Merger management

-- Ed Scannell

The long-term architectural goal of Time-Warner and America Online as a merged company is to create an entitlement-based environment on the Web that gives consumers, business partners, and other third parties their own level of access to information. This goal will also accommodate the needs of a very diverse and somewhat nomadic employee base.

To ensure that Time-Warner and AOL streamline the process of putting in place a compatible and efficient hardware and software architecture, Dunn believes in a taking a "framework" approach as opposed to an architectural one.

The framework approach makes it easier to standardize technical platforms across the companies' far-flung empire, Dunn believes. It also makes it easier for either company to hire and train personnel, as well as get better pricing deals from its high-tech suppliers, establish outside partnerships, and react to the competitive landscape more quickly. Dunn describes the second approach, architecture, as old-style IT and not flexible enough for where the combined companies want to go.

Establishing that framework, which is still a work in progress, requires understanding and exploiting the respective technical strengths of each company. What AOL brings to the table is its expertise in bandwidth, infrastructure management, and operational expertise, according to Dunn -- something Time-Warner can leverage across many of its Web-based initiatives.

"The buying potential [produced by AOL's bandwidth capabilities] is a huge advantage for the joint company," Dunn says. "[AOL has] the most sophisticated datacenters and infrastructure landscape I have ever seen. These guys have taken it to the next level."

From the start, it was Dunn's job to search out the most common platforms used in both companies, particularly those hosting Internet-related applications. But because Time-Warner had begun the process of standardizing and otherwise consolidating its very diverse hardware and software architectures throughout its business units prior to the AOL deal, Dunn was pleasantly surprised to discover the high degree of compatibility in the two companies' architectures.

"We were not as diverse as you would have thought. We tended to use many of the same best-of-breed products," Dunn says. "Over time you can work toward the modular elimination of legacy systems if necessary. But if [your] legacy system is still keeping up and you don't have any choke points, then you are probably OK to keep it."

Generally the two companies have standardized much of their Web-based projects around Sun Microsystems' servers, with Java and Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) at the heart of their software development strategies. Both companies have standardized on Windows-based desktops and have a smattering of IBM-based mainframes.

Time-Warner had already determined it would gravitate toward a Web-enabling model prior to the AOL deal, including meta-enabling its very diverse content. This initiative will continue forward, although now it will be broadened to accommodate AOL's platforms and content.

What appears to ease decision-making about platforms is Dunn's belief in being "agnostic" about such things -- he prefers not to genuflect at any vendor's altar. He believes a good technologist can make any set of technologies that properly serves the business goals work.