and their discretionary application provides the diversity of capability needed by the business.
The usual challenge to the integrity of the “vehicle” is in the alignment of process modularity vs. scalability,
and in the alignment of cost vs. diversity. The need for scale puts pressure on the completeness and cooperation of process modules; and diversity increases the complexity and/or unpredictability of costs. These
two pairs of problems must be solved, which means that the associated objectives in each pair must be tackled
with awareness of each other, and those objectives must eventually be achieved (in hand) at the same time.
LONG-TERM COST
SCALABILITY
PROCESS
MODULARITY
Justification and
prioritization of need
Robustness of operational modules
SEVICE
DIVERSITY
Control of proliferation
Continuity and flexibility of support
Likewise, the drivability of the vehicle – the matters of where it can go and for how long – is rooted in resolving
the alignment of process modularity vs. cost, and in the alignment of service diversity vs. scalability. The value
of the vehicle is compromised by including options that are unnecessary or that increase the complication of
operations, as they add burden that need not exist yet still is being paid for. Meanwhile, if the strength of the
feature under real-world demand is unreliable, then its availability actually encourages risk-taking that literally
can result in counter-productivity if not damage and danger. Consequently, these two pairs of problems also
must be solved, handling the factors within each pair in tandem.
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

6. LONG-TERM COST
SCALABILITY
PROCESS
MODULARITY
Justification and
prioritization of need
Robustness of operational modules
SEVICE
DIVERSITY
Control of proliferation
Continuity and flexibility of support
Against those circumstances, a lightweight scan of IT developments over the last ten years shows numerous
relevant offerings that have occurred, in particular for increasing the modularity and diversity of processing
with managed sustainability. They have been introduced at an industrial, commercial or local company’s inhouse level of effort and impact – appearing most often separately, but whereupon they have been aggregated
and blended in various ways. Each offering has potentially been an enabler of improved business operations.
When a company takes steps to adopt the offerings, it aims for overcoming prior operational limitations.
However, too frequently the attraction of a new and different offering is not seen clearly enough in terms of
the challenge it may present – changing from the current state to the target state. The basic idea of the change
is that the company will move beyond its own legacy in-house foundation to acquire ability comparable to the
basis provided in commercial scope or industrial scale. For the most part, resolving modularity and scalability
calls for several types of conversions to be planned, having architectural impact; whereas, resolving cost and
diversity requires various kinds of installations to be orchestrated, having IT asset lifecycle impact.
In the following information, a few of the most basic motivations fueling IT operations are overlaid with
examples of innovations having related benefits. The relevancy demonstrates that the motivations are sensible,
addressable and attractive to innovators. The takeaway from the comparisons is that organizations should
anticipate the need for certain types of managed changes in order to exploit current and future innovations.
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

7. Reconciling Modularity and Scale
For the most part, resolving modularity and scalability calls for several types of conversions to be planned,
having architectural impact.
Designers, Builders, and Suppliers of IT-based functionality are all sources acting as a Producer. These
producers face the problem of efficiently covering the scope and reach of business process requirements. Their
efficiency begins with producing the functionality in deliverable and reusable form. Modularity is the strategy
that brings reuse and delivery into the picture as the rule instead of as the exception.
Industrial-level design affects both commercial suppliers and In-house organizations acting as builders.
Suppliers, whether their own used designs are proprietary or industry-standard, create convenience for inhouse organizations by reducing the time-to-coverage for certain scopes of requirements. But the in-house
organization, adopting industrial or commercial offerings, then adapts its own responsibility as a Provider by
making changes for addressing three kinds of diversity:
- Translations that provide a same given functionality to different local users
- Transformations that alter the users’ supported portfolio of options in ways to execute functionality
- Transpositions that take functionality and redeploy it on a new baseline foundation
These three efforts are neither mutually exclusive, nor is it necessary to pursue them independently of each
other. However, a general historical trend of their use shows a gradual progression towards more industrial
production. A more specific view is that any in-house holding may be subject to any of the several types of
changes at any time. In the big trend, industrial approaches aim to make the supplier and builder issues at least
less difficult if not less necessary. For example, industrial solutions tend to provide designs that have the
scalability of deployment already built-into the module (scope) of functionality. In effect, all three types of
change tend to wind up contained within the useful options provided by progressively newer industrial
solutions.
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

8. better
Industrial
platform
Commercial
platform
In-house
platform
Increasing business scalability
Mobility
Hosting
EXTEND ACCESS FOR
BROADER AUDIENCES
& REDUNDANCY
Duplicate information
and functionality at
another location
Translate
worse
MIX DELIVERY
CHANNELS TO ACHIEVE
VERSATILITY OF REACH
Modify and Increase
range of access types
to current processing
Transform
Appliances
MIGRATE DELIVERY
OPERATIONS TO MORE
ROBUST FOUNDATION
Provide functionality
through new primary
channels
Cloud
Transpose
Virtualization
For producers, re-use and
delivery are key issues
underlying scope and reach in
covering requirements…
Increasing operational process modularity
lower
higher
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

9. Reconciling Cost and Diversity
For the most part, resolving cost and diversity requires various kinds of installations to be orchestrated, having
IT asset lifecycle impact.
Designers, Builders, and Suppliers of IT-based functionality are also all sources acting as a Provider. These
providers face the problem of economically covering the range and change of business process requirements.
Their economy begins with providing the functionality in manageable and replaceable form. Availability is the
strategy that brings replacement and manageability into the picture as the rule instead of as the exception.
In general, Providers create convenience for in-house organizations by reducing the time-to-deployment and
providing “service levels” for certain fulfillments of requirements. But the in-house organization, adopting
industrial or commercial offerings, then adapts its own responsibility as a Provider by instituting affordable
procedures for addressing three dimensions of installation:
- Implementation that minimizes redundancy and waste of resources
- Integration that fortifies compatibilities while avoiding and eliminating complications
- Instrumentation that signals the relevant conditions for determining whether a deployment’s alignment to,
and retention for, given business requirements is satisfactory
Again, in the big picture of general trends, industrial approaches aim to make the supplier and builder issues at
least less difficult if not less necessary. For example, industrial solutions tend to provide features that have the
manageability of installations already built-into the diversity (range) of functionality. In effect, all three types of
Provider procedures tend to wind up contained within the useful options provided by progressively newer
industrial solutions.
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

10. lower
better
Availability of I.T. service diversity
Industrial
platform
In-house
platform
worse
Captive long-term business cost
Open Source
Commercial
platform
higher
SOA
Cloud
Open Stack
SUBSCRIBE OPERATIONS
Access business process
capability on as-needed
basis
Outsourcing
ASSEMBLE PROCESSES
FOR OPERATIONS
Provide operational
abilities as modules
Instrument
Integrate
Agile
BUILD UTILITIES FOR
PROCESSES
Maintain facility as store
for localized functions
Virtualization
For providers, replacement and
manageability are key issues
underlying range and change in
covering requirements…
Implement
©2013 Malcolm Ryder / archestra

11. For IT providers, today’s most prominent example of a target innovation is cloud computing. Migrations to
the cloud readily expose the main problem pairs of meeting new and varied requirements affordably, and
achieving necessary scale in manageable chunks. The cost of satisfying new needs quickly enough is easily
the major constraint on competitive growth, and the ability to sustain the impact of a newly introduced
solution quickly becomes the key constraint on operational health. As a result, long-term commitments to
the cloud start out with infrastructure risk management, and short-term commitments start out with
software service level management. But both commitments must be kept at the same time.
When companies optimize and rationalize their IT infrastructure and offerings, its resulting modularity offers
the correct basis for re-launching operations through the expansive reach of cloud architecture. Where this
step has been taken, the capacity is more highly available to support immediate delivery of differing services
at levels of performance that are compelling for parties with a high-enough need. Identifying the point of
readiness for that means identifying the critical success factors of each area in the “drivers” framework
below. The plan for transformation from the current state to the satisfaction of those success factors will be
the strategy map of the migration to the innovation.
LONG-TERM COST
SEVICE DIVERSITY
PROCESS
MODULARITY
Pay-as-you-go
Fast realignment to requirements
SCALABILITY
Expand to demand level
Critical mass @ point of demand