IT transformation is the discussion of the year. The question is how to transform IT into a hybrid cloud environment, or even into a fully cloud environment. This implies often subtle as well as pretty major changes to traditional IT environments. People change and processes change, just as tools change. Virtual Thoughts, our weekly video podcast, discusses these issues with Greg Ness of CloudVelox.

Greg Ness and Edward Haletky discuss IT transformation on Virtual Thoughts. CloudVelox assists people by automating the tasks necessary to migrate to a hybrid or full cloud environment, covering the technical aspects of migration of data and workloads. However, that still entails a need to adjust processes, expectations, and other aspects of IT.
Two crucial new roles and, possibly, teams are formed in planning to migrate to the cloud:

  • Cloud Architect, whose job it is to lasso all the existing cloud-based SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS under one umbrella, with compliance, security, usability, and business agility in mind. The cloud architect also gathers requirements and comes up with a cohesive approach to the cloud by identifying those processes, procedures, approaches, and tools that will need to change once workloads are within the cloud.
  • Cloud Administrator, whose job it is to manage the cloud products in use, to communicate with the cloud vendors, and to ensure all is running smoothly, from people interactions to computing resources.

Now, both these roles could be filled by a team. However, the key component of these new roles is not to manage IT physical resources but to manage and transform existing processes, people, and concepts. These are the key players in any IT transformation.
Whether these new roles are filled by existing personnel or by new hires, they will form the core of the new IT: an IT transformed by use of the hybrid cloud. Proper use of the hybrid cloud can reduce cost that is unrelated to jobs if done correctly. It can allow for growth of the people involved, as well as continued growth of the IT environment.
Yet, without a good plan or architecture, your IT transformation will stall. Once you have a plan, and once you have the new roles filled, then tools like CloudVelox are a great help, as they have migrated many other organizations already. They know what it takes now as well as in the future.
In addition, even if you do not have a plan but have the need for IT transformation, companies like CloudVelox, HotLink, and others can help you develop that plan. The plan—no matter how you get there, and whether you use outside help or not—is the crucial aspect of any IT transformation and use of hybrid cloud.
How do you plan to transform IT today? Is it in your sights for the future?