5 Steps Every CIO Should Follow to Increase Operational Maturity through IT Automation

W H I T E P A P E R
FIVE STEPS EVERY CIO SHOULD FOLLOW
to Increase Operational Maturity
through IT AutomationFive Steps Every CIO Needs to Follow to Increase Operational Maturity through IT Automation
© 2007 Stratavia Corp. All Rights Reserved.
This document contains information, which is protected by copyright. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated to another language without the prior written consent of Stratavia, Inc. For the latest updates to this document, please visit: http://www.stratavia.com Limitations of Liability In no event shall Stratavia be liable for errors contained herein or for any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages (including lost profit or lost data) whether based on warranty, contract, tort, or any other legal theory in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. No trademark, copyright, or patent licenses are expressly or implicitly granted (herein) with this proposal. Disclaimer All brand names and product names used in this document are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Stratavia is not associated with any other vendors or products mentioned in this document.
1 Stratavia | Whitepaper Five Steps Every CIO Needs to Follow to Increase Operational Maturity through IT Automation
Introduction
The typical enterprise spends a staggering 80% of its IT budget on maintenance and administration, leaving only 20% for strategic initiatives. This disturbing statistic spotlights the need to aggressively drive more efficient operational maturity within IT in order to redirect an enterprise's IT budget towards projects that add business value. Operational maturity can be attained only through embracing both standardization and automation, in conjunction with IT management frameworks such as ITIL, not apart from.
This whitepaper is directed to technology executives and team members who are looking to increase the efficiency and operational maturity of their IT operations. It will discuss in detail the following five steps, each required to fully realize the potential of your technology investments.

Step 1: Attaining Operational Visibility
Step 2: Identifying "High Bar" Tasks
Step 3: Defining Best Practices
Step 4: Automating the Standards
Step 5: Auditing Conformance to Standards
Gartner describes an enterprise's operational maturity as moving along a spectrum with chaos existing at one end, and as you move across the spectrum from left to right, your enterprise moves into a state of reactivity, then onto being more proactive and service-oriented, and finally at the other end of the spectrum, generating business value.
Stratavia has worked with multiple clients that have leveraged this five step process and made measurable progress in increasing the maturity of their IT environment from the chaotic/reactive levels to proactive/service-oriented levels with an ROI in less than six months.

2 Stratavia | Whitepaper Five Steps Every CIO Needs to Follow to Increase Operational Maturity through IT Automation
Five Steps Every CIO Needs to Follow to Increase Operational Maturity through IT Automation Managing IT has never been more challenging. Business growth, fueled by hard-charging industry shifts, cross-continent merger and acquisition activities, rollup strategies and savage competition from newly-emerging forces is causing both internal and external IT service providers to reach a level of criticality. The typical large company IT shop is seeing rapid growth spurts in applications and data volume. The sheer number of servers, applications and databases has reached never before seen levels. Leading analyst firms state that a staggering 80% of the typical IT budget is spent on maintenance and administration, leaving little time for strategic thinking. The rules of the game have changed such that it is no longer about reducing head-count to contain costs, but about trying to keep up, let alone stay ahead. It is no longer about outsourcing to a "preferred partner" and hoping for the best; it is about slicing and dicing IT teams of internal people and best-of-breed vendors to attain maximum value through specialized focus. ... [download for more]