Implementation of SRE as a solution for “IT lock-in” within the organization

Ilya Ryabukhin

Master's thesis

IMPLEMENTATION OF SITE RELIABILITY ENGINEERING AS A SOLUTION FOR “IT LOCK IN” WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION

Abstract:

Current Information Technology (later referred as IT) infrastructure has been actively modernized by spending tremendous part of budget. It is evaluated as 6.9% of budget for companies less than $50 million of revenue, 4.1% for middle-sized companies ($50 million – $2 billion) and 3.2% for large companies (larger than $2 billion). These investments include infrastructure improving, hiring more IT specialists, and bringing innovative products with emerging technologies. However, it is seen that most of these companies are starting to lose their attention on core business and start to become an IT company (e.g., FinTech startup Revolut from Great Britain). This approach in long-term perspective may lead to the fact that Return Over Income (ROI) of IT investments would not work that much, because companies had started to utilize it more than core business, but at the same time their cash flow is coming not from IT, but from the core business part. As a solution for this there may be a concept called Site Reliability Engineering (later referred as SRE) that is now utilized as hardware acceleration and support methodology. However, that is not 100% correct, since this approach introduces a way to balance IT and Business interests. It helps to manage the budget, introduces the Service Level Objectives (SLOs) that are willing not to switch the focus into IT investments. As a master’s Thesis I am planning to accept or reject the hypotheses about the definition of collaboration of business with IT, as well as its relationship with IT vendor lock-in. For instance, the list of hypotheses looks like below: •“SRE adoption helps organization to stay Business-focused and not become solely IT-focused” based on real data. The evidence is agreed to collect from one of the products of the TOP-1 logistics company in the world (>$85 billions of annual revenues in 2021) •“SRE creates a framework to balance the changes in IT and processes, as well as keeping the business expectation both high and stable.” Thus, the research contains three main parts: 1.Investigation of current state (understanding of current IT-related processes, understanding the maturity level). 2.Implementation of SRE. 3.Investigation of Desired State (evaluating the same IT-related business processes in terms of improving profit- or organization-wise).

Abstract:

Current Information Technology (later referred as IT) infrastructure has been actively modernized by spending tremendous part of budget. It is evaluated as 6.9% of budget for companies less than $50 million of revenue, 4.1% for middle-sized companies ($50 million – $2 billion) and 3.2% for large companies (larger than $2 billion). These investments include infrastructure improving, hiring more IT specialists, and bringing innovative products with emerging technologies. However, it is seen that most of these companies are starting to lose their attention on core business and start to become an IT company (e.g., FinTech startup Revolut from Great Britain). This approach in long-term perspective may lead to the fact that Return Over Income (ROI) of IT investments would not work that much, because companies had started to utilize it more than core business, but at the same time their cash flow is coming not from IT, but from the core business part. As a solution for this there may be a concept called Site Reliability Engineering (later referred as SRE) that is now utilized as hardware acceleration and support methodology. However, that is not 100% correct, since this approach introduces a way to balance IT and Business interests. It helps to manage the budget, introduces the Service Level Objectives (SLOs) that are willing not to switch the focus into IT investments. As a master’s Thesis I am planning to accept or reject the hypotheses about the definition of collaboration of business with IT, as well as its relationship with IT vendor lock-in. For instance, the list of hypotheses looks like below: •“SRE adoption helps organization to stay Business-focused and not become solely IT-focused” based on real data. The evidence is agreed to collect from one of the products of the TOP-1 logistics company in the world (>$85 billions of annual revenues in 2021) •“SRE creates a framework to balance the changes in IT and processes, as well as keeping the business expectation both high and stable.” Thus, the research contains three main parts: 1.Investigation of current state (understanding of current IT-related processes, understanding the maturity level). 2.Implementation of SRE. 3.Investigation of Desired State (evaluating the same IT-related business processes in terms of improving profit- or organization-wise).

Keywords

IT, Monitoring, Dashboard, SRE, Agile, DevOps, Research, Dynatrace

Keywords

IT, Monitoring, Dynatrace, Agile, Research, DevOps, SRE, Dashboard

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 29. 4. 2024

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 4. 6. 2024
• Supervisor: Václav Řepa
• Reader: Oleg Svatoš

Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze

Master programme:
Information Systems Management