Experts

Application software by definition are computer programs that are designed to perform certain business functions and generally interface with end users. However, applications can be anywhere in the continuum between bespoke and ready to use. For this reason the difference between a product and service often tends to blurr. This effects the taxonomy here since and some applications categorized as a service are actually also a product and vice versa. As your company gets bigger, even ready to use application software needs to be integrated with the rest of your other programs in order to be fully useful. The amount of customization would depend on the software as well as the complexity of the firm. In this section we list experts who you could consult on specific applications or types of applications that you might need for your business. Some of these experts can also design and build application software that may or may not be available readily off the shelf and help to integrate it with the rest of your computer architecture. 

Find individual experts or firms who help you better understand the operating architecture of the firm, and provide the needed diagnosis and strategies & roadmaps for re-architecting the firm to be able to smoothly transition out of, or interimly adapt, legacy systems to  better compete in terms of scale and scope in the age of data and machine learning. Find experts who can take you from silos and spaghetti to centralized data, intelligent algorithms and clear policies and governance. The due diligence afforded here is essential work for the CEO to be able to provide the necessary business guidance to IT management and vendors and hopefully avoid costly misadventures.

Information technology (IT) infrastructure are the components required to operate and manage enterprise IT environments. These components include hardware, software, networking components, an operating system (OS), and data storage, all of which are required to develop, test, monitor, control or support IT services to deliver IT services and solutions. Types of IT infrastructure include Traditional infrastructure like Main frames, data storage, and other equipment—are all managed and owned by the business within their own facilities. Cloud infrastructure which are remotely managed,, common infrastructure provided by third-party vendors, a subset of which can be Converged Infrastructure which groups multiple components into a single optimized computing package. For the less technical business decision Leader, it is also important to understand the difference between IT architecure and infrastructure so as not to put the "cart before the horse" in making IT acquisition decisions.. The experts listed in this section can provide the help and guidance needed to make the right selection for infrastructure and also its management.