Page 9 - EngineerIT September 2022

ICT

applications must remain on-premises to honour cybersecurity and compliance rules.
Wherever an application resides, CEOs want peace of mind that CIOs will be trusted
custodians of corporate data. The control, compliance and governance traits of as-a-
Service IT can shape the perfect pitch for CIOs.
As CIO, you’ll convey that as-a-Service IT affords the tech departments control over
all data, applications and middleware. The control quotient is critical, especially as data
volumes continue to soar.
Consider that a CIO seeking to build, test and run a homegrown analytics application
housing sensitive data may wish to keep it close to the chest. The right as-a-Service
solution includes the option to run this on-premises in a private cloud, or even manage it
offsite in a co-location facility.
Observability is also critical. A consistent as-a-Service solution includes a unified view
of every asset from a single dashboard. With this approach, CIOs can assure the CEO
that they can be good corporate stewards, monitoring critical computing assets while
maintaining flexibility and agility.

Tip #2: Focus on the advantages of flexibility sans lock-in Doug Woolley
IT leaders must also articulate the value of these new as-a-Service IT models which
incorporate the flexibility of hosting infrastructure on-premises or in co-location facilities,
with the option to connect to a variety of public clouds to create hybrid and multi-cloud managed services, edge networks – it
computing environments. is a magnet for programmers, DevOps
With as-a-Service IT, organisations can scale up or dial down instance-based engineers and other infrastructure
compute, operating systems, storage and networking resources based on experts, among other key
business requirements. Yet as much technical players seeking
Retailers with seasonal businesses, for instance, can easily procure as the public cloud challenging careers in
additional compute and storage capacity during holiday shopping carries the narrative in the a continuous learning
spikes and scale down when capacity is not needed – without environment.
needing to plan and pay for unnecessary capacity all year. digital world, most CIOs know Overall, as-a-Service
Moreover, as-a-Service models feature self-service provisioning migrating to the public cloud is better for your
– a critical capability that allows organisations to pursue their DevOps is challenging and courts people, better for your
initiatives with confidence that developers will be able to procure the significant risk organisation, and better
compute resources they require without protracted delays associated for your company, because
with traditional IT procurement. you can innovate faster. But
This approach will also reduce speed to market while ensuring that the it is a culture shift within IT, so don’t
organisation has the computing assets not only deployed but tailored for every initiative underestimate the inherent challenge.
– including those in flight and those to come.
As-a-Service IT can also mean leveraging the skills and knowledge of technology The bottom line
experts who will manage your IT environment and provide a secure and consistent multi- Your business transformation requires
cloud experience. a flexible, adaptable computing
infrastructure that aligns with a digital
Tip #3: Share how modernisation can mean a competitive advantage in the race for top business model, at a time when your
talent executives are seeking to create
In what has become a highly commoditised cloud computing market, it’s hard to think of delightful and efficient new experiences
technology infrastructure as a competitive advantage. Yet that is another route you can for customers and employees.
take to pitch the as-a-Service model to your CEO and board: a recruitment magnet. An as-a-Service approach provides
If you want to modernise and transform your organisation, you need a troupe of technology, processes and training while
programmers, DevOps engineers and infrastructure experts schooled in the ways of facilitating speed-to-market and agility
working with cloud technology. At the very least, they’ll expect a more cloud-like way of in achieving business outcomes for such
working. holistic transformations. Therein lies
For instance, few developers want to submit a help ticket and wait 30 days for IT to the case to be made for as-a-Service IT.
provision a data base for critical applications they need to build. Talent will look and land And while it didn’t get you where you
elsewhere. Leading technology professionals expect to work for companies that work are today, it could help your business
with the top technologies, including tools, processes and programming models, which become more successful tomorrow.
includes self-service provisioning and near real-time access to resources. This is the as-a- The question is: Are you going to
Service model’s sweet spot. make the case for as-a-Service IT to your
Because as-a-Service touches every computing delivery model - cloud, off-premises, bosses and board? n

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