Cooperation Challenge proposal with IIP-SaaS and IIP-Vital ICT
Below is a summary of the research proposal that has been submitted for the ICTregie Cooperation Challenge. Organisations interested to be involved in the project and/or the results can contact martijn.kriens@iipsaas.nl. After 29th of June 2010 a decision will be made by ICTregie if this proposal will be funded.
Executive Summary
The combination of software and services is an important driving force behind the innovation of the service economy because it creates new opportunities for cooperation and integration of companies and their business models. This development leads to networks of companies acting as one dynamic and integrated virtual entity. More than 70% of our economy consists of services implying that this is an important economical factor.
This development creates new opportunities for companies and society, but also leads to new risks and vulnerabilities. Certain services will become single points of failure for many business chains. Dependency leads to less control over promised service levels and many new risks arrive. Although this observation is often quoted and subscribed, businesses are postponing appropriate action. In some cases the awareness of the dependability of external ICT services is completely lacking, while in almost all other cases the extent of their dependability is unknown. For compound services that often are crucial for our economy and society this is unacceptable. Therefore we have to shift the focus from the robustness of single service suppliers to the robustness of service chains.
In practice, organizations are trying to control this dependability by negotiating contracts and Service Level Agreements, thereby outsourcing the responsibilities. However, numerous incidents with ICT services have shown to erode the trust in ICT services by society, government and organizations[1]. By postponing appropriate action the risks of major incidents propagating through (trans)sectoral service chains are increasingly threatening the economy[2].
In this proposal, IIP-SaaS and IIP-Vitale ICT join forces to develop new tools to chart risks and vulnerabilities in the use of ICT between organizations and new patterns how to deal with these risks. The participating organizations in this project are from knowledge institutions (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, CWI, TNO, IBM) and from the service chain of government organizations, such as Logius, municipalities and the Belastingdienst. Also, but less intense, we will involve the telecom service chain with Vodafone and Ericsson. Around financial aspects there is involvement from the ING.
In this project, the ultimate goal is to prevent the decay of trust in ICT services, by (a) creating awareness for the interdependency of ICT services, (b) developing a method and tools for determining interdependency and the associated risks and (c) by providing patterns and products to take appropriate action. By executing this project based on the input and commitment of the IIP communities of SaaS and Vitale ICT, we are maximizing the probability in succeeding to achieve this ambitious goal.
[1] ICT2030.nl, “ICT Agenda voor de toekomst van Nederland”.
[2] “Menselijke fout? Computerfout! Stroomuitval, Watervoorziening die hapert, Telefoonverkeer dat onmogelijk wordt – Nederland is kwetsbaar voor ICT storingen”, Elsevier magazine, pp. 16-21, February 6, 2010.
