I introduced the Cisco Domain TenSM framework for data center and cloud transformation back in December, and after my previous blog discussing “Domain 4: the User Portal“, it’s now time to discuss Domain 5, which considers Service Catalog and Management. In this post, I’d like to illustrate the important, central role the service catalog has in data center transformation, and also discuss some of the key challenges, considerations and deliberations you should go through as you specify the requirements for, and ongoing evolution of, your IT service catalog. I’ll also point you to a free white paper from our Cisco Services experts.
Cisco Domain Ten -- Highlighting Domain 5: Service Catalog and Management
This week at the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas, Cisco Services is unveiling Cisco Domain Ten(SM) – Cisco’s Framework for Simplifying Data Center and Cloud Transformation.
Cisco Domain Ten can be applied to a diverse range of data center projects -- from cloud and desktop virtualization to application migration and is equally applicable whether your data center is in enterprise businesses, public sector organizations or service providers. The video here describes how we apply the Cisco Domain Ten to the private cloud use case, as one example. We’ll discuss additional use cases in future blogs and associated collateral that I’ll point you to.
Born from our extensive experience over the past years in helping customers transform their data centers, based upon the many cloud deployments -- private and public, enterprise, public sector and service provider -- that we’ve enabled over the past few years, we’ve formulated this comprehensive framework to help you transform your data center and guide new initiatives including cloud, virtual desktop, application migration, and data center consolidation. The Cisco Domain Ten framework covers ten key areas -- domains -- that -- based upon our experience -- are critical to consider, plan for and address as part of your data center and cloud transformational journey, and is illustrated in the diagram below. Relating this framework to other key components of Cisco’s data center strategy, you can think of the Cisco Unified Data Center as the what of the data center, whereas Cisco Domain Ten complements this by guiding you on the how (to transform).
Cisco Domain Ten - Simplifying Data Center Transformation
In my journeys of talking to IT organizations I come across individuals who really stand out in their drive and passion to transform their organization and achieve a pragmatic cloud for their stakeholders. This is the third in a series of Blogs on the Superheroes of the Cloud. What makes these individuals and their organizations special is that they distinguish their organizations by having a unique angle to their Journey to the Cloud. I won’t spell out the exact formula but I will offer some tidbits on why I am impressed by these superheroes.
Who said that building a cloud operating model is easy? It is not. It takes complete focus on the end goal and a systematic approach to defining the many levels and subsystems of the cloud management and automation framework. It takes lots of time learning from missteps and successes. You are pressured to hasten the timeline and deliver under budget. You have to be a visionary and yet be the most pragmatic individual on the block.
When Cisco Intelligent Automation added Cloud Automation to our core DNA, we looked for individuals in our services organization who would stand up and be the original builders and architects of the pragmatic clouds for our customers. They would train an entire group of people within Cisco and at our partners to build those clouds. Their students became teachers in their own right.
In my journeys to various industry events over the past 6 months, one element of Cloud Computing has begun to resonate over and over from attendees (customers, service providers, systems integrators) -- that we’re well past the stage of discussing or debating “what is Cloud computing?” and that we’ve moved to the stage of many live deployments.
But there is still some confusion or reluctance to reach broad deployments. The bottleneck seems to be less about technology and more related to the challenge of dealing with change. Not only is IT trying to figure out how to evolve their skills to new technologies (converged infrastructure, virtualization, and automation), but they are also trying to evolve their operating models to serve the business in faster, more efficient ways. And so many IT organizations are trying to figure out how to make the first steps to get over this critical hurdle, to provide a more standardized way for the business to interact with IT and derive value from improved pace of application deployments.
“The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step” -- Confucius
