Seeding the Cloud by Re-Aligning People, Process and Technology

* Haluk Demirkan, Arizona State University
Michael Goul, Arizona State University
George W. Brown, Value Chain Group, Inc.

To cut costs, mitigate risk and reduce the complexity, many organizations are exploring their IT landscapes with lenses that transcend business process management, organizational structure, services-based sourcing strategies, legacy application integration and virtualized resource management. We refer to this type of integrated exploration as a service-oriented transformation for agility. Today, a central driver for service-oriented transformation is the advent of cloud computing. Preparing an organization for adoption of cloud computing options may require a jolt to current IT practices, and that is the purpose of a Cloud Adoption Readiness Assessment (CARA). CARA is an integrated exploration that provides a path to follow to realize a culture suited for service-based computing – we refer to it as ‘seeding the cloud’ since CARA precedes consideration of entering into cloud computing contracts. In fact, CARA may result in service-oriented transformations that make little use of public cloud computing, major use of private clouds or some hybrid combination. In this article, we explain CARA and discuss results from its evolution and application at Intel Corporation.

For Intel, CARA signified the beginning of a journey. Whether faced with managing a complex federation of high technology supply chain partners, the journey has been grounded through close examination of process and services fusion. Intel’s agility agenda includes tighter integration of IT systems, reducing order-fulfillment lead times and inventory, managing overspends and enabling faster placement of orders, accelerating new product development, and reaching new customers.

 

* Corresponding Author

Demirkan, H., Goul, M. and Brown, G.W., “Seeding the Cloud by Re-Aligning People, Process and Technology,” Working paper, Arizona State University, 2011.