Eye Opener

An 

Opinion

                                by Alex Hutchins

Deteriorating From Within

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word infrastructure means:

The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

However, it is more than just buildings, roads, and power supplies, it is bridges, sewer systems, communications systems, schools, farming, water, and transportation to name a few.

Preventive maintenance programs are supposed to retard the growth of deterioration but these programs do not stop the deterioration.

It is estimated that the United States must “fork over” $124 Billion each year just to fix crumbling bridges, roads, and railroads as reported by CBS News a few days ago.  The report went on to say that only $120 Billion is currently being spent by States and the Feds, leaving us $4 Billion in the hole each year.

As mentioned above, infrastructure is not just roads, bridges, and railroads.  It is much, much more.

As I look around the Southern areas of the US in which I live or have lived, I see that infrastructure needs are being systematically ignored, renovating only those structures that have to be repaired.  One can only assume that the rest of the country follows the same protocols.

And, therein lays our problem.

Not only are we falling behind the world in other areas, but we are falling behind with our infrastructure…   something, that most of us if not all of us take for granted, yet vehemently complain about especially when roads are being repaired and rush hour traffic is delayed coming home from work.

Since we are in a period of rapid technology growth, we cannot forget infrastructure in that arena either.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. In its current form (known as ITIL 2011 edition), ITIL is published in a series of five core volumes, each of which covers an ITSM lifecycle stage.

ITIL underpins ISO/IEC 20000 (previously BS15000), the International Service Management Standard for IT service management, although differences between the two frameworks do exist.

ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks and checklists that are not organization-specific, used by an organization for establishing integration with the organization's strategy, delivering value and maintaining a minimum level of competency.

It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement.

We Were Just Wondering:

• How much will this cost business?
• How much will business raise prices to cover this cost (inflation)?
• How much will the Feds, States, and local Governments raise our taxes?
• Will we, as a nation, be able to compete in the Global Marketplace?
• Will we, as individuals, be able to sustain our “quality of life?”