Many organisations have trouble finding IT workers with the skills needed to implement big data analytics and Cloud computing strategies. But that skills gap isn't limited to engineers and developers.
White House PortfolioStat 2.0 offers updated roadmap for overhaul of federal IT operations, calling for shift to cloud computing, CIO empowerment.
The concept of IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) is rapidly maturing, providing an operational model for service providers to deliver services in a manner whereby they have control over optimising process and procedures, and deliver IT services to the customer as a package. Determining the business value of this approach and the potential savings fundamentally comes down to the concept of the “grey box”: the proportion of the service that is performed by the service provider rather than the customer. The ‘whiter’ the customer insists the box to be, the greater ITaaS reverts to being a managed service and the cost advantages of ITaaS evaporate. Transitioning to an ITaaS is a significant change, and it’s important to recognise the impacts that may affect your organisation. This discussion paper articulates the balance between customer and service provider in taking ownership of service delivery, and looks at how the savings of moving to an ITaaS model have been recognised though three case studies (and the many factors that contributed to the savings).