Business Service Management Hub

Mobility and wireless network infrastructures are the big takers when it comes to IT budget planning for 2012, our latest study reveals. Even so, organizations are moving to the next stage of the IT infrastructure build-out across multiple budget areas, and our 2012 IT Investment Patterns Study shows how the strategy trends of innovation, integration and reversion are having a significant impact on 2012 spending patterns.

Is the enterprise ready for the cloud? Companies like Google, Salesforce, IBM and others think so and they’re creating solutions give enterprise customers what they want. Cloud-computing solutions are gaining traction across the market. As a CIO, the value of cloud computing is clear. And chances are, if your company hasn’t already deployed cloud solutions, you’re making plans to do so. However, with budget limitations, unless your CEO finds value in cloud computing, it may be challenging to get the solution you want. How can you educate your CEO and convince him or her that cloud computing will be a boon to your business?

Like many CIOs, you may find yourself struggling to innovate in advance of an anticipated economic recovery, while still striving to keep costs down in a decidedly uncertain business climate. And, even though you’re striving to be seen as a valued, senior member of your management teams, the enterprise perception of how much IT contributes to a competitive edge is decidedly mixed.

It’s that time of year when the press is filled with the latest IT predictions for the coming year. A couple of articles and surveys caught my attention as they relate to the unspoken imperative of connecting to the business to drive the business for competitive advantage versus just operate the business. This practice, while not called out, is Business Service Management and is the heart and soul of success for many of these initiatives.

“Data, Data Everywhere — Not a BIT of Intelligence Anywhere”

What is Business Service Management simply and why does it appear to have waned in discussion and answer the question has it failed, is the concept required, what’s new? Yes, the number one complaint in the market is still that IT does not understand the business, the level of frustration is rising and fuels the fire driving cloud computing and hosted services.

The Hub Commentary_ I stumbled upon a great article written by an old friend of mine, Kevin Cunningham, from a previous software life.  Now more than ever the alignment of IT and business as I posted from an article regarding IT roles yesterday is a requirement.  The thought that IT is separate from the business […]

The number of IT jobs is on the rise, however, the roles in hot demand are new roles illustrating the transformation of IT. “The notion that IT is separate from the business has faded into antiquity.” This is a refreshing trend in terms of driving revenue and growth for the business and economy.

A friend of mine, Richard Whitehead, recently posted two blogs (Two Lawyers and Shakin Up) on the topic of service level agreements, contracts and lawyers for cloud based services. My favorite quote in these posts, “Send lawyers, guns and money”. All I can say is, if it comes to lawyers, guns and money, it just ain’t worth it. Far too much time is spent on the negotiation and perceived service missteps than is put into the quality of service and driving revenue.

This is a topic I lean a little less toward IT driving than I do marketing as a technology to reach customers and prospects. Most social media tools are external to an organization and not really something I believe IT should own and more the realm of the marketeers to use to reach out to their customers and prospects.

Another nice piece from Forrester regarding business transformation and the roles of CIOs due to the ability for the business to buy their own technology. The real message is that the budget is being controlled by the business and less by the IT organization forcing IT to better communicate the value of underlying technologies and how they will help in growing the business. The focus has to always be on the business even when it is internally focused projects.

This is a nice post from Marc of Forrester. He outlines well the things that need to be considered as contracting with service providers and purchasing technology moves around an organization as part of a business transformation (BT) initiative.

What does this continue to tell IT organizations? Two things, the cloud is here to stay and business is seeking outside alternatives. If technology and management spending were up, I’d have an aha moment, IT is getting it and turning that corner of transformation and change to leverage technology to grow the business and is harnessing the power of agile computing.

I tend to agree with James and have written often on the same subject. Those leading their industry this year, likely won’t be the ones leading next year. The question is are you trying to merely drive down costs or fuel growth? Even with the Amazon blip of a week or so ago, those fueling growth are unwaivered in their approach.

I agree that costs need to be managed, however, there comes a point of no return. Justifying the business value and return on investment is the shift IT organizations need to make in order to be competitive with the cloud and SaaS providers.

Virtualized Desktop Infrastructures (VDI) can save organizations on the hardware with the thin client, but as Arthur points out there are additional costs to consider and with everything there is a break-even and savings point with volume. We are back to the dumb terminal! What is old is new again.

The day has finally arrived to announce the closing of one chapter and the start of another. As my loyal followers know, we did belong to Novell, but we have remained true to keeping this site focused on best practices, insight, opinion and resources and not on the vendor technology specifically. Today I will go ahead and post this news as it is significant in the enterprise software market in general.

There is no doubt the cloud and outsourcing options are here to stay and will continue to eat away at the data center. Those that deploy, monitor, manage, and measure their services in mixed environments taking advantage of the best options will lead their industry with technology in the coming year.

The Hub Commentary_ The news continued through the weekend on the Amazon outage this past week.  While many who are commenting are using it as an opportunity to point the finger that the cloud has failed.  I do not.  The cloud is here to stay. The role of the IT organization is changing to that […]

Outages always make for big headlines and make for good examples of the cost of visibility and management. I read these articles with positive thoughts and still see cloud computing as the future and those who are bold took advantage of growing business earlier rather than later.

I’ve commented in this similar vein on many posts this year and the cost calculation and business value is covered in my post and recorded presentation here on The Hub. My friend Michael sums up this topic well with citations from InformationWeek and Forrester. It is not about the technology, it is about the service value the technology brings to the business, something those in the business service management practice have known for many years.