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opinion piece
IT-as-a-Service…
Getting There Faster

2.
opinion piece | IT-as-a-Service…Getting There Faster
For many organizations, the
road to the future of delivering
IT-as-a-service is often littered
with piecemeal investments,
false starts and expensive
missteps. It needn’t be that way
for your business. Find
out how to put your journey to cloud
Mobility and end user expectations to access
corporate data from a range of devices,
from any location, on a self-service basis,
remain on the upward curve.
computing on the fast track.
An increasingly competitive global
landscape…the need to keep a step
ahead of new market
entrants…limited access to
capital…scarce and costly
resources…improving productivity
from anywhere and at any time.
The challenges facing business
leaders continue to mount.
Against this backdrop, the
traditional model for delivering IT
services no longer hits the mark.
IT can barely keep up with the
pace of change and funding for
new projects is scarcer than ever
before. Now’s the time for IT to
adapt to enable businesses not
just to survive, but to thrive.
Today, most CIOs recognize the
transformational potential of cloud
computing. Cloud enables IT to
be delivered-as-a-service, on-
demand, swiftly and at a
palatable price point.
Cloud computing can reduce the total cost of
ownership of managing infrastructure and
applications by more than half, with different
models providing choice on the level of
asset ownership. Fewer assets mean lower
CapEx outlay as users only pay for the
services they consume. At the same time,
you have the freedom to scale your
consumption up and down, as business
needs dictate. This in turn translates into
faster time-to-value and potential
competitive edge, as new products and
business services can be tested, refined and
brought to market in weeks, rather than
months.
Risk optimization is another advantage.
Controlling and tracking the use of IT
resources, particularly globally, can be
difficult, and a lack of control often
compromises internal governance
standards. With cloud computing,
standardized services can be
provisioned and tracked on a global
basis. By controlling end user access
and auditing usage, issues like data
sovereignty and compliance are easier
to address.
Cloud meets the specific needs and
expectations of business
stakeholders better than traditional
models with reduced project lead
times, round the clock support and
predictable service levels and cost.
The IT department can be more
responsive in its ability to test,
develop and launch new
infrastructure services.
The ‘but’
Migrating to the cloud is complex and
has significant implications across
business operations and IT. Whether
you’re at the beginning of your
journey, or well on your way to
harnessing the benefits of self-
service, hybrid cloud models, you
need to make informed decisions at
every step. Today, many companies
are struggling to balance the need to
move forward with their cloud
initiatives swiftly − while keeping risk
in check.
Accelerating ahead
As your business plans to migrate IT workloads
to the cloud, you need to decide which
workloads to migrate and whether the staff
have the skills and understanding to undertake
the migration themselves. They also need to
establish how your legacy infrastructure will be
managed and preserved during this period of
change. Maintenance of existing physical
systems can be costly, locating and
remediating faults is often manual and
therefore time- and resource-intensive but it’s
also important that business continuity isn’t
compromised during the transition phase. Don’t
underestimate the impact on the network. You
must understand the transition phase and the
post-deployment impact on bandwidth, latency,
user experience and networking costs. You
must also plan how your legacy systems will be
retired.
Mobility and end-user expectations to
access corporate data from a range of
devices, from any location, on a self-service
basis, remain on the upward curve. How
do you accommodate these needs and
ensure that they’re embedded in your cloud
solution, rather than ‘bolted on’ as an
afterthought?
Some organizations have found that these
new demands consume a disproportionate
amount of resources. This diverts attention
away from other IT projects and can create
rifts between the IT function and business
units. Often, this results in business units
embarking on rogue initiatives, bypassing
the IT function and procuring public cloud
services independently. The cost and
security implications of such actions can be
grave.

3.
opinion piece | IT-as-a-Service…Getting There Faster
further information
For these reasons, many organizations that
have set out to build a private cloud
environment in-house find that they’re not
achieving their milestones as quickly as
they’d like. Some have invested significantly
in virtualization and automation
infrastructure, but are struggling to find ways
to build in orchestration, self-service and
billing mechanisms – without which they’ll
Depending on its industry, size and strategic
priorities, each organization’s path to the
ultimate nirvana of delivering IT-as-a-service
will differ, as will its speed of adoption.
fail to realize the true value of the IT-as-a-
service model. The last step is the one that
usually takes the longest: once automation
is in place, the IT processes must be
modified to exploit the virtualized platform.
Investments in process changes, beginning
with defining the rules and policies that drive
the processes, can take years.
Many organizations also labor under the
misconception that the path to the cloud is
structured and linear and that there’s a
specific sequence of events in terms of
moving different workloads to the cloud.
Depending on its industry, size and
strategic priorities, each organization’s
path to delivering IT-as-a-service will
differ, as will its speed of adoption.
This leads to one of the most common
pain points experienced by organizations
attempting to move ahead on their cloud
journeys: few service providers are able to
offer a comprehensive range of cloud and
migration services. Often, this results in
ad hoc, piecemeal investments, which
require that organizations re-architect and
re-integrate their underlying infrastructure
with each new step. This slows the pace
of cloud adoption and makes the exercise
an unduly expensive one. In addition, if
you’re using a number of different
providers and therefore platforms, it can
be complex, expensive and sometimes
impossible to expand from one cloud
model to another (i.e. public, private and
hybrid, either on- premise or off-site) as
the demands of the business change.
Ultimately a combination of models will
provide the optimal solution for most
organizations.
Ensuring that your cloud services will be
delivered consistently, on a global scale,
with consistent management from one
model to another is an important
consideration. If your provider’s
geographic reach is limited, you’ll need to
enlist the services of a number of
vendors. A lack of common standards will
result in a heterogeneous mix of services,
disparate reporting mechanisms and
multiple web user interfaces. You’re
ability to retain an end-to-end view of your
cloud infrastructure and services will be
compromised, as will your business’
overall security posture.
It follows that selecting the right service
provider is pivotal to the ease and speed
with which an organization will migrate IT
services to the cloud. In order to truly
realize the benefits of cloud computing,
your cloud service provider should offer:
• A single, global managed platform
for public, private and hybrid cloud
environments;
• Enterprise-class security, controls,
reporting and auditing;
• A cloud management system that
automates provisioning, orchestration
and billing;
• A web-based user interface and
application-based interface to control the
system;
• An application interface to facilitate
integration across legacy systems
and third-party system management
applications;
• Value-added services to enable
application migration, systems
integration and management;
• Flexible models that reduce the burden
and lower the risk of building, operating
and supporting cloud infrastructure; and
• Innovative packaging and service delivery
models that minimize capital investment,
provide options regarding levels of
sharing, and balance the use of public and
private resources.
No longer a pipe dream
The ability to deliver IT-as-a-service to your
business users needn’t remain a pipe
dream. Bear in mind, however, that IT-as-a-
service is really a process – not a solution,
and your route and pace of adoption will be
unique to your business. The good news is
that with proper planning, focus, and the
right provider at your side, you can clear
the fog that surrounds cloud computing
and look forward to harnessing the many
advantages that this model promises.
What is ‘IT-as- a-service’?
• Self-service, on-demand access to
technologies by end users / business
units
• Broad access to networks, from a
variety of devices
• Rapid provisioning and de-
provisioning of services
• Users only pay for the services they
consume
• IT teams can monitor, control and
report on use of resources
ASIA·
About Concentric Cloud Solutions
Concentric Cloud Solutions offers
businesses advanced cloud-based
computing, content acceleration, and
cloud voice solutions. Through its
cloud-based platforms and online portal,
Concentric Cloud Solutions helps
organizations simplify the procurement
and management of critical
infrastructure, accelerate application
and web site performance, and improve
interactive communications with
customers. Concentric solutions can be
used to deploy IT as a Service. For
more information, visit
www.concentric.com.