Today, I got into a discussion concerning whether a client needed an "Enterprise" solution or not for a network deployment.  The question was if the organization was best characterized as a small business, Enterprise, or medium sized local area network installation. We were actually arguing over if size mattered or not.

FoodChain1

What struck me as odd was that the prevailing wisdom in the room was that this determination would drive everything including:

  • Hard drive models used
  • Storage space required
  • Price per seat that was acceptable
  • Network monitoring tools deployed
  • Type of local area network media to use
  • Bandwidth to the wide area network required
  • Certification level of the system administrators
  • Help Desk Size
  • And on and on….

You get the picture… I want to know why the size of an organization should determine whether they rate the "good stuff" or not.  Why should their information security posture be graded based upon how many warm bodies they have?  Does it really make sense that your level of "best practice" incorporation should in any way be tied to their numbers? Should not the standard be the standard and size only determine the quantity of material required, not the quality?

So I wonder where do you propose the breaks are between a small, medium, and Enterprise network?  No matter how hard I searched online, I could find no real standards proposed for these terms.  The closest that I came was concluding that:

  • A small business is more than one person.
  • An enterprise class business is lots, like in the thousands.
  • A medium size organization is everything in between.

Which, understandably, is not very helpful to you or me.  Do you have better definitions for these terms?Do you change your recommendations for quality based upon the classification of a firm based on size? Do you have any case studies to support this process?  Please share.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for September 11, 2009

Image credit: ScienceIsArt

Be Sociable, Share!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.