Bespoke infrastructures
Venue
IEEE Software, vol. 31 (2014), pp. 12-14
Publication Year
2014
Authors
BibTeX
Abstract
Infrastructure developed within an organization for its own internal use can take
many forms. The obvious reason for creating a bespoke solution is that it can be
tailored to fit the organization's unique needs. This can offer many advantages:
better performance, increased flexibility, and tactical or strategic advantages
over the competition. However, such solutions are associated with a steep learning
curve for newcomers, maintenance and support costs, and the risk of hijacking by
groups with vested interests. Given that investment in bespoke infrastructures is a
sunk cost and that these polarize the types of employees that stay in the
organization, rational approaches for building an organization's infrastructure
include customizing a general-purpose solution or adopting an open-source tool and
improving it to address the organization's requirements.
