The document discusses the challenges that globalization poses for modern enterprises and proposes strategies for coping with these challenges. It defines globalization as the ubiquitous movement of business beyond national boundaries. This has led to the formation of transient "cybermarkets" on a global scale. Decision-making in globalized businesses must account for multiple influencing factors like regulations, culture, and politics. The author argues that IT systems must be architected to operate across dimensions like currency and time zones to support success in these globalized cybermarkets. Key coping strategies proposed include thinking globally while acting locally, leveraging virtualization, and designing systems with root cause analysis capabilities.

2. The Quarterly Journal of the EDS Agility Alliance www.eds.com/synnovation vol. 1 issue 258
Extending
Enterprise
THE
CopingWithBeing
Everywhere—
andNowhereByHowardElias,EMC
CHARLYFRANKLIN

3. vol. 1 issue 2 www.eds.com/synnovation The Quarterly Journal of the EDS Agility Alliance59
H
istorically, globalization has been an issue that stirs strong passions. Public discussion
is rampant about both the perceived value and the accompanying menaces brought to
disparate populations of the world as a result of globalization. But in this article, we
won’t address the social, political, or economic impact of globalization on a macro scale. Rather,
we’ll address the role of globalization in the successful evolution of a 21st Century enterprise and
present some coping strategies for dealing with this evolutionary phenomenon. >>

4. The Quarterly Journal of the EDS Agility Alliance www.eds.com/synnovation vol. 1 issue 260
Globalization has been defined in many ways
in recent history. For the purposes of this arti-
cle, we will define globalization as the ubiqui-
tous movement of business to the edge regard-
less of national boundaries, monetary systems,
language, and geo-political influences.
Japanese management guru, Dr. Kenichi
Ohmae coined the term “cybercontinent” to
define a business environment that is every-
where and nowhere... a “place” inhabited by
800 million people who live everywhere in the
world and are connected electronically. While
this is certainly a valid concept, it’s a bit restric-
tive when applied to the globalization of busi-
ness and markets in the general context. In fact,
global businesses actually exist and achieve
market penetration in transient “cybermar-
kets”formed for varying periods of time in
order to provide a global market for a particular
good or service. Winning the daily battle for
market share and sustainable competitive ad-
vantage is truly taken to the edge by these tran-
sient cybermarkets.
So, what are the characteristics of these new
cybermarkets and how can we, as enterprise
leaders, architect our systems to take advantage
of them?”
As the world has flattened and gotten smaller
in a virtual sense, potential customers can com-
municate in real time across multiple geogra-
phies and time zones. This becomes relevant
when doing business with a multinational en-
terprise, for example, when geographically di-
verse divisions begin sharing acquisition speci-
fications and pricing details. Specifically, these
new markets are characterized by:
I instantaneous communication and
collaboration
I expectation of rapid response from suppliers
and business partners real-time sharing busi-
ness intelligence
Decisions in a globalized business environ-
ment are impacted by many different influ-
ences. As Figure 1 shows, converging at the
point of decision in a globalized environment
are many dimensions, including, but not lim-
ited to, product availability, timing, currency
issues, regulations, language, pricing, culture,
economics, and politics. The businesses and
their supporting systems’ infrastructures are,
on an accelerating scale, operating in an envi-
ronment where multiple dimensions of influ-
ence must be taken into account in order to
make an effective business decision. As this
trend continues, the requirement for on-de-
mand access to intelligence—weighed in the
context of multiple dimensions of decision fac-
tors—will only increase. To be successful, all of
this must be taken into consideration by the
systems supporting the human components of
the business—thus driving systems away from
AVAILABILITY CURRENCY
REGULATIONS
LANGUAGE
PRICINGCULTURE
ECONOMICS
FIGURE 1
TIMING
POLITICS

5. vol. 1 issue 2 www.eds.com/synnovation The Quarterly Journal of the EDS Agility Alliance61
the traditional flat model of architecture
and design to a more n-dimensional and
autonomous paradigm.
To better understand this trend, let’s take a
closer look at the implications as illustrated in
Figure 1. It has become apparent that decisions
are being made much closer to the point of
business relevance known as the edge. We can
even go so far as to say this edge point can also
be likened to the tipping point, which has tradi-
tionally been defined as that point in time
when a technology, procedure, service, or phi-
losophy has reached a critical mass such that it
becomes a mainstream phenomenon. In this
context, the tipping point is defined as the
point in time where an enterprise decision
maker has sufficient information and motiva-
tion to make a specific business decision or set
of decisions. In the context of this new global-
ized environment, these decision tipping
points occur within a multidimensional domain
where timing often plays a critical role. In fact,
timing can be so critical that if it’s not properly
managed, it can have a domino effect on related
decisions across the globe.
This point can be illustrated by the following
example. A decision to make a product acquisi-
tion in New Delhi at a given price is made in
January. The company making the acquisition
is a global enterprise with divisions in Canada,
United States, and France. Given the culture of
the business environment in New Delhi, the
supplier provides specific terms and conditions
for pricing and delivery to remain competitive.
As the acquisition proceeds, supply chain pro-
fessionals in the United States become aware of
the special pricing discounts provided to their
division in India and demand equivalent terms
and conditions. This in turn leads to a reduc-
tion in margins for the supplier who can’t re-
fuse to provide equivalent terms to a large cus-
tomer whose total acquisitions are a significant
component of the supplier’s annual revenue
stream. Over time, as competition increases for
the customers, pricing and delivery concessions
are demanded for the retention of business.
From the initial Indian acquisition, an acceler-
ated margin erosion occurs globally, which re-
sults in significant margin reduction over the
succeeding several years.
Multinational companies have frequently
subsidized pricing concessions in one geogra-
phy with higher margins in another, less price
sensitive geography. This practice of “margin
balancing” can prove very dangerous as shown
in the above example. With the rise of global-
ization and markets exhibiting the aforemen-
tioned characteristics, enterprises can no longer
feel comfortable that specialized terms and
conditions provided in one geography aren’t
learned about in another geography, thereby
forcing enterprises to apply equivalent terms
and conditions, often at an adverse effect on
overall profitability.
Globalization is the ulti-
mate instantiation of the
concept of winning at the
edge. The decision point ex-
ists in a multidimensional
environment characterized
by the near real-time flow of
intelligence. Specifically,
globalization has several
characteristics:
I a natural evolutionary
stage in the development of
mankind and the businesses
that provide for human civi-
lizations
I markets are now formed
globally, are transient, and
have windows of opportu-
nity that shrink daily
I cybercontinents don’t sufficiently define
the markets—businesses are reaching out on
a global scale; cybermarkets are more in tune
to market shifts
I Globalization is the ultimate embodiment
of winning at the edge
I Systems must be architected to account for
this multidimensional decision point, or risk
becoming obsolete.
As business and technology leaders, we must
ask ourselves: What are the fundamental shifts
in the traditional paradigms of business systems
(people, processes, and technology) that must
be identified and mastered to achieve success
in this new n-dimensional globalized world?
If customers are aggregating into transient
global cybermarkets that create a demand for a
given product or service across a global playing
field, this necessitates the evolution of >>
Globalization is the
ultimate instantiation
of the concept of
winning at the edge.

6. The Quarterly Journal of the EDS Agility Alliance www.eds.com/synnovation vol. 1 issue 262
systems that support these markets from rigid,
limited-flexibility platforms to a more au-
tonomous approach that allows transient sys-
tems to be instantiated based on market de-
mands and operate in an autonomous manner.
Additionally, the management systems sup-
porting the business systems must become
adept at root cause analysis when problems
arise to not only facilitate the effective resolu-
tion of adverse issues in a timely manner, but to
ensure they aren’t repeated.
Systems must evolve into an architectural
paradigm of communities
spanning multiple geogra-
phies in near real time, but
constrained only by the laws
of physics. Following the
traditional approach of de-
veloping systems will only
lead to more inflexibility and
non-competitive processes.
All systems, processes,
and decisions succeed in the
context of a multidimen-
sional globalized world. This
will require several changes
to the basic paradigms of de-
signing and implementing
business systems. As busi-
ness leaders, there are sev-
eral key coping strategies
that can be employed to ensure success:
I architect systems and processes to operate
across multiple dimensions ranging from cur-
rency to time zones
I think global, act local; make decisions in
global context
I leverage virtualization
I design, assemble, and operate systems end-
to-end with root cause analysis capabilities
Architect Multidimensional
Systems
There’s a simple philosophy that says, “If
you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This could
easily be extrapolated to say, “If you fail to ar-
chitect, you are architecting your failure.” All
systems must be architected in order to facili-
tate success in the on-demand world of global-
ized business. This is especially true for the in-
formation systems that form the underpinnings
of business transactions today. The question
now becomes, what exactly is this architecture?
Recently, many individuals have proposed an
architecture commonly known as a “grid.” In
this paradigm, initiated in the early ‘90s, the
idea was to make computing power as ubiqui-
tous as the electric power flowing from the
power grids serving our homes and businesses.
Grid computing can be defined as a system that
coordinates resources that are not subject to
centralized control—using standard, open, gen-
eral purpose protocols and interfaces—to de-
velop non-trivial qualities of service. And while
this is a good first start, it is still a flat model for
an old economy. Systems must now be archi-
tected to function across multiple dimensions,
taking into account analytical processes occur-
ring concurrently in multiple time zones and
across multiple continents.
This new architecture is called a “fabric” and
takes into account the dependence on timing
critical to making decisions in a global environ-
ment. Fabric architectures can be defined as
four-dimensional, fully meshed, parallelized,
distributed architecture, composed of process-
ing, network, memory, and applications re-
sources dynamically managed in a virtual envi-
ronment. This architecture enables the fully
dynamic virtualization of business services any-
where and at any time across the enterprise.
Fabric architectures are characterized by ubiq-
uitous service instantiation at the point of busi-
ness need (edge) that is delivered in the con-
text of the multiple dimensions of business
intelligence. It is the ultimate virtualized serv-
ice oriented architecture.
While an in-depth discussion of n-dimen-
sional fabric architectures is beyond the scope
of this article, it’s important to note that fabrics
enable the transient representation of virtual
resources to facilitate business decisions at the
edge. It’s this delivery of business intelligence
at the edge in a virtualized environment that
make fabrics the ideal architecture for a global-
ized enterprise.
Think and Decide Global, Act
Local
All decisions are interconnected and the
smallest business decision in a remote location
can have significant impact on future business
All systems must be
architected in order to
facilitate success in the
on-demand world of
globalized business.

7. vol. 1 issue 2 www.eds.com/synnovation The Quarterly Journal of the EDS Agility Alliance63
decisions regardless of location. Enterprises
must take a global perspective when architect-
ing systems and business models. However,
since business is always transacted at the edge,
the point of action at the decision point is al-
ways local. Taking into account the impact of
globalization, we must ensure that local deci-
sions are made in the context of what will be
the impact on analogous decisions in other ge-
ographies. Remember our example of aggres-
sive pricing for deals in New Delhi compromis-
ing margins in more lucrative markets?
Companies must take this into account when
making business decisions if they are playing
on a global stage.
Leverage Virtualization
Virtualization is a critical enabler for success-
ful globalization. Resources must be virtual-
ized, and when embedded into a fabric archi-
tecture, they can be delivered to the point of
decision in real time. All assets are owned by all
decision makers in a global enterprise.
Virtualization on the back end, coupled with ef-
fective human interface design on the front
end, delivers usable intelligence at the edge for
a reasonable cost that in turn enables effective
decisions.
Enable Instrumentation
Virtual systems can be quite complex, espe-
cially when deployed in multidimensional fab-
rics. To ensure quality of service, they must be
supported by embedded instrumentation of all
hardware and software components that enable
automated root cause analysis. This instrumen-
tation allows for the autonomous correction of
problems without human intervention and
thereby facilitates a carrier grade quality of
service.
Globalization is the way of the future for
large enterprises regardless of their countries of
origin. To be successful in this new global envi-
ronment, enterprises must adapt and leverage
all resources at their disposal. Specifically,
implementing strategies that maximize the
advantages of fabric architectures, leverage
virtualization, and implement infrastructure
instrumentation in an environment of thinking
global, acting local, and making decisions in a
global context will position enterprises for real-
izing the success inherent in global markets. |s|
About the Author: Howard Elias is executive vice
president of technology, marketing and new business
development for EMC.
Co-author: Gavin L. Ellzey is chief solution archi-
tect, global telecom, media & entertainment for EMC.
To be successful in this new global environment, enterprises
must adapt and leverage all resources at their disposal.