IT operations: Delivering value to the business and agility to product teams.
How do you automate more, manage with fewer people and create an agile IT setup that drives business growth and innovation?
An expert panel tackled that question and other IT ops FAQs at the Cloud Revolution Summit. Read the key takeaways from Sophie Kuijt, CTO at IBM Consulting North Central East Europe, Angus Flett, ex-Chief Executive of Smart DCC (the UK’s smart metering network and one of the world’s biggest IoT networks) and Ilja Summala, CTO at Nordcloud.
Which factor would you prioritise to improve IT’s ability to add value to the wider business?
We asked Cloud Revolution Summit delegates this question, and here’s what they said:
Based on that, our panellists answered audience questions on tackling IT ops challenges. 👇
How can we overcome IT being siloed within the organisation?
Establish why the silo exists.
‘Why are there siloes? How did they come about? Is it because the team and/or organisation is really big? Because teams are very specialised, and there’s lots of differentiation within the company? Or another reason?’
Sophie Kuijt, CTO, IBM Consulting North Central East Europe
Be problem- and solution-oriented, not task-oriented.
‘90% of the time it’s about collaboration, not technology. When you’re task-oriented, you get siloes. We set up a Common Issues Forum with representatives from customers, ops teams and tech teams. This helped everyone focus on what we needed to solve.’
Angus Flett, ex-Chief Executive, Smart DCC
Align KPIs.
‘A disconnect comes when the business and IT are measured differently. For example, product teams are measured on time to market, but IT is measured on cost. When you re-align this – and prioritise together – you overcome siloes.’
Ilja Summala, CTO, Nordcloud
What’s the best way to automate manual tasks to ensure quality operations?
Start with first principles
‘If you automate a bad process, it’s still a bad process. Always start with the customer. What are they trying to achieve? Understand the end-to-end lifecycle and build around that what’s appropriate.’
Angus Flett, ex-Chief Executive, Smart DCC
Work with what’s realistic
‘You can’t have ‘Day 2 straight to production automation’ if the relevant team doesn’t support it. What does the database team use for building? What does the Kubernetes team use? Take the things they swear by and use workflow software to build a wrapper that takes the existing tech and creates the missing pieces. It might be cleaner as one language and framework, but that’s not realistic in real life.’
Ilja Summala, CTO, Nordcloud
Example: Automated IT workflows that deliver working, supported, secure infrastructure in 30 minutes
- Organisation has a standardised test environment with VMs and a database machine
- We built a workflow where the customer fills in a form with information such as sizing requirements and cost centre
- The workflow calculates the infrastructure costs and sends a ticket for approval
- When approval comes, the workflow:
- Takes a customised hardened image
- Implements security software
- Configures patching and data protection
- Creates an architecture diagram
- Puts a runbook on a webpage
- In 30 minutes, the customer has the environment, and it’s in production
How can we enable product teams to build quickly in the cloud while maintaining control over governance and security?
The Cloud Centre of Excellence has become a bottleneck. How do we address this?
CCoEs are a success factor when you start the cloud journey, but when they become a bottleneck, it’s time to redefine the IT ops model to reflect the current state of maturity and resource availability:
- CCoE should maintain ownership of what to do with new technology
- Databases, landing zones, Kubernetes, FinOps, VM ops, architecture, self-service and automations should be pushed to the infra teams
How do we get rid of cloud bill shock and gain control of spending?
Think beyond reserved instances – follow the Pyramid of FinOps 
What will IT ops look like in 5 years?
Our panellists predict that…
Want help optimising your IT ops model?
1 in 3 IT leaders say their teams are struggling to support the needs of their organisation. But there’s no need to keep struggling. Get in touch to discuss how our transformation and automation experts can help.
