Technology & Evolution | homework crew
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CHEVRON’S INFRASTRUCTUREEVOLUTIONChevron Corporation (www.chevron.com) is one of the world’s leadingenergy companies. Chevron’s headquarters are in San Ramon, California.The company has more than 62,000 employees and produces more than700,000 barrels of oil per day. It has 19,500 retail sites in 84 countries. In2012, Chevron was number three on the Fortune 500 list and had more than$244 billion in revenue in 2011 [STAT12].IT infrastructure is very important to Chevron and to better support allfacets of its global operations, the company is always focused on improvingits infrastructure [GALL12]. Chevron faces new challenges from increasedglobal demand for its traditional hydrocarbon products and the need todevelop IT support for new value chains for liquid natural gas (LNG) and theextraction of gas and oil from shale. Huge investments are being madearound the world, particularly in Australia and Angola on massive projects ofunprecedented scale. Modeling and analytics are more important than everto help Chevron exploit deep water drilling and hydrocarbon extraction inareas with challenging geographies. For example, advanced seismic imagingtools are used by Chevron to reveal possible oil or natural gas reservoirsbeneath the earth’s surface. Chevron’s proprietary seismic imaginghttp://www.chevron.com/C6-2technology contributed to it achieving a 69% discovery rate in2011[CHEV12].Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)SystemsChevron refineries are continually collecting data from sensors spreadthroughout the facilities to maintain safe operations and to alert operators topotential safety issues before they ever become safety issues. Data from thesensors is also used to optimize the way the refineries work and to identifyopportunities of greater efficiency. IT controls 60,000 valves at Chevron’sPascagoula, Mississippi refinery; the efficiency and safety of its end-to-endoperations are dependent on advanced sensors, supervisory control and dataacquisition (SCADA) systems, and other digital industrial control systems [GALL12].SCADA systems are typically centralized systems that monitor andcontrol entire sites and/or complexes of systems that are spread out overlarge areas such as an entire manufacturing, fabrication, power generation,or refining facility. The key components of SCADA systems include: Programmable logic units (PLCs) that and remote terminal units (RTUs)connected to sensors that convert sensor signals to digital data andsend it to the supervisory system A supervisory computer system that acquires data about the processand sends control commands to the process A human-machine interface (HMI) that presents process to the humanoperators that monitor and control the process. Process meters and process analysis instruments Communication infrastructure connecting the supervisory system andRTUs and PLCs.These are illustrated in Figure C6.1.C6-3Data acquisition occurs at the PLC or RTU level. This includes meterreadings and equipment status reports that are sent to the supervisorysystem. The collected data is compiled and formatted by the HMI to enablethe operator to make determine whether adjustments to normal PLC or RTUsettings are needed. Current data may also be compared to historical data ina SCADA database to assess trends or perform analytical auditing.C6-4In addition to Chevron refineries, SCADA are extremely important innational infrastructures such as water supplies, pipelines, and electric grids.Because attacks or damage to SCADA systems can affect large numbers ofpeople, ensuring adequate security is important.Business Infrastructure TransformationBecause of the complexity of its operational processes and the IT that isneeded to support them, Chevron has traditionally been more infrastructurethan business focused. SCADA systems and digital industrial control systemsare critical IT infrastructure at Chevron’s refineries and will always play animportant role in monitoring and managing facility-based processes. Thesealso are among the first IT systems needed to support Chevron’s new valuechains for LNG and shale oil extraction. However, like any large corporation,Chevron relies on a wide variety of business applications to run itsbusinesses.As it is for most global businesses, SAP ERP is a key transactionprocessing system at Chevron. Chevron has been using SAP for more thantwo decades and it has played an important role in the development of SAP’svertical solutions for the hydrocarbon industry. There are more than 50instances of SAP used by Chevron [SCRI11]. Most of these run on Oracledatabases. Some other key enterprise applications at Chevron include AribaBuyer, EMC Documentum, Informatica, MicroStrategy, multiple Oracleapplications [SCRI11].Going forward, IT executives at Chevron would like to flip the company’straditional IT priorities so that the majority of the IT staff’s time andattention is focused on improving business capabilities [GALL12]. To do this,Chevron’s IT leaders have increasingly turned their attention to Webservices, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing to help it run itsbusiness. Chevron considers mobility to be a game changer in how itC6-5delivers information and provides solutions and it is convinced that it can doboth without sacrificing security or reliability.IT infrastructure at Chevron pervades every facet of its operations.However, Chevron’s executives have not lost sight of the fact that IT is notthe company’s core competency. By moving business solutions to the cloud,Chevron executives hope to help the company maintain its focus on its corecompetencies.C6-6Chevron has used business-oriented Web services for several years.Ariba Buyer, Salesforce.com, and Ketera’s price negotiation system are justa few of the SaaS solutions that Chevron has woven into its IT architecture.Chevron is interested in developing an integrated information networkthat includes all of its major supply chain partners, both upstream anddownstream. Identify management has emerged as a priority at Chevron toensure secure data transfer among its business partners. A generic exampleof an identify management system is illustrated in Figure C6.2. When usersat Chevron partners need to access Chevron’s intranet and/or SaaS data orsolutions, they are first cleared by an identity broker. The identity brokerauthenticates the user and transparently provides a single sign on (SSO)token that enables the partner to access Chevron’s intranet (2) or thecompany’s SaaS solution providers (3).Chevron hopes to better align its operations with those of its businesspartners via its migration of business applications to the cloud. It hopes thatthe business infrastructure transformation that is currently underway willalso lead to better IT and business alignment. As a global company, thecloud may be an ideal platform for running the business.In the years ahead, Chevron’s IT leaders expect mobility, analytics andvisualization, and social media to become critical aspects of its businessinfrastructure. At the facilities level, advanced sensors and deeperembedding of RTUs and PLCs within operations are foreseen [GALL12].Technical appreciation of convergence network infrastructure will continue tobe important, but business literacy/savvy will be most important to the long-term success of Chevron’s IT leaders.Discussion Points1. Do some Internet research on Chevron’s use of seismic imagingtechnology. Briefly explain how it works and how it has helpedChevron discover new oil and gas reservoirs.C6-72. Do some Internet research on security vulnerabilities associated with SCADA and digital industrial control systems. Summarize the majorsecurity concerns associated with these systems and steps than can be taken to enhance their security.3. Discuss the pros and cons of moving enterprise-wide applications thathave traditionally been supported on premises to the cloud.4. Do some Internet research on identify management and single sign on systems. Briefly explain how these work and why they are important inbusiness intranets and extranets.5. Why is it increasing most important for a CIO or IT executive who oversees geographically distributed enterprise networks to be businessliterate?Sources [CHEV12] Chevron.com “Seismic Imaging.” Retrieved online: at http://www.chevron.com/deliveringenegy/oil/seismicimaging. [GALL12] Gallant, J. ”Chevron’s CIO Talks Transformation and Why ITLeaders Should Smile.” April 12, 2012. Retrieved online at: http://www.cio.com/article/print/704095. [SCRI11] Scribd.com. “Chevron Corporation CRUSH Report.” August 17,2011. Retrieved online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/62481977/Chevron- CRUSH-Report-09A1. [STAT12] Statistic Brain. “Chevron Company Statistics.” February 12, 2102.Retrieved online at: http://www.statisticbrain.com/chevron-company- statistics/.http://www.chevron.com/deliveringenegy/oil/seismicimaginghttp://www.cio.com/article/print/704095Chevron Company StatisticsChevron Company Statistics
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