Thank you for reading this month's issue
of "The Business of IT". We look forward to
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and contribution to future
issues.
Virtualization, Data Center
Rationalization, Server Consolidation: Save Money,
Save the Planet... But Where do We
Start?
By: Mike Malloy, Chief
Operating Officer, Lontra
IT Operations has several
options available to reduce the number of servers,
lower the energy footprint, and reduce complexity.
A highly virtualized environment can lead to lower
hardware maintenance costs, increased availability
of applications, quicker server deployment, and
more. What's more, the decreased power usage
drastically reduces the amount of pollution that
each company produces running the hot rooms full
of servers.
The benefits are clear,
but implementation without clearly understanding
the impacts on business customers can lead to
lower service levels on key IT services and even
negative business impact. The savings vs. SLA
tradeoffs of these cost reduction initiatives
require actual utilization and demand
data
Through a well-designed
Service Portfolio, IT can offer
a range of virtualization/performance/price
packages and options (such as availability,
failover, disaster recovery, etc.), and clearly
communicate the description, cost, and relevant
SLA of each service. The business user can then
make an informed quality vs. cost decision, and IT
can package and bundle specific choices to shape
demand.
Consolidation and
server rationalization is a fully realizable goal
for 2008 providing that IT can present a
compelling case to the business users. By
productizing, costing, and comparing IT
Services in the Service Catalog, you can provide a
platform for these conversations to happen and the
hard data you need to make your case. Hopefully
you can make at least a small dent in a big
problem.
Webinar: Five Characteristics
of Successful Service Catalog
Implementations
Wednesday, January
16th - 8:30 AM PST, 11:30 AM
EST
Join Lontra's Senior
Consultants as they share examples and advice
gained from implementing best-practice Service
Portfolios, with actionable Service Catalogs, for
organizations, big and small, over the
years.
Hear the top 5
characteristics of good Service Catalog projects,
and see real world examples of how these
characteristics helped the organizations involved
meet their IT Service Management and IT Financial
Management goals.
January 16 - 8:30 AM
PST Free Educational Webinar "Five
Characteristics of Successful Service Portfolio
Implementations" Register
here
January 15 - January
17 Washington, D.C. ITIL v3 Foundations
Course presented by Third Sky Register here
January 18 Washington, D.C. ITIL v3 Bridge Course
presented by Third Sky Register
here
January
22 - January 24 Chicago, IL ITIL
v3 Foundations Course presented by Third
Sky Register
here
Have You Squeezed the Last
Drop Out of Your 2007 Training
Budget?
If you still have unspent
funds in your 2007 Training Budget, you can
register (and get billed) in 2007 for classes you
want to attend in 2008. Accelerate your IT Service
Management and IT Financial Management projects
for 2008 by scheduling workshops with Lontra and
our partner, ITIL Training Experts, Third Sky.
Whether your
goals are to get your team certified in ITIL v3, or
start service definition for your Service
Catalog, or achieve a service-centric
budget for 2008, we have an affordable and
flexible training option for you, which include
access to Lontra's industry leading suite of
Service Portfolio software solutions.
Contact us today
to lock in your workshops for this year! Or go to
our website for a list of
classes.
We want to hear from
YOU!
Do you have an idea for an
article that you'd like to see featured in "The
Business of IT"?Would you like
to respond to a previous article, white paper, or
webinar?Let us
know!
Running IT Like A Business 10+ hours of instruction!
1.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs)
Fri, April 24 and Fri, May 1 Register today!
Looking to get a comprehensive, in-depth overview of service-centric IT management while satisfying your organization's continuing education requirements? Look no further! This NEW 10+ hour two-day course provides instruction in service catalog design, service costing, demand management, running IT like a customer-centric business, and other IT management concepts -- and at the end of it all, gives you a course completion certificate worth 1.0 CEUs! The course includes the following:
This workshop is an information-packed 4-hour interactive online session designed to answer all your Service Catalog design questions. It will give you the tools and knowledge necessary to build a robust, ITIL-compliant, business-process-aligned Service Catalog from scratch, or improve on your organization's existing Service Catalog. Your instructor for this session will be one of our ITSM experts, well-versed in industry best practices. Along with this workshop, you will receive all the materials contained in our Premium Service Catalog Design Toolkit. Space is limited, so register now!
Lontra's award-winning consultants have a wealth of experience implementing best practice service catalogs and service portfolios, as well as developing service-based costing and budgeting. We have a track record of helping Global 1000 organizations achieve their IT Service Management (ITSM) and IT Financial Management (ITFM) goals, and can help you.
Email us to learn more about Lontra's ITFM and ITSM consulting offerings.
Date: Friday, April 24