Managing eBusiness Continuity: Formulating an Appropriate Strategy to Manage System Scalability

Scalability has been identified in the information systems literature as one of the most prominent risk factors for discontinuity. In this study we performed experiments on a series of simulated network models to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of three infrastructural methods for improving system scalability. Furthermore, we studied the relative effectiveness of the various strategies for managing scalability of an ebusiness network system. The results of the simulations support the common beliefs that (a) system scalability has direct associations with performance quality, and (b) the three infrastructurally based methods are effective in improving the scalability of the networked systems. In addition the simulation results revealed that combinations of the three infrastructurally based methods did not always result in improved system scalability. This information can help managers to invest their effort and resources in an effective scalability strategy