By Jeremy Carter, VMware Senior Consultant
I’ve been working on a customer engagement recently that takes advantage of vCloud Automation Center (vCAC), which is designed to centralize and automate key IT activities, freeing the organization to focus on the needs of internal and external customers.
In our deployment of vCAC, I’ve been reminded of a key principal of IT and business transformation: The technology is only part of the process. Often a shift in technology requires a period of assessment and realignment that is as valuable as the technology itself.
When the VMware Professional Services team is brought in for an engagement, the company wants to get the best return on its investment, so the IT team is receptive to our schedule of meetings and stock-taking. But every IT organization will benefit by starting their new technology implementation plan by stepping back to survey the systems in place before integrating a new one.
We put a lot of emphasis on investigating how things are currently done, often starting by asking the teams to draw their processes, for creating a virtual machine, for instance. Frequently we find they have two or three different processes in place, depending on who’s making request. This is especially common in government and higher education, where each department is likely to have it’s own IT team and strategy.
The unfortunate fact is that automation still scares people, thinking they’re going to be out of a job. On the contrary, if you look at any IT organization out there, you’ll see that it’s overwhelmed with tasks, many of which are never getting done. Automation can give them time back to focus on what’s important to their customers.
A new implementation is a perfect opportunity to look at which processes are working the best and align all the teams to them. When a team sees that they’ll be able to provide a better experience and quicker turnaround, their resistance to automation often fades.
And luckily vCAC provides enough flexibility that users don’t have to adopt exactly the same systems across the organization. With a college I worked with recently, we were able to build on what teams are already doing. Next we focused on handoff systems to cut down on the number of emails flying around: one for DNS, another to install the OS, etc.
This process—of assessing current processes, building in automation and consistency, and then refocusing on customer needs—is undeniably valuable. But it does take time. It’s worth putting these reassessments on the calendar every 6 or 12 months; if that doesn’t work, I recommend taking the opportunity presented by the implementation of a new technology to keep moving toward the best your organization can be.
Jeremy Carter is a Senior Consultant with VMware and is focused on the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC). He has special expertise in cloud infrastructure and automation, and BCDR. Over his 14 years in IT he has gained a variety of experience as an architect, DBA, and developer. Prior to joining VMware, Jeremy was a Principal Architect at one of the largest VMware service providers.
