You have come to the realization that you need to accelerate IT service delivery in order to allow the business to be more agile, nimble and productive. The first decision many companies struggle with is should they build their cloud automation software themselves, or buy off the shelf software that can help accelerate their cloud deployment. The dilemma 
companies face is the trade-off between building something that exactly meets their needs or using software that requires changes to existing tools and processes.
Early technology adopters find themselves in a position where they have no choice but to build because these companies frequently see the need before the market has available solutions for them to buy. That was the case when I started working with companies over six years ago to help them deploy IT service automation solutions. Although cloud automation is still an emerging market, many companies including VMware IT Group have automated some of their IT Service delivery tasks creating internal private clouds where resources consumers can request and manage infrastructure and application services. Commercially available solutions like VMware’s vCloud Automation Center now have been deployed at thousands of customers where they regularly manage hundreds to multiple tens of thousands of VMs.
Most companies have learned that building management tools like this is a poor long-term investment. IT departments don’t have the competency or resources to build sophisticated management tools. Even if you deliver an initial working version, you likely can’t keep up with the additional features that focused software companies with large development groups will be able to provide your competitors. If you find yourself still leaning towards building your own cloud automation solution, make sure that your ROI analysis includes both the initial development and ongoing enhancement costs. Because history is not on your side, you need to ask yourself if what your building provides a quantitative competitive differentiator and what are the costs to keep it going.
Learn more about Cloud Automation.
- Watch the VMware IT Private Cloud – Exceeding Expectations video (2:28 min)
- Learn using the VCloud Automation 6.x Video Library
- Try HOL-SDC-1321 – vCloud Automation Center 6 from A to Z (ecludes enabling Hybrid Cloud governance)
- See how VMware IT saved 90% of time spent and 30% of costs through automated provisioning.
- Check out what some of our customers are saying in the customer case studies on our web site.
Need help deploying your private cloud infrastructure or developing your business justification? Contact us and our experts can help your team build the business case and the solution that will maximize your IT productivity.
