If your organization has virtualized your IT infrastructure and is about to embark on the final leg of your journey to the cloud by adopting an IT-as-a-Service business model, you have a lot to think about. This endeavor, so essential for your IT operation’s survival in today’s competitive IT world, means transforming everything from how you develop, deliver and finance IT services to new ways to interact with your internal customers to earn and retain their loyalty.
You will be leaving behind many of the premises and practices that have dominated traditional IT operations for decades, embracing instead the entrepreneurial strategies of a free-market service provider. The goal is to use your newly established cloud computing foundation to standardize, package and deliver IT services based on your users’ needs. In the process, you will need to create a more cohesive IT organization rather than one that is typically siloed around separate technologies.
You will also need to change the culture of your organization to be less focused on technology and more focused on people. That means broadening the skills of your IT team to include things like marketing, sales, product management and communications.
As I said, it’s a lot to think about—a transformational journey. But now you won’t have to forge this path entirely on your own. EMC recently put together a handbook based on its ITaaS transformation that outlines key steps and considerations critical for ITaaS success.
This new white paper, entitled An IT-As-A-Service Handbook: Ten Key Steps On The Journey To ITAAS, isn’t meant to be a stone-chiseled set of instructions but rather a reflective series of insights into what EMC discovered to be the essential components of the journey—beyond the technology. It also shares some of the pitfalls we faced along the way, so hopefully your organization can avoid these setbacks.
This EMC retrospective seeks to shed some light on the evolutionary process that striving for ITaaS requires. In fact, our ITaaS journey is still evolving.
Despite the many challenges that this new IT model poses, it will bring many exciting opportunities for your IT operation, including becoming a true partner to the business and having more of an impact on the success of your company.
So welcome to the transition path. We hope you’ll use this handbook to gain insights into what’s ahead and we wish you a smooth and successful ITaaS journey of your own.
