| 摘要: | 企業資訊系統的誕生是依據公司的業務需求而發展建立起來的。此資訊系統從當初的規劃、設計、建置、測試、正式上線到維護階段有一定的生命週期。只要企業的需求存在，資訊系統的生命週期在進入維護階段後，依據企業成長需求而進行資訊再造工程，其系統核心所提供的功能與需求是不斷地在進化與演進，經過重新的規劃、設計、建置、測試、正式上線、又重新賦予此系統另一生命週期。此週期性的向上循環確保了企業的資訊競爭力，也符合企業內部的功能需求並因應企業外在環境改變而有所有變革。
隨著科技的進步與演進，資訊設備硬體廠商也伴隨著科技潮流不斷的推陳出新的世代產品。然而企業資訊系統，尤其是關鍵性任務的重要系統，通常都未能跟隨著廠商的產品生命週期而予以汰換或更新，將會面臨老舊設備維護費用高昂與效能不彰的問題。企業的資訊主管，總是會面臨此一兩難的問題與壓力，汰換此系統或是持續支付每年增加的維護費用並承擔老舊設備故障率日益增高的風險。更新汰換設備或許是最好的方式，但是，有可能會導致與衍生一全新的問題，特別是對關鍵性任務的系統。在此種情況下，因為老舊應用程式與新的硬體平台彼此具有相容性的問題，應用程式汰換與硬體升級是一連串漫長和高風險的過程。另外，很多時候老舊系統的原開發商已經消失，形成軟體孤兒的問題。因此，許多公司選擇繼續支付日益增加的維護費用來維持現況運作。
本研究以實際導入T公司解決方案為例，探討個案公司面對老舊關鍵資訊系統時，可採行的因應對策。在面對個案公司資訊主管所遭遇的兩難問題，採用新的完整第三解決方案，其架構運用了新的虛擬技術，解決汰換老舊資訊設備與軟體包袱，減少總體資訊設備維護成本費用。其設計更具備了高可用性、可靠性與效能，間接提升了企業的營運競爭力。透過個案公司導入成功經驗，提供未來資訊主管解決此類似問題之參考。;With the rapid advancement in information technology, hardware provided by vendors changes at an ever increasing pace. However, information systems, especially the mission critical ones, often does not follow the vendor’s product life cycle. Therefore, many companies are faced with the high cost of IT maintenance fee and performance bottleneck. Company CIO are hard pressed to make a decision, whether to replace the system, or continue to pay the continuously increasing maintenance costs and take the risk of hardware failure. System upgrades may seem to be the best way out. However, it may result in a whole new set of problems, especially for companies with mission critical applications. In this context, legacy application software has a compatibility problem with the new hardware system, while replacing the applications in tandem with hardware upgrades is a lengthy and high risk process. In addition, often times, the developers of the legacy systems are no longer available, resulting in software orphans. As such, many companies choose to continue to pay increasing maintenance fees to keep the system operation smoothly.
This study looks into the problem of Company T, which is faced with the legacy system replacement problem. A proposal is made to take an alternative route, adopting a "third way" of system upgrade. The new solution is based on the new virtualization technology, solving the legacy application compatibility issue and provides a quick and fast way to migration the application. The systems design takes into account issues of high availability and high reliability. The solution not only reduced the IT total cost of ownership, but also provided the rooms for future growths in business requirements. This successful case provides a viable alternative for CIO facing similar problems. |
