Dirt Bikes Infrastructure Analysis

M3 D: Dirt Bikes: Infrastructure Analysis (Small groups) In this discussion, you will work together to support infrastructure decision making (Here is an overview at this webpage of what is involved in production planning and control if you are not familiar with the function). Management has asked for a briefing on what is involved in making this decision. They need to understand several things: What is needed to implement such a system as an infrastructure investment, and how do they determine the total cost of ownership if Dirt Bikes wants to do everything itself? What are the advantages and disadvantages of owning versus outsourcing for each of these components (staff, computer servers, software licensing, and data storage)? What are the trade-offs? For example: cost versus reliability; ease of use versus control. Of the 4 key system components — staff, servers, software and data storage — are there other combinations of outsourcing (for instance, can they own the server but outsource data storage to a cloud company?) What other future infrastructure needs might be relevant in this decision, for example they be needing other software applications and databases? Will they need internet servers to host the company’s web site and e-commerce services? You may want to research some software as service companies (SAS) and some cloud storage services to understand how they work.