Now it’s time to turn our attention to one of the most important manifestation of technology standards, don’t be baffled by the jargonish words used. Let me simplify it for you. Every organization makes use of N number of technologies, software's, appliances, devices, etc. in their environment from different OEMs ("Original Equipment Manufacturer": who manufactures the device or builds the software's).
Is it possible that one fine morning a vendor partner suggested that for a particular application he would use some middleware which is about to get "out of support" or the Infra team is going to deploy a network device which is already out of support, or there is a plan to install a software which is a community version without OEM support
I guess it would be a big mistake if any of the above scenarios is allowed to happen
It simply means that we should disallow certain "software's or versions" or allow only specific software’s or versions, but in a large organization where there are so many projects going on with so many project teams involved how would you be controlling or making sure that only specific software's or versions are allowed
Here is what you do, you create a list which contains all the allowed and disallowed devices, software's, etc. this Document would be called something like a "Standard technology Stack"
Every project team while going for a new project can refer this document and decide upon building their solution, this document would act as a central reference point for the entire organization while taking decisions such as:
· Which middleware can be used for building a solution
· Which version can be used for the new solution
· Which existing version running in the organization can be used for another 1 or 2 years without any problems
· Whether there are existing applications running on specific versions which are to be upgraded
Here I have mostly taken an example of middleware and softwares but this is just not limited to them, this technology stack may contain everything from Network Devices to server hardware, operating system, middleware, Databases, Endpoint softwares such as "Office and web browsers", storage, mobile apps, etc. the list goes on and on until it covers all the aspects of technology in the organization
This document would be hosted for all employees to access on the organizations internal portal