I’d like to explore the topic of how system and storage architectures are changing and the impact this will have on application delivery and organizational productivity.

Allow me to put forth the following premise:

Today’s enterprise IT infrastructure limits application value.

What does that mean? To answer this, let’s first explore the notion of value. The value IT brings to an organization flows directly from the application to the business and is measured in terms of the productivity of the organization. Infrastructure in-and-of itself delivers no direct value; however the applications, which run on infrastructure directly affect business value. Value comes in many forms but at the highest level it’s about increasing revenue and/or cutting costs; and ultimately delivering bottom line profits.