Are you ready for cloud transformation?
As the CIO, you know cloud is good for you. Capacity on demand! Independence from hardware… IT as a service, even as self-service… In other words, you know why you are doing it. You fought for, and got the budget allocated, you acquired the best technology, and your trusted consultant has proven to you in a nicely-done POC that the technology works. But you know, it’s not just the technology. Will your cloud fly high and deliver the expected benefits, or fall rock-hard on the shoulders of your IT team? Will your consumers use it, or see it as an additional burden? Will everyone be happy, including those whose job description changes, or worse? So, let’s talk about cloud transformation.
Cloud is based on advanced software technology, specifically server virtualization and cloud management, but that’s not all. Clearly, we are speaking about the people/process/technology transformation here. And there is no one better than Kevin Lees, the chief technologist of IT operations transformation at VMware, to help you understand how to make cloud work for your IT organization. Kevin has recently published a new white paper: Organizing for the Cloud, where he looks at the organizational impacts of cloud transformation from multiple perspectives and provides insights and advice about how to prepare for—and execute—a winning transformation strategy. Download here, or keep reading for a condensed overview.
Kevin starts off by identifying the key differences between the traditional and the cloud-based IT. How do the roles change? Are the responsibilities the same? And who bears the costs?
Then, Kevin defines the steps to the cloud IT model. First, you need to set the target, and set expectations. What are your goals in the end of the day? Is it saving costs? Or improving agility? Or achieving lights-out operations to minimize the human factor’s impact? Once you establish that, we understand better the degree of change, and how to prepare your organization for it.
In the next section, Kevin provides guidance on how to design an effective cloud organizational model as a core requirement of preparing an organization strategy for supporting services in an SDDC-based cloud environment. He offers the team structure where IT becomes much more customer focused.
Drilling down deeper into the details, Kevin looks at the roles and responsibilities of different components of the organization, with the goal of creating tighter collaboration across the traditional “plan-build-run” IT paradigm. The paper discusses different teams’ charters as they work together to enable the new paradigm of delivering IT as a service to both internal and external constituents. Each team is explained, from the goals to the operating mode, and their relationship to the Line of Business. The paper also goes over a number of individual key roles within the teams, making it a really a hands-on guide into designing and implementing the new organization.
Next, the paper discusses the a cultural aspect and the mind-set shift in how IT interacts with its customers as well as how IT defines, develops, delivers, and manages services for consumption. It covers three key shifts:
- Service-Oriented, Customer Focused Culture
- Collaborative Culture
- Agile-based Culture
And finally, the paper offers a number of critical steps to achieve success with your cloud initiatives. These are based on the vast experience that Kevin and his team have developed while helping VMware customers to reach their goals.
The paper concludes with the invitation to learn more about the VMware SDDC-based cloud solution at www.vmware.com/ solutions/it-outcomes.html, and information about VMware professional services who can help you get started on your cloud journey and achieve the results faster.
