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McKinsey Quarterly is the business journal of McKinsey & Company.

featured Business Technology, Infrastructure article, IT architecture Cutting costs complexity

August 2009 

IT architecture: Cutting costs and complexity

A joint effort by IT and business leaders can help companies not only to save money but also to prepare for the return of growth.

Recent Thinking

The Archive

2008

  • June 2008 

    Meeting the demand for data storage

    As the information storage needs of many large enterprises grow and become more complex, IT executives must have better policies to guide their efforts.

2007

2006

  • December 2006 

    How telecoms can get more from Internet Protocol

    As telecommunications carriers invest heavily in new IP technologies, the path to profitability is uncertain—but the migration effort yields the best results when carriers get the basics right.

  • June 2006 

    Moving IT infrastructure labor offshore

    The offshoring of IT infrastructure—machines and networks and the people who manage them—has been relatively slow to develop. But this is changing as leaders show how to offshore it effectively and vendors step up to meet a growing opportunity.

  • January 2006 

    Rethinking wholesale-banking operations

    By restructuring operations and aligning front and back offices, wholesale banks can cut costs dramatically and find new sources of revenue.

2005

2004

2003

  • August 2003 

    Designing IT for business

    When business and computer people put their heads together, they can transform a company’s IT architecture.

  • August 2003 

    The IT factor in mobile services

    Mobile-telecom companies must redraw their IT architecture if they hope to market new services quickly and cheaply.

  • August 2003 

    The truth about XML

    Systems powered by the Extensible Markup Language might someday prove to be the standard for information sharing between businesses, but not in the near future.

  • May 2003 

    Farming out data centers

    Companies that invest in secure, centralized locations for servers can save considerable sums of money.

  • May 2003 

    Recentralizing IT

    Companies can run their IT systems more efficiently by creating new organizational structures in which IT departments and business units share responsibility.

2002

  • December 2002 

    Edging into Web services

    Automating the flow of information among companies is costly and complex. Web services, argues John Hagel, promise to make it cheap and easy.

2001

  • August 2001 

    The future of the networked company

    Even during the present slowdown, networked companies are outperforming conventional ones. They are likely to go on doing so.

2000

  • August 2000 

    The Paris guide to IT architecture

    City planners try to preserve viable old assets, to replace outmoded assets, and to add new assets—all in the context of an infrastructure linking them coherently. IT developers have a good deal to learn from that approach.

1996

  • May 1996 

    Placing your bets on electronic networks

    The wrong debate: the Internet versus on-line services. The distinctive value of networks is the ability to form communities. The basics of quality, cost, and convenience will still drive success.

1995

  • November 1995 

    Do it, then fix it: The power of prototyping

    Reengineers plan for years—the right timeframe is months. Line managers in the lead. “We didn’t reach far enough.”

  • August 1995 

    Healthcare’s IT mistake

    Tools, not toys. Billions have been invested in information technology. Where are the results? A failure to focus on productivity. Get practice guidelines to the point of care.

1994

1993

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