Digital Transformation Driven by ITaaS

April 15, 2017 / G C Network / Comments Off

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International Public Sector Cloud Computing Summit in DC

By G C Network | March 7, 2012

Next week at the Hyatt Regency in reston, Virginia, the Cloud Standards Customer Council will be holding it’s Public Sector Cloud Summit. This two day cloud event will feature international public sector Cloud…

Jill T. Singer, NRO CIO, Named One of 10 Top Women in Cloud Computing !!

By G C Network | February 17, 2012

CONGRATULATIONS to National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) CIO Jill T. Singer for being selected as one of the 10 winners of the first annual CloudNOW awards presented at the Cloud Connect Conference in…

NJVC® and Virtual Global Announce Release of PaaS White Paper: Paper Clarifies the Confusion Surrounding PaaS for Federal IT Buyers—Why It Is Important and How It Can Cut Development Costs by 50 Percent

By G C Network | January 27, 2012

VIENNA, Va., Jan. 23, 2012 —NJVC®, one of the largest information technology solutions providers supporting the U.S. Department of Defense, and Virtual Global, a premier provider of software and cloud…

December 2011: GovCloud Moves From Policy to Law

By G C Network | December 27, 2011

Over the past years, government cloud computing has steadily moved forward from it’s early beginnings as an interesting curiosity: December 23, 2008 – Now really. Should the Obama administration use…

GovCloud.com !! The New Hub for Government Cloud Computing

By G C Network | November 17, 2011

It gives me great pleasure to announce the relaunch of GovCloud.com! GovCloud is the “go to” place for everything related to federal cloud computing. Our mission is to help federal…

Backupify Names Top 10 Cloud Computing Experts to Follow on Twitter

By G C Network | November 15, 2011

THANK YOU BACKUPIFY!!!! Thank you for the honor of being on your Top 10 List! Backupify is the leading backup provider for cloud based data, offering an all-in-one archiving, search…

NJVC® Cloud Computing Expert Kevin Jackson to Speak at NIST Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop IV on Nov. 3 in Gaithersburg, Md.

By G C Network | October 29, 2011

VIENNA, Va., Oct. 28, 2011 — NJVC®, one of the largest information technology solutions providers supporting the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) , is pleased to announce that Kevin Jackson,…

NJVC® General Manager, Cloud Services, Kevin Jackson to Moderate “Cloud Computing and the Intelligence Mission” Panel at GEOINT 2011 Symposium

By G C Network | October 18, 2011

Vienna, Va., Oct. 13, 2011 — NJVC® , one of the largest information technology (IT) solutions providers supporting the U.S. Department of Defense, is pleased to announce that Kevin Jackson,…

NJVC® Spotlights Cyber Security and Automated IT at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo® 2011

By G C Network | October 14, 2011

VIENNA, Va., Oct. 4, 2011 — NJVC®, one of the largest information technology solutions providers supporting the Department of Defense, announces its lineup for the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo®, Oct. 16 –…

NJVC® to Demonstrate Enterprise Automation at GEOINT 2011

By G C Network | October 10, 2011

VIENNA, Va., Oct. 6, 2011 — NJVC®, one of the largest information technology solutions (IT) providers supporting the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), is pleased to offer live, compelling demonstrations…

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When executing an effective digital transformation strategy, management is tasked with placing the right workload into the most appropriate IT environment. This represents a shift from buying parts for self-assembly to composing services through self-serve consumption and pay-per-use models. Quite often this transition also leads to the adoption of software defined environments across the enterprise infrastructure.

Software defined infrastructures do, however, bring with them some very unique challenges. Many of the most prevalent issues are centered around the relatively immature state of the technology itself. The most significant aspect of this challenge is the lack of industry standards for device control. Control software must know the status of all network devices and trunks, no matter what vendor equipment is being used. While OpenFlowstands today as the de facto software defined networking standard, it is a unidirectional forwarding-table update protocol that cannot be used to determine device status. It also doesn’t allow for the programming of port or trunk interfaces. A second critical issue is the lack of business process or enterprise IT policy definition capabilities. This shortfall often leads to resource over provisioning caused by automation rules that deploy “just in case” instead of “just in time”.

When taken together, the two latter problems heighten the risk of vendor lock-in. This issue was highlighted last year by Major General Sarah Zabel, Vice Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency. This military organization deals with 2,400 trouble calls, 2,000 tickets, 22,000 changes, and 36 cybersecurity incidents every day. Its global network interfaces with owned and managed networks from other military departments and services providers. When addressing the Open Networking User Group,Major General Zabel stated that the agency suffered from vendor lock-in and too many devices.

“We need an area where vendors accept the fact we need a path away from their solution…We need less dependence on hardware and to be able to work with more software.”

Another important but widely ignored challenge is the need to build organizational buy-in, a problem that is often accompanied by business process changes. According to Neal Secher, managing director and head of network architecture at BNY Mellon, “You need to partner with your business and show them the value. There’s a snowball [effect] that will add value and allow you to add more automation. You need to prove through evidence that it works and won’t hurt the business.”

Understanding how to select, configure and operate within this new paradigm requires new technology, new technical skillsets and new management techniques. This trifecta of change cannot be easily assimilated within most large organizations. This is why IBM IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) can often provide critical advice, assistance and technology.

ITaaS is an approach for defining and consuming digital services through a hybrid cloud infrastructure. This approach has often shown itself as the most cost effective path toward workload optimization. When used as part of a holistic strategy, hybrid cloud infrastructures can deliver multiple levels of value by:

Delivering programmable, virtualized and application-centric networking capability;
Managing the corporate mobile infrastructure and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) initiatives;
Modernizing and optimizing the IT security program for identity, application, data, network, and endpoint security in a way that manages risk and achieves compliance; and
Enabling a shift of executive focus from infrastructure maintenance towards the creation of innovative products and services.

Hybrid cloud environment alone, however, aren’t able to maximize the value of digital transformation. To do that you may also need to consider cloud brokerage capability. This tool can be used to plan, procure, govern and manage all IT services across all cloud models. To avoid vendor lock-in, this service can also be exercised across multiple IT service providers.

Software defined infrastructures can deliver infrastructure optimization and enhanced IT services at a reduced cost. Organizations that opt to take advantage of this new operational model should, however, seriously consider taking the ITaaS route.