How the cloud is revolutionizing roles in the IT department

This post was originally published on ThoughtsOnCloud on November 10th, 2014.

Many people see cloud as an evolution of outsourcing. By moving their traditional information technology (IT) resources into a public cloud, clients can focus on their core business differentiators. Cloud doesn’t nix the need for the hardware, software and systems management—it merely encapsulates and shields the user from those aspects. It puts IT in the hands of the external specialists working inside the cloud. And by centralizing IT and skills, a business can reduce cost and risk while focusing on its core skills to improve time to market and business agility.

But where does this leave the client’s IT department? Can they all go home, or do some of the roles remain? Are there actually new roles created? Will they have the skills needed for this new environment?

Let’s look in more detail at some of these roles and the impact that the extreme case of moving all IT workloads to external cloud providers would have on them:

IT strategy

Strategic direction is still important in the new environment. Business technology and governance strategy are still required to map the cloud provider’s capabilities to the business requirements. Portfolio management and service management strategies have increased importance to analyze investments, ascertain value and determine how to get strategic advantage from the standardized services offered by cloud. However, the role of enterprise architecture is significantly simplified.

Control is still needed although the scope is significantly reduced. IT management system control retains some budgetary control, but much of its oversight, coordination and reporting responsibilities are better performed elsewhere. Responsibility for portfolio value management and technology innovation is mainly handed to the cloud provider.

At the operational level, project management is still required. Knowledge management has reduced scope, but best practices and experiences will still need to be tracked.

IT administration

The scope of IT business modeling is reduced, as many of the functions in the overall business and operational framework are no longer required.

There are changes in administration control. Sourcing relationships and selection are critical for the initiation and management of relationships with providers. Financial control and accounting will continue to manage all financial aspects of IT operations. Human resources planning and administration are still required, but the number of people supported is reduced. Site and facility administration is no longer needed.

All of the operational roles in IT administration have increased importance. IT procurement and contracts as well as vendor service coordination are needed to manage the complex relationships between the enterprise and cloud provider. Customer contracts and pricing is needed for the allocation of cloud costs to internal budgets as well as providing a single bill for services from multiple cloud providers.

Service delivery and support

The main casualties of the move to cloud are the build and run functions. The service delivery strategy will remain in house, although it becomes largely redundant once the strategic decision has been made to source solely from the cloud. Responsibility for the service support strategy moves to the cloud provider.

Service delivery control and service support planning move to cloud provider. Infrastructure resource planning functions are likely to be subsumed into the customer contracts and pricing administration role.

Responsibility for service delivery operations and infrastructure resource administration moves to cloud provider. The help desk and desk-side support services from service support operations remain essential activities for initial level one support, but beyond this, support will be offered by the cloud provider.

Further observations

Governance is a critical capability, particularly around maintaining control over software as a service adoption. Integration of services will be a challenge, but perhaps this will also be available as a service in the future. Relationships with partners and service providers in all guises will become increasingly important.

There is a potential issue with skills. With many of the traditional junior roles in development and operations moving outside the enterprise, it’s hard to see how candidates for these new strategy and coordination roles will gain the experience they need. Academia has an important part to play in ensuring that graduates are equipped with the right skills.

In summary:

• Most current job roles remain, although many have reduced scope or importance.
• Fewer strategic roles are impacted than control or operational ones.
• Build and Run are the main functions which move to the cloud providers.
• Planning and commercial skills are key, linking the IT department more closely to the business.

Can you think of other roles that will be affected by the coming changes? Is your organization ready? Leave a comment below to join the conversation.

Demonstration: cloud, analytics, mobile and social using IBM Bluemix

This post was originally published on ThoughtsOnCloud on January 3rd, 2015.

In the 2013 IBM Annual Report, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty talked about the shifts that she sees occurring in industries:

“Competitive advantage will be created through data and analytics, business models will be shaped by cloud, and individual engagement will be powered by mobile and social technologies. Therefore, IBM is making a new future for our clients, our industry and our company…As important as cloud is, its economic significance is often misunderstood. That lies less in the technology, which is relatively straightforward, than in the new business models cloud will enable for enterprises and institutions…The phenomena of data and cloud are changing the arena of global business and society. At the same time, proliferating mobile technology and the spread of social business are empowering people with knowledge, enriching them through networks and changing their expectations.”

Consequently, IBM is focusing on three strategic imperatives: data, cloud and engagement.

Recently I have been demonstrating this in a holistic way by showing the fast deployment of an application running on IBM Bluemix, the company’s platform as a service (PaaS) offering. It’s a social analytics application that provides cross-selling and product placement opportunities enabling systems of engagement with systems of insight. It analyzes social trends like tweets to help sales, marketing and operational staff to target specific customers with more personalized offers using mobile technologies.

Take a look at this video of my demonstration:

How governments can tap into cloud and Internet of Things

This post was originally published on ThoughtsOnCloud on October 2nd, 2014.

In my previous post, I discussed some of the innovations that can be achieved by governments using cloud. I presented on this topic recently at the Westminster eForum Keynote Seminar: Next steps for cloud computing. At the session I went on to explore mobile, the Internet of Things and some changes in the skills needed for cloud.

The session abstract asked the following question about mobile: As device processing power increases, yet cloud solutions rely less and less on that power, is there a disconnect between hardware manufacturers and app and software developers? I think this misses the point. Cloud isn’t about shifting the processing power from one place to another; it’s about doing the right processing in the right place.

At IBM, we talk about the nexus of forces of cloud, analytics, mobile and social (CAMS) and we split information technology (IT) into Systems of Record and Systems of Engagement.

The Systems of Record are the traditional IT—the databases that we’re talking about moving from the existing data centers to the cloud. And, as I’ve discussed in a previous post, moving into the cloud means that we can perform a lot of new analytics.

With mobile and social we now have Systems of Engagement. We have devices that interact with people and the world. Because of their fantastic processing power, these devices can gather data that we’ve never had access to before. For example, these devices make it really easy to take a photo of graffiti or a hole in the road and send it to the local council through FixMyStreet in order to have it fixed. It’s not just the additional processing power; it’s the new instrumentation that this brings. We now have a GPS location so the council knows exactly where the hole is.

In a case I discussed in my previous post, this would have made it a lot easier to send photos and even videos of Madeleine McCann to a photo analytics site, to assist in the investigation of her disappearance in 2007.

We’re also working with Westminster council to optimize their parking. The instrumentation and communication from phones helps us do things we’ve never done before, moving us onto the Internet of Things and making it possible to put connected sensors in parking spaces.

With connected cars, we have even more instrumentation and possibilities. We have millions of cars with thermometers, rain detection, GPS and connectivity that can tell the National Weather Service exactly what the weather is with incredible granularity, as well as the more obvious solutions like traffic optimization.

Let’s move on to talk about skills. IBM has an Academic Initiative in which we supply software to universities at no cost, and IBMers work with university administrators and professors on the curriculum and even act as guest lecturers. For Imperial College, we’re providing cloud based marketing analytics software as well as data sets and skills, so that they can focus on teaching the subject rather than worrying about the IT. Since computer science curriculum in schools is changing to focus more on programming skills, we can offer cloud based development environments like IBM Bluemix. We’re working with the Oxford and Cambridge examination board on their modules for cloud, big data and security.

To be honest, it’s still hard. Universities are a competitive environment and they have to offer courses that students are interested in rather than ones that industry and the country need. IT is changing so fast that we can’t keep up.

Lecturers will teach subjects that they’re comfortable with and students will apply for courses that they understand or that their parents are familiar with. A university recently offered a course on social media analytics, which you’d think would be quite trendy and attractive, but they only had two attendees. It used to be that universities would teach theory and the ability to learn, and then industry would hire them and give them the skills. Now, things are moving so fast that industry doesn’t have the skills and is looking for the graduates to bring them.

Looking at the strategy of moving to the cloud and the changing role of the IT department, we’re finding that outsourcing the day-to-day running of the technology brings about a change in skills needed. It’s less about hands-on IT and more about architecture, governance, and managing relationships with third party providers. A lot of this is typically offered by the business faculty of a university, rather than the computing faculty. We need these groups to work closer together.

To a certain extent, we’re addressing this with apprenticeships. IBM has been running an apprenticeship scheme for the last four years. This on-the-job training means that industry can provide hands-on training with the best blend of up-to-the-minute technical, business and personal skills. This has been very effective, with IBM winning the Best Apprenticeship Scheme from Target National Recruitment Awards and National Apprenticeship Services and Everywoman in technology.

In summary, we need to be looking at the new things that can be achieved by moving to cloud and shared services; exploiting mobile and the internet of things; and training for the most appropriate skills in the most appropriate way.

How do you think governments should utilize cloud and the Internet of Things? And what changes do you think are needed to equip students for a cloud based future? Please leave a comment to join the conversation.