Five steps to successful application consolidation and retirement Streamline your application infrastructure with good information governance
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Why consolidate or retire applications? Data explosion: it s sometimes a burden and often an opportunity, but today it s a reality that can t be avoided. As a result of rampant data growth, companies store an ever-increasing amount of data every year in various data repositories across the organization. The IT environment becomes Who are my best customers? more complex and expensive as data spreads throughout the company. Employee efficiency drops as outdated and redundant applications require ongoing maintenance, making it difficult to locate necessary information, much less analyze it for strategic decisions (see Figure 1). Data sources and internal applications Duplicated What is the true picture of enterprise data? Inconsistent Missing Exposed Is this data correct and accurate? Incomplete Who else uses the data? What is our risk exposure? Figure 1. Information anarchy and proliferation of applications make it difficult to find, access and use data decreasing its value. 3
Why consolidate or retire applications? 3 Every CIO and IT organization wants enterprise applications to deliver maximum business value. But budget and resource barriers can get in the way. According to IDC, most organizations today are consuming 60 to 80 percent of their IT budgets just to keep current systems running. 1 Tight budgets slow down new initiatives such as cloud computing, social business, enterprise mobility, and big data and analytics initiatives that could be critical contributors to growth. To reduce complexity and expense, organizations are streamlining their application infrastructures. This may involve moving to one consolidated system for each major application such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), and retiring applications that are no longer used for day-to-day business operations. According to IDC, most organizations today are consuming 60 to 80 percent of their IT budgets just to keep current systems running. 1 Consolidation and retirement projects make good business sense if your organization wants to: Consolidate one or more homegrown applications into a purchased ERP application Migrate an application from a high-cost operating platform to a lower-cost platform Consolidate multiple instances of applications Remove unsupported versions of applications or databases while retaining essential data Eliminate redundant or obsolete systems from the enterprise infrastructure while retaining essential data Improve application performance and business process execution with a streamlined application environment This ebook explores five steps that will help you streamline your application infrastructure, reduce infrastructure costs, and transform enterprise data into a trusted, high-value resource by successfully consolidating and retiring your applications. 4
consolidation and retirement Over the years, IBM has identified proven practices for application consolidation and retirement. These practices focus on making sure you integrate and maintain only the best data as you move forward, and that you safely archive data from consolidated or retired applications while keeping it accessible for historical and compliance needs. The most successful application consolidation and retirement projects incorporate five key steps (see Figure 2): 1. Discovering and assessing data 2. Categorizing data for retention and disposal 3. Cleansing operational data and managing data quality 4. Transforming data and delivering it to new applications 5. Managing and optimizing test data Omitting any of these steps can lead to a path that reduces the benefits of the initiative. For example, projects may encounter project delays, additional expenses for systems and staff, new applications populated with untrusted data and increased risk of compliance failures. Discover and assess Archive Cleanse Transform and deliver Manage and optimize Inventory all data, identifying sensitive information Apply data retention policies and define data relationships Monitor data, eliminate redundancies and retain data quality Track data changes, apply data governance and optimize delivery Create targeted, secure test environment to help resolve defects faster Figure 2. Five steps for consolidating and retiring applications. 5
Get a solid start with a survey: What do your knowledge workers want? The key to any successful consolidation or retirement project is careful planning and assessment. Before initiating a project, survey the stakeholders to obtain input and consensus from all groups involved. Each group will have different requirements: Business users want to ensure that data is of high quality and is easy to retrieve or restore for additional processing. Audit and compliance officers want to provide secure, timely access to and appropriate disposal of data to support corporate compliance initiatives. IT executives want a solution that minimizes costs, infrastructure complexity and operational risks. Information from the survey will help you select the right consolidation and retirement approach so you can manage the organization s application portfolio in a way that addresses the critical needs of each business group. 6
Step 1: Discovering and assessing data Before initiating an application consolidation or retirement project, it is essential to understand your existing data where it resides, what relationships exist and which data is considered sensitive (see Figure 3). Automating this process of discovery and assessment can save vast amounts of time and Applications SQL Active data Applications SQL Active data Applications SQL Active data money. For example, one healthcare company was planning to build a full understanding of its data with a manual approach that was expected to require 10 people for 10 months. With a data lifecycle management solution from IBM, the company required those same 10 people for just one week. Report on dormant data shows which data fields have not been accessed in a time period Inactive data Inactive data Inactive data CRM Inventory Finance Capture business objects of related data within and across databases to archive complete and consistent data Figure 3. Understanding dormant and related data for archiving. 7
A critical component of the assessment step is the development of a common vocabulary shared by both line-of-business (LOB) and IT staff. This step is well worth the time: it can yield significantly better results by enabling collaboration and agreement between teams and departments. A common vocabulary ensures that everyone has the same understanding of what the data actually means and whether the data should be archived. For example, when the data refers to revenue, it could mean one thing to sales and something completely different to finance. A shared glossary enforces agreement on a definition and helps drive confident business decisions by both departments. Once the definition of revenue has been clarified and shared with IT, the IT team can take care not to archive revenue data that is still needed on a regular basis. With the glossary in place, the next step is to create rules and build policies from those rules. This step helps describe the business expectations for the information, for better control and for better visibility. 8
Step 2: Categorizing data for retention and disposal Once the data is well understood, the organization can decide: Which data will migrate to the new application Which data needs to be retained but not migrated Which data can be eliminated completely For data that must be kept but not migrated to the new application, archiving the data according to retention policies is a best practice. For example, if a corporate regulation states that all financial information must be retained for seven years, the appropriate retention policy would be to dispose of financial data after seven years. But if this data is rarely needed to run the day-to-day business operation, it does not need to be kept in a production system where it consumes valuable resources. The unneeded data can be archived as long as it remains easily accessible and secure. The organization may decide to migrate the current year s data to the new application and archive the rest. 9
Archiving data into a compressed, immutable format that can be easily accessed supports compliance, reduces storage costs and saves time when the archived data needs to be accessed or retrieved (see Figure 4). Immutability is important so that no one can change the data once it is archived. Retaining archived data in its original business context is also essential; otherwise, you may be unable to provide necessary information or meet legal and compliance requirements. Packaged applications, production DBs Archived and decommissioned data For example, if you archive all sales transactions that are over three years old, you will need to include all the reference data related to those transactions, such as client name and address, transaction date and the items sold. Archiving this data as one unit ensures that key details will not be lost or hard to find if the data must be retrieved for business or legal reasons. Not being able to produce this data upon request can result in fines or lost business opportunities. Restore Active data Inactive data Archive Universal access Reference data Data Compressed explorer and immutable archive Dispose Policy-based retention Business object orientation Audit capabilities Dormant data analysis Applications ODBC/ JDBC IBM Watson Data Explorer Report tools XML Figure 4. Optimize operational efficiency and manage data growth by intelligently archiving data. 10
data quality After appropriate retention and archiving policies have been applied, the next step is to prepare your data for the new application. This process involves cleansing the data, transforming it and delivering it to the target. Cleansing is a critical part of preventing legacy data quality issues errors, inconsistencies and outdated information from entering the new system. Duplicate data alone can be a significant problem and must be addressed before data is archived or moved to a new system. Also, cleansing is not a one-time cleanup job. Organizations must monitor data quality regularly once the new application is running to remediate any data inconsistencies. Ongoing cleanup increases users confidence in the data. A data quality solution with capabilities such as data profiling, standardization and matching as well as a dashboard for monitoring data health can help you achieve and maintain completeness, accuracy, availability and timeliness of your data. 11
to new applications Data transformations are the heart of any business process. Data that is acceptable for one application has to be repackaged or aggregated to meet the requirements of the new application. This step provides an opportunity for the business to identify missing information and augment the data for the target application. For an application consolidation or retirement project, the transformation and delivery process must be capable of handling what could be massive volumes of data first for the testing of mock loads, and then for the actual cutover to the new system. In addition, the delivery capability should be flexible enough to meet varied timing requirements. For example, processing windows and timelines may range from overnight bulk loads using an extract, transform, load (ETL) approach to near-zerodowntime migrations that involve data replication. Don t forget to plan for the future, too. For maximum project flexibility, be sure you invest in an integration solution that supports multiple heterogeneous applications. Otherwise, you may lose valuable time and incur the costs of manual coding and integration work. 12
Step 5: Managing and optimizing test data Because delivering applications to market is a critical component of business success, IT leaders find themselves under pressure to accelerate testing cycles. A common shortcut, the use of live data for testing, increases compliance risk because it bypasses the protection of sensitive data and exposes real data to misuse, loss and theft. Thorough testing of properly protected data at the start of a project can mitigate compliance risks and costs. Test data management solutions should combat live-data shortcuts by giving developers the capability to create targeted, right-sized test environments that can be easily redefined and refreshed. Another important feature is the ability to automate the comparison of data that is, comparing the results of a test run to a previous baseline. A good test data management solution can benefit your organization by: Decreasing the time spent by developers and testers to set up testing environments and run tests Accelerating time to market and improving application quality by helping teams locate and fix potential issues before they become major problems Once all the data is consolidated into the new applications, test them thoroughly with a comprehensive test data management process and supporting technology to ensure the applications are working as intended. Protecting sensitive data in the test environment is just as important as securing it in production environments. Masking the data helps prevent unauthorized access to or use of the data. De-identification of data can substantially mitigate the risk of data breaches while also reducing quality assurance (QA), development and setup times for test databases. 13
The best practice is to use a packaged solution for data protection that can mask the original data while creating new data that won t cause an error during testing (see Figure 5). For example, if you change a credit card number, the new number should pass the mod 10 algorithm test that is built into many applications. If it doesn t pass, an error will result, Production environment and testers will not know if the error is caused by an issue with the code or with the test data. For enterprise deployments, the solution should consistently mask certain data types such as Social Security numbers across the enterprise for successful integration testing. A packaged solution should also maintain referential integrity. Development or testing environment 2 TB 20 GB Mask Subset Right-sized test data Masked data Flexible topology Production Compare Refresh Masked subset Masked data fields Figure 5. Combat the use of live data in testing scenarios with targeted, right-sized test environments. 14
IBM InfoSphere Information Integration and Governance capabilities enable best practices The IBM InfoSphere Information Integration and Governance product portfolio supports all five essential steps for application consolidation or retirement (see Figure 6). A critical component of IBM Watson Foundations, the IBM big data Discover and assess Archive Cleanse Transform and deliver and governance platform, InfoSphere Information Integration and Governance delivers proven capabilities in areas ranging from data integration and data quality to data lifecycle management and data security and privacy. Manage and optimize IBM capabilities InfoSphere Optim InfoSphere Optim Archive InfoSphere Information Server InfoSphere Information Server InfoSphere Data Replication InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management Figure 6. IBM capabilities enable best practices for a successful application consolidation or retirement project. 15
The InfoSphere Information Integration and Governance portfolio includes the following solutions that address the specific requirements of application consolidation and retirement projects. IBM InfoSphere Optim Archive provides comprehensive database archiving capabilities that IT organizations can use to archive data intelligently and safely remove it from the application or system being consolidated or decommissioned. Capabilities include understanding of data usage, automated discovery of data relationships and policy-driven archiving. Organizations can use InfoSphere Optim to move the current data to a new or consolidated application, while retaining historical data and keeping it accessible in a secure archive with legal hold features. IBM InfoSphere Information Server facilitates understanding of data, establishment and management of data quality, and the delivery of properly formatted data for application consolidation and retirement. InfoSphere Information Server also helps LOB and IT teams collaborate to establish a common language for the business, and helps teams create and manage rules and policies for improved control and governance of information. Through experience with many organizations around the world that rely on SAP applications, IBM has developed a process and technology for effectively migrating legacy SAP data, consolidating multiple SAP instances and rolling out new SAP versions. The solution, known as IBM InfoSphere Information Server Ready to Launch for SAP Applications, helps accelerate deployment, reduce implementation risk and improve ongoing efficiency for SAP environments. IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management offers proven technology to optimize and automate processes that create and manage data in nonproduction environments such as testing, development and training. Development and testing teams can create realistic, right-sized test databases, made up of one or more business objects, for targeted test scenarios. The solution also allows teams to easily compare the data from before-and-after testing with speed and accuracy. InfoSphere Optim capabilities for creating and managing test data help you save valuable processing time, increase quality and reduce costs throughout the application lifecycle. 16
IBM InfoSphere Data Replication enables migrations and upgrades with minimal downtime, allowing organizations to perform system and server upgrades while testing new applications with realtime data. Designed to help deliver accurate data that is critical to the new application environment, the solution includes hundreds of built-in transformation functions that developers can use to accelerate project deployment. It also helps eliminate manually intensive and risky data transformation processes through reusable logic. Other InfoSphere Information Integration and Governance capabilities include: Metadata, business glossary and policy management: Define metadata, business terminology and governance policies with IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog. Data quality: Parse, standardize, validate and match enterprise data with IBM InfoSphere Information Server for Data Quality. Master data management (MDM): Act on a trusted view of your customers, products, suppliers, locations and accounts with InfoSphere MDM. Data security and privacy: Continuously monitor data access and protect repositories from data breaches, and support compliance with IBM InfoSphere Guardium. 17
Resources Organizations invest millions in their enterprise applications and supporting infrastructure. The stakes are high. Periodically reviewing and quantifying the value of the organization s application portfolio is an essential part of simplifying the IT infrastructure and controlling costs. By tapping into technical and application expertise from IBM, organizations get the benefits of comprehensive project planning, execution and on-site support, enabling them to consolidate or retire redundant or obsolete applications using InfoSphere capabilities. For SAP application environments, IBM experts address the special complexities of SAP deployments and instance consolidations, going beyond technology to enable technical and business collaboration for a successful program. To learn more about best practices for application consolidation or retirement and IBM InfoSphere solutions, check out these resources: InfoSphere: The foundation for trusted information Application consolidation and retirement overview Infographic: 5 Critical Steps to Application Consolidation & Retirement Application consolidation and retirement projects: Strategies that deliver ROI Control application data growth before it controls your business Research Perspective: Consolidating and retiring applications: Effective Management Can Reduce Costs and Modernize IT Webcast: Effective Application Retirement Strategies Podcast: Meeting the Challenges of Managing the SAP Application Lifecycle Case study: BG RCI merger enables greater operational efficiency and lower costs 18
About IBM Global Finance Additionally, IBM Global Financing can help you acquire the IT solutions that your business needs in the most cost-effective and strategic way possible. We ll partner with credit-qualified clients to customize an IT financing solution to suit your business goals, enable effective cash management, and improve your total cost of ownership. IBM Global Financing is your smartest choice to fund critical IT investments and propel your business forward. For more information, visit: ibm.com/financing Copyright IBM Corporation 2014 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 Produced in the United States of America June 2014 IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Guardium, IBM Watson, InfoSphere, and Optim are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at Copyright and trademark information at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates. The performance data discussed herein is presented as derived under specific operating conditions. Actual results may vary. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. The client is responsible for ensuring compliance with laws and regulations applicable to it. IBM does not provide legal advice or represent or warrant that its services or products will ensure that the client is in compliance with any law or regulation. Actual available storage capacity may be reported for both uncompressed and compressed data and will vary and may be less than stated. 1 IDC. Application Provisioning: Application Portfolio Rationalization Consolidation and Retirement Strategies. Doc # 244530. November 2013. Please Recycle IMM14154-USEN-00