The Issue With VMware ITaaS Model - How The Complete ITaaS Delivery Model Can Help

Cloud Computing and the various operational models it generates including IT as a Service (ITaaS) is fantastic, the business world is increasingly aware of that. The problem is, it is getting shackled in the false and simplistic logic that "the more sophisticated technology, the higher business revenue" where lines of business within mid to large-size corporations are in fact the fall guys.

I came to that conclusion after reading the findings of a report by Phil Fersht and Barbra Sheridan McGann cited in a recent Joe Mckendrick's article "Cloud Computing is Popular, But Not Ready For Prime Time" and most importantly after reading an extraordinary, unprecedented and insightful  survey by IDC Research Services sponsored by EMC and VMware; it involved more than 350 IT and business directors at enterprises of 1,000 employees or more. I strongly recommend it, you can find at "Your Journey To IT as a Service: Prioritize Your ITaaS Next Steps With An EMC Workshop." 

A clever analysis of these reports unveals the unprecedented fact that there are severe disconnects between IT vendors, IT departments and business lines about how cloud computing and ITaaS could help businesses achieve their goals.
All these disconnects are actually the tree that hides the forest; the reality is IT has reached an inflection point, the notion that sophisticated IT solutions and infrastructure by themselves would drive business growth is now outdated.
Cloud computing and the concept of ITaaS will NEVER deliver 100% of the promised business benefits as long as CIOs and IT vendors will refuse to shift to a more appropriate IT paradigm.
Phil Fersht and Barbra Sheridan McGann confirm in their report the IT world's resistance to any new paradigm when they state, "Another 47% blame their vendors, agreeing with the statement that “lack of willingness from our service provider(s) to cannibalize their existing revenue models” is holding back progress" and "Lack of support from service provider(s) to share risks/gains is cited by 44% as an obstacle to As-a-Service adoption."
You have here the reason why the vast majority of cloud migration and ITaaS transformation projects are highly successful from the technical and technology perspectives but are disasters from the pure business benefits perspective.

What is actually that new IT paradigm? How does it relate to so-called new style of IT? Why are today's CIOs and cloud vendors resisting it? What does it take to implement it? How helpful is the Complete ITaaS Delivery Model?  to implement it? are some of the key questions answered in this article. They are detailed in my recent books, "The Complete ITaaS Delivery Model: The Art of Integrating AWS, DevOps, and ITIL Into ITaaS Delivery Models"

In this article, I chose to illustrate my point by bringing out the weaknesses of VMware ITaaS offering and by showing how implementing VMware Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) from the perspective of the Complete ITaaS Delivery Model? would help businesses extract subtantantial and tangible business benefits from these extraordinary technology.

In order to make easy the understanding of such a complex topic, I have arranged the article in the following order:

• The never debated troubles with IT departments and with IT in general, they slow down the adoption of the concept of ITaaS
• The changing competitive environment and business line new expectations and requirements
• Why VMware ITaaS offering aren't likely to meet business line expectations and requirements
• How the Complete ITaaS Delivery Model? supplements VMware Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) platform
• Lessons learned about the Complete ITaaS Delivery Model? and where to go from her

The Never Debated Troubles With IT Departments And With IT In General. They Slow Down The Adoption of ITaaS

One thing unprecedented with this report is, it puts on the table several deficient practices and attitudes of IT departments and vendors that look minor but have devastating effects; they favor the use of shadow IT, increase investments in sophisticated and expensive software and infrastructure businesses do not necessarily need, and most importantly they are  perverting the concepts of cloud and ITaaS and depriving businesses of the benefits they can get from them.

The overall findings of this IDC survey are substantiated by a growing number of observers of the IT industry including Patrick Phillips, CIO at Disaster Kleenup International; in a remarkable article, IT Must Adapt or Die - A Story Brought to You by the Third Party Providers Trying to Make You Irrelevant he argues, "Five years ago, less than 25% of business leaders rated their organization’s IT function effective at delivering the capabilities they needed. Today the number hasn’t changed. IT functions have strived tirelessly to understand demand, set priorities, deliver effectively, and capture value, yet the results still disappoint. Business and IT leaders alike feel they should be getting more—more efficiency, more innovation, more value—from technology. Unasked Questions Among all the talk of engagement, alignment, and “being part of the business,” one assumption is never challenged—that for information technology to grow in strategic importance, so must the IT function. But what if this is not the case? What if a dedicated, standalone IT function is no longer the best option and the function’s resources and responsibilities were better located elsewhere?"

Let's talk about some of them as they highlight the gaps between what IT delivers and what the business needs.

IT Thinks It Understands The Business, The Business Sees More Room For Improvement For IT

According to the IDC survey, "IT executives are more likely than those in business to indicate that IT does a good job of understanding what the business wants, improving time to market, communicating a clear vision, gaining the trust of business stakeholders, informing the business of new services, articulating business value, enabling innovation and collaboration, and supporting mobility. Business executives are more likely to see significant room for improvement." The areas for improvement include:

• Making IT services easier to package and deliver — What do you have that can help me? (76% say needs some to significant improvement)
• Demonstrating an accurate understanding of the services the business needs/wants — Give me the tools/services to help me do my job better — in a timely manner. (74% say needs some to significant improvement)
• Communicating a clear vision for future services — How can IT help me achieve my business goals? (73% say needs some to significant improvement)

For IT, ITaaS is Primarily a Matter of Lower Costs While For the Business It's About Aligning Priorities

According to the IDC survey, "Business and IT executives are not in full agreement regarding the business benefits of ITaaS. Business executives view ITaaS as enabling alignment, promoting efficiency, and improving customer satisfaction. IT executives cite cost savings as the No. 1 IT benefit of ITaaS."

As to the Obstacles to ITaaS Adoption, the Disconnect Tells a Great Deal About the Troubles With IT Today

According to the IDC survey, "IT and business leaders are definitely not in sync regarding the potential roadblocks to deploying ITaaS. The primary concerns of IT leaders are developing a pricing model, security and compliance issues, and resistance to change. Business executives focus on poor communication, challenges in streamlining business processes, and a lack of confidence in the expertise of their own IT organizations. However, they do agree on one area — IT’s skill set. 33% of business managers point to a lack of trust or confidence in IT’s technical expertise; and 29% of IT folks agree, saying Insufficient skills and experience are a roadblock.

The Changing Competitive Environment Has Taken IT to an Inflection Point, Responsiveness to Market Opportunities Achieved Through Cross-Functional Collaboration and Organizational Agility is What the Business Wants. IT Must Change!

Let me say this, the various blames of the business are just the the tree that hides the forest; they reveal the unprecedented fact that IT practices have reached an inflection point where IT by itself cannot anymore support businesses' growth; as illustrated by the IDC survey, IT must take into account additional value drivers such as cross-functional collaboration, organizational agility, fast problem solving and decision-making, alike. That's what business lines have been calling for.

In fact as showed by the survey, business folks are right; a conjunction of factors including the globalization of the economy, the endless IT innovations, the repeated financial crises, the massive unemployment and the startup boom that goes with it as well as the acceleration of the adoption of cloud are stepping up competition and expanding market opportunities at a global scale.

To meet these challenges, radical changes are needed in how the business and IT work together, lean and agile environments putting together the business and IT supported by flexible and integrated processes and practices is what is highly desired and expected on the business side.
This integrated vision involving the business and IT in a shared platform of people, processes, practices, cloud services and infrastructure is actually what is meant by the new IT style.

The thing to keep in mind at this point is, lines of business consider responsiveness to market opportunities achieved through cross-functional collaboration involving the business and IT, organizational agility, and fast problem solving and decision-making as the additional competitive advantage they need to compete in today's business environment.

Now, let's see how well VMware is doing as to the business expectations and requirements, why it is missing the point (...) Read more here