IT achitecture is, by its very nature, a holistic endeavor. As a result, IT architects must be able to look over and beyond functional silos.
As a trusted advisor to the CIO, the IT architect designs infrastructure independently of specific IT solutions and supports the customer in translating its business requirements into IT infrastructure requirements. Structuring systems is the main activity of such an architectural consultant; someone ‘who can tie several silos of expertise together under the constraints of cost effectiveness optimization’.
The S&T IT Architecture Consulting portfolio is based on methodologies such as data classification, ISO2700X, ITIL, Information Life Cycle Management (ILM) and appropriate ROI (Return-on-Investment) models.
The elements to be reviewed and aligned are high level views of the confidentiality, integrity and compliance characteristics of data, business impact analysis and risk analysis for business continuity and disaster recovery plans, consolidation and virtualization strategies for a multi-tiered architecture and, finally, IT governance for the complete infrastructure.
The IT architect helps the CIO, as an ‘alter ego’, to promote integrated strategies and to realize cost saving potential using progressive technologies.
