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CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND CLOUD MIGRATION CLOUD CHANGES EVERYTHING—AND NOTHING A WHITE PAPER BY UNISYS
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Record all authorized changes, and make certain all are prioritized, planned, tested, implemented, documented, and reviewed in a controlled manner, using change management tools.
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And above all, minimize business risk.
“Change is the only constant.” – Heraclitus.
IT Change Management is a process, a system validation, and a failsafe. Without comprehensive change management, modern enterprises couldn’t properly allocate resources, positively evolve their business practices, or even keep the lights on. Traditional change management focuses on business processes, human resources, and assets—and rightfully so. But the introduction of cloud computing, especially cloud migration of data center assets, should change the way enterprises look at change management itself.
Change is necessary, so clear change management policies and processes are essential.
“Put a good person in a bad process, and the process wins every time.” SearchCIO, Ken Accardi, CIO, GE Medical 1
“Traditional” Change Management
If It’s Not Broken, Improve It
Data center change management is a mature, well-developed discipline, complete with ITIL best practices and processes that help insure reliability and stability during any change in the environment. The goal of any project is predictable, non-disruptive change that improves business processes and productivity.
Even good processes “turn bad” over time—they outlive their usefulness, are not flexible enough to accommodate innovations, or are locked behind proprietary systems or applications. It’s often difficult to tell when a process has become a hindrance rather than an asset, as its obsolescence is gradual. And by the time it has obvious flaws, it may be too little, too late to positively affect any change without wholesale replacement. Ideally, rather than waiting for a full-scale rework of ineffective processes, organizations should consider process frameworks that enable them to change incrementally. Continual improvement within a flexible framework can provide this solution. Often, that solution is the cloud.
Driven by top-down, hierarchical oversight, data center change management has clear objectives: •
Respond to the organization’s changing business requirements while maximizing value and reducing downtime and disruption.
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Make certain any change in services will align with the organization’s requirements.
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HOW CLOUD AFFECTS CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Cloud architecture is a more agile and flexible framework for many business processes—provided enterprises do not lock themselves into proprietary cloud implementations. As business needs evolve, incremental change and improvements are less costly, more easily accomplished, and easier to test and modify in the cloud than most data center solutions. Whereas data center applications are harder to “retool,” documenting change in the data center is far easier. Assets are fully known and cataloged.
The More Things Change…
The cloud, on the other hand, particularly public cloud, is subject to “unseen” changes and modifications “behind the curtain” of cloud vendor decisions. An organization’s system administrators, intimately familiar with their on-premises servers, switches, and applications, must now configure, monitor, test, and document assets that are unseen and subject to change at the vendor’s discretion. While no vendor intentionally introduces system changes that would impact its enterprise users, if there is a system problem, it is harder to diagnose and fix. In short, how do enterprises choose the best management tools to discovery and document changes in their hybrid environments—both on-premises and off?
With its flatter, decentralized structure, and more automated and dynamic resources, cloud does not lend itself to change management oversight. Therefore, organizations should look for management solutions that offer central consoles that span both data center and cloud, and cloud vendors that give them the greatest choice, control, and transparency of cloud assets.
Similarly, should automated cloud processes—such as added virtual machines, memory, and storage—be tracked by enterprise change management? In heavy cloud-use environments, this is a daunting task as, for example, storage and memory are automatically provisioned during a high-transaction period, such as peak shopping hours for a consumer goods company.
As to cloud migration and change, organizations should follow the time-tested change management processes they always have— respond to business requirements, gather guidance and consent from all stakeholders, and deliver a sound implementation plan with thorough documentation. And disruption is not an option.
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Unisys as a Change Management Partner Unisys has helped clients across the globe in dozens of industries migrate from data center to hybrid cloud solutions. That’s how we know that every organization’s cloud migration is unique and has its own set of change management requirements and challenges. •
With a change in asset and process locations post-migration, Unisys can help organizations reformulate their security and compliance requirements in the proposed environment. Thorough assessment and planning before implementation make certain security is maintained—or improved—post migration.
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Unisys can provide guidance on enterprise management tools that span data center and cloud, and how to best document asset, deployment, budget, and service changes.
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Unisys assists in bringing together stakeholders across the enterprise to redesign and document changes in governance. Similarly, we can help create business policies and higher maturity processes that enable greater Service Management integration and automation for hybrid environments.
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As a vendor neutral advisor, Unisys can provide enterprise clients with strategic options for their migrations that fit their specific needs—not a rigid template. Every step in the migration plan is documented. Unisys delivers a final plan, with a prioritized timeline, budget, and business outcomes.
In many respects, Fast Track Assessments are Change Management Plans on a large scale. From full current state discovery through implementation plans, deliverables include guided workshops, cross business unit strategy sessions, and full business case and financial analyses. Your best technology options, business cases, cost analyses, and future state readiness are fully explored. At the end of the Fast Track Assessment you’re armed with a complete roadmap, timeline, and execution plan—including budget and cost-benefit analysis.
Unisys Fast Track Assessments enable more reliable, step-by-step cloud migrations.
Why Unisys? Clients the world over rely on Unisys Cloud and Infrastructure Services Consulting to give them unbiased and thoughtful advice on their enterprise Digital Business transformations. Unisys has played a major role in Digital Transformations at government agencies, global financial organizations, healthcare, consumer goods, and manufacturing enterprises. Your unique business goals should drive the transformation process—not a rigid set of cloud migration formulas and methods.
The planning stages of any cloud migration, as with any major system change, are crucial. In a recent survey, 42% of respondents blamed poor planning for migration failures. Solid and thorough migration planning pays for itself many times over. Unisys assessments enable more reliable, step-by-step cloud migrations.
Our industry-specific experience helps you choose the right pathway to a successful Digital Business future in the most costeffective manner possible—without long-term engagements or commitments. For more information, write us at:
[email protected]
Unisys Fast Track Assessments for Cloud Migration Unisys Consulting has developed Fast Track Assessments for Cloud Migrations and Digital Transformations that follow a four-step Best Practices process of Assessment (discovery), Analysis, Strategy, and Planning. In targeted, customer-tailored engagements of 6-8 weeks, Unisys Cloud and Infrastructure Services Consulting works with you on-site to formulate a cloud migration plan that best suits your unique needs and, in the process, demonstrates the technology impact of each potential cloud transformation implementation.
For more information visit www.unisys.com/FieldEngineers © 2017 Unisys Corporation. All rights reserved. Unisys and other Unisys product and service names mentioned herein, as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unisys Corporation. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. Printed in the United States of America
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