Must ‘Cloud’ Translate To ‘Ungovernable’?

Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Sreedhar Kajeepeta.

Cloud computing gives us a lot of choices of where to run workloads: our own data centers, a private cloud within a premises data center, a public cloud or a hybrid. But where workloads and services reside isn’t the conversation we need to have. Instead, we must ensure that all workloads are reliable, and that all services meet their SLAs.

For that to happen, IT and business leaders must embrace IT Service Management (ITSM). A service orientation and smart use of clouds can help with operational reliability and improved IT accountability if, as part of that transformation, you adopt some ITSM best practices. Yes, OK, I’m talking about ITIL and other frameworks, but keep reading. My message is that ITSM can’t become an end in itself; in fact, that kind of thinking gives frameworks a bad name. Frameworks are a means to an end…

ITSM and the Cloud

When IT services develop a split personality with an uncontrolled shadow (and sometimes even rogue) element, the danger is that IT’s left holding the bag. ITSM can offer a pragmatic way to rein it all in, while not stifling business optimization and agility. An agile and action-oriented CEO might question the smarts of bringing in COBIT or ITIL when more immediate priorities related to cloud migration are on the agenda. The answer: Do some governance now to avoid having costly mistakes come home to roost later…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-computing/must-cloud-translate-to-ungovernable/240144026