SOLUTION WHITE PAPER Cloud benefits for the IT service management market By Jeff Moloughney, Principal Solution Marketing Manager, BMC Software
TABLE OF CONTENTS COST SAVINGS 1 GREATER BUSINESS EXPOSURE 1 ACHIEVABLE INTEGRATION THAT LEVERAGES ALL OF IT 2 QUICKER ADOPTION AND SIMPLIFIED UPGRADES 2 SECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDED BY EXPERTS 2 MINIMIZED RISK 3 MODERN SUPPORT AND INNOVATIVE DESIGN 3 AGILITY 3
According to Gartner, 50 percent of all new IT service desk tool purchases will utilize the cloud model by 2015. 1 Yet service delivery via the cloud can adversely affect IT s ability to meet an organization s requirements. The adoption of cloud-based solutions demands that the business take a look at the skills needed for success, the delivery channels that must be realigned, and the potential effects on the business. With these issues in mind, is it worth venturing into the cloud? The market has been and will continue to be inundated with a plethora of IT service management (ITSM) vendors creating solutions dedicated to supporting cloud-based service management. In this article, we discuss why this is the case, as well as the benefits an organization can achieve by moving to a cloud-based environment. These benefits include the following: Cost savings Greater business exposure Achievable integration that leverages all of IT Quicker adoption and simplified upgrades Security and infrastructure provided by experts Minimized risk Modern support and innovative design Agility COST SAVINGS First and foremost, an organization pays only for the cloud services it uses. The cloud model typically provides a pay-as-yougo approach or a pre-purchased contract so organizations can better manage costs. This model helps a consumer clearly understand resources and utilization rates. Since the cloud model is more operational in nature, it enables consumption to be better monitored, managed, and analyzed so the costs consumed can be optimized. In a capital expenditure model, a series of costs is consumed and accounted for up front, without sometimes knowing the terms of a project/implementation or the length of the overall services engagement. The market is witnessing firsthand a shift from the common capital expense model to an operational model. If managed correctly, the operational model can provide greater savings in terms of the overall costs of a project over time and definitely in terms of the immediate upfront costs required in a capital expenditure model. The fact is, no hardware or software costs must be made immediately when consuming a cloud-based service management model. Since all hardware and software are located in the cloud, an organization need not keep costly service, storage, network, or virtualization experts and resources on staff or provided via a managed services method. Rather, these experts can be repurposed to other value-added projects around the company. Most dedicated IT and application resources can be diminished. However, one should not assume training resources can be diminished in a cloud model since, regardless of deployment model, application training experts are needed to keep users adding value to the company by using the application. GREATER BUSINESS EXPOSURE Since cloud deployments are quicker and are upgraded more frequently compared to on-premise deployments, the business is now more exposed to IT. Self-service, a service catalog, collaboration, and mobility are all capabilities IT can use to reach out and support the business. Common capabilities found in a cloud environment provide quick wins and increased alignment. Obviously, proper project management is required for these features that directly affect the business, but when they are consumed via the cloud, IT is able to reach out to the business faster than before. IT can reach the business, adjust to any changing business demands, and support the delivery process across multiple channels with the help of a cloud-enabled service desk. 1 David M. Coyle, SaaS continues to grow in the IT service desk market, Gartner, March 29, 2011, http://www.gartner.com/id=1610215. 1
ACHIEVABLE INTEGRATION THAT LEVERAGES ALL OF IT It s a myth that cloud systems cannot integrate. With integration, IT organizations are now capable of leveraging any IT tool available to them. Integrations don t necessarily have to happen only in the cloud. Integrations from cloud to on-premise and vice versa are common place. The industry is not going to replace all on-premise solutions overnight, so using a combination of on-premise, cloud, and hybrid solutions is important. With integration, a company can lower its overall cost of consumption. Systems already established around the enterprise can easily be integrated into the overall service delivery process, thus improving on the production or cost model. The learning curve is negligible for existing systems and only improved upon when integrating with newer technologies ones that can be found in the cloud. QUICKER ADOPTION AND SIMPLIFIED UPGRADES It s all too common for customers to be stuck on outdated versions of an on-premise solution. For a wide variety of reasons, some monetary and some political, old versions of on-premise applications live on because nobody can get around to upgrading the solution. This problem does not resonate in the cloud market. Because it is cloud based, the solution is automatically upgraded to the latest and greatest feature set, and most commonly at a greater frequency than on-premise solutions. This not only offers the service desk the most up-to-date feature set but also provides the business with, in theory, a better service delivery process, analysis, and IT engagement model. Quicker business adoption provides greater savings since businesses can receive the services they need. Improved upgrade cycles provide a double whammy in savings with more innovative and modern service desk capabilities that offer better productivity, analysis, and automation for analysts and other service teams. Upgrades in the cloud are achieved quickly, correctly, and often cheaply. With modern cloud configuration and upgrade capabilities, fewer resources are spent determining whether upgrades are going to break something or if integrations are going to work in the latest release. SECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDED BY EXPERTS Cloud providers have teams of security and infrastructure experts. How many organizations can say they have an army of experts in these areas? In terms of security and infrastructure, it s vital that a company consider the following options, regardless of deployment model: Security models that protect important data (financial and otherwise) while keeping security management less resourcefocused A reliable, world-class security center (with SAS 70 Type II and other certifications) Ability to adjust physical, data, and network resources to match your needs (can scale up or down) Disaster recovery procedures, as well as backup and restoration processes High availability and accessibility A properly built and supported cloud model supports these capabilities by the nature of the business. When the solution is built correctly and delivered in conjunction with a viable cloud provider, the security and infrastructure components can be world class. What this means to any customer partnered with the proper cloud vendor are fewer impacted internal resources, lower administrative costs, consistent availability and uptime, and general peace of mind from a well-managed, secure solution. 2
MINIMIZED RISK From the instant a deployment occurs, cloud-based solutions offer a low-risk alternative to customary application deployment methods. Services are provided more quickly since no customer infrastructure is required to procure, establish, and set up the services. In turn, this implementation velocity reduces the impact to the business since users can achieve the desired level of support faster and IT can quicken the service delivery process. Typical platform changes often cause a series of burdensome impacts not only to IT but also to the business. However, as with other changes related to the cloud, there is little to break, limited resources needed to get started, and next to nothing to install, so risks are minimized. With the pay-as-you-go model, less risk is incurred by the business procuring the solution, and optout capabilities alleviate uncertainties and ensure a safer approach to the project. Don t forget: With cloud-based integration capabilities, a company can leverage existing assets, whether IT assets or human resources, to help lower the cost of service since customers can use existing processes or technologies. This less perilous approach helps future-proof the service lifecycle. MODERN SUPPORT AND INNOVATIVE DESIGN The cloud has come in several previous forms. Hosted, managed services, application service providers, and other terms describe precursors to the cloud as we know it today. Cloud is not a new concept per se, but compared to previous versions, today s cloud is light years ahead in terms of innovation. Knowledge gained from past lives of cloud technology helped build today s modern cloud. Understanding the pros and cons of earlier cloud-based infrastructure, interactions, security, accessibility, and other capabilities has enabled today s cloud vendors to implement the most modern, innovative solutions on a truly cloud-based infrastructure. Multitenancy is just one concept spawned from previous versions of cloud. Accessible from other technologies integrated with the cloud environment are self-service, service catalogs, and mobility, to name a few. These are formative ways for users to interact with the service desk and the delivery process. Some of these capabilities and processes wouldn t be achievable without the cloud, and they are very well suited for the cloud environment. Many new and innovative cloud concepts have been created based on experiences with on-premise, managed service provider (MSP), application service provider (ASP), and other technologies. It s safe to say that the cloud has learned from past mistakes and provided the market with a more viable, modern, configurable, secure, and accessible platform to support the business. All types of individuals and teams, ranging from IT analysts and managers, to business end users and consumers, to business line managers will benefit from modern design capabilities built for the cloud. AGILITY One of the most important benefits provided by cloud technologies is agility. The business and IT support are more agile. Users are able to connect to services more quickly, with fewer mistakes and greater consumption. IT is more flexible. Cloud solutions provide IT with the ability to support users from anywhere at any time, adapt to business and market demands, and manage projects with greater efficiency. Business owners can create and manage services they deem necessary. Business users can consume these services much more quickly. And IT is free to be more innovative. The speed of delivery and ease of use improves the business and enables self-sufficiency. Accessibility to knowledge is increased, and the process now adds value rather than a burden. Cloud solutions provide a more agile way to empower the business. Businesses are increasingly turning to cloud-based ITSM solutions, and with good reason. The right cloud-based solution can help your organization to cut costs and provide faster, better, and more flexible service to business users at minimal risk. To learn more, visit http://www.bmc.com/products/remedyforce/saas-help-desk.html. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeff Moloughney has been in the enterprise software business for 15 years, working at Oracle, FrontRange Solutions, and BMC Software, where he is a member of the BMC ITSM solutions marketing team. He has expertise in product management, business development, and product marketing for customer relationship management, customer service and support, and IT service management solutions across both on-premise and cloud models. 3
BUSINESS RUNS ON IT. IT RUNS ON BMC SOFTWARE. Business runs better when IT runs at its best. Tens of thousands of IT organizations around the world -- from small and mid-market businesses to the Global 100 rely on BMC Software (NASDAQ: BMC) to manage their business services and applications across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. BMC helps customers cut costs, reduce risk and achieve business objectives with the broadest choice of IT management solutions, including industry-leading Business Service Management and Cloud Management offerings. For the four fiscal quarters ended March 31, 2013, BMC revenue was approximately $2.2 billion. *441582* BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2013 BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved.