Previously I talked about the growing demands and how the role of IT has to change from a cost center to a business strategic partner. And we also looked at the journey you need to take to deliver IT as a Service. Cloud computing is part of this journey and it is happening – and I mean all types of Clouds – Private, Public and Hybrid. In other words, we are entering the World of Many Clouds. Forrester Research recently published a report that concluded, “Cloud computing is ready for the enterprise… but many enterprises aren’t ready for the cloud.”1 Yet cloud deployments are happening, driven by workload virtualization and changes in application architecture and usage.
Take a look at this short video with Paul Perez (VP/GM of Unified Computing System and CTO of Data Center Group) and me. Paul shares his insights on the trends of how Cloud is changing the way of the IT and the challenges you will be facing.
Guess what? Once again Cisco is here to help you on your journey to the World of Many Clouds. How you ask?
Previously I talked about the growing demands and how the role of IT has to change from a cost center to a business strategic partner. It’s important to acknowledge that getting an organization to the point where it can implement IT as a Service isn’t easy, nor does it take place all at once. Every customer has their own journey and different customers will take different journeys. For some, it’s all about doing what they do now, only more efficiently or perhaps adding new capabilities. For others, it’s about making that full-blown transformation to service-driven IT.
So how do you get there? Each phase expands into a series of key initiatives…
It all starts with moving into more of a unified architecture of network fabric and corresponding operations.
In this blog, let us take a look at how Catalyst access switches profile the various connected devices and make the information available to various network services.
Many devices like laptops, IP phones, cameras etc. are connected to the network and need to be managed by IT for asset management, device onboarding, switch configuration, policy management & device energy management. Traditionally, IT administrators manually added each device for each service. This consumes unnecessary overhead and is an inefficient use of IT’s time. Read More »
Is your network ready to help you transform and be the strategic partner that you can be? Let’s face it… Today’s data centers are challenged with siloed resources and facilities… Limited scalability… Poor resource utilization… Growing complexity…Perhaps the biggest challenge is time. When 80% of your resources are dedicated to “keeping the lights on” and managing all what you have, there is very little time left for innovation that benefits the business.
And the reality is that the role of IT has to change – from a cost center to a business strategic partner! Why? Because there are increasing demands on IT to help your business differentiate in order to survive and grow in these rough economic conditions. And let’s not forget that the increasing cost pressures, technology changes, and the advent of game-changers like cloud are forcing IT executives to look at how to deliver IT differently.
These growing demands put even more pressure on the shoulders of IT especially given the current state of your Data Centers. The data center network sits at the core of IT and is key to how IT can deliver services and provide value back to the business.
Answering these six questions can point you in the right direction
Most small companies invest in the very best networking equipment they can afford when they first build their network, choosing a router, a switch, and a server that will support the business they envision growing in the near future. But has that future come and gone for your company? Even the best small business networking gear needs to be upgraded at some point—the trick is knowing when that time is.
Here are six questions to ask yourself about your network. If your answer to any of the questions is “yes,” then it may be time to upgrade.
