I’ve been reviewing submissions for the Ops Transformation track at VMworld 2013. It is a fascinating look at what a bunch of really smart people think is important in the cloud era. Based on review of proposed panel discussions and breakout sessions, there seems to be some consensus that standardization is a key dependency for successfully deploying an automated and scalable service strategy.
The quantity and variety of topics suggests there isn’t yet consensus on how the concept of standardization should be applied. But some of the submitted topics suggest that standardization of service definitions and infrastructure configurations is what makes innovation possible at the business process level – where it counts.
Related reading topics:
Monitoring Strategies in the Cloud by Michael Kavis
Michael Kavis takes a look at best practices when dealing with cloud, including standardizing as much as possible in cloud based systems so that a high level of automation can be put in place.
What Goes Around Comes Around Part 2: Is Standardization Still a Valid Strategy? By Theo Priestley
Standardizing business processes reduces innovation. Note – VMware paper submissions suggest that standardizing IT services and infrastructure enable greater business process innovation.
Resilience Engineering Part 1 and Part 2 By John Allspaw
Great insights on how resiliency, automation, and standardization are all tightly linked.
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