7 tips on becoming an IT service broker.

1. Become an IT Service Broker
7 Tips to Maximizing Effectiveness
and Minimizing Service Disruption

2. • IT brokers services from multiple vendors to delivery
the most efficient, lease costly, and most timely
solution possible
• To facilitate the brokering of services, some enterprises
may adopt a self-service platform
• Transitioning to this model requires a cultural shift in IT
to manage service delivery rather than applications
and infrastructure
2
What’s an IT Service Broker?
www.rackspace.com

3. 7 Tips to Strategic IT Management
www.rackspace.com 3
1. Admit you can’t do everything yourself
2. Catalog all current and near-term applications
3. Categorize each app for the cloud
4. Develop a list of possible providers
5. Do your due diligence
6. Pick the best candidate for each workload
7. Monitor each vendor with a scorecard

4. Admit You Can’t Do Everything Yourself
2000
CIO DECISION FLOW
www.rackspace.com 4
STAKEHOLDER
REQUIREMENTS
CIO
BUILD BUY

5. Admit You Can’t Do Everything Yourself
2014
CIO DECISION FLOW
BUILD BUY
www.rackspace.com 5
STAKEHOLDER
REQUIREMENTS
CIO
CLOUD
PUBLIC PRIVATE HYBRID

6. • Understand what is running internally and externally
– Begin with your corporate-standard disk image
– Check expense reports to determine IT services being paid by credit card
– Query line-of-business stakeholders about which software-as-a-service and cloud applications they are using
6
Catalog All Current and Near-Term Applications
www.rackspace.com

7. Categorize Each Application for the Cloud
www.rackspace.com 7
Public
Cloud
Multi-tenant solutions
generally housed off-premises;
hosted by
a third party and can
scale up or down to
meet demand
Private
Cloud
Doesn’t share disk
space with other
tenants; suitable for
more demanding
workloads; pay for
privacy
Hybrid
Cloud
A combination of
public and private
clouds, operating
together as a
cohesive unit.

8. 8
Categorize Each Application for the Cloud
www.rackspace.com
• Evaluate each application in terms of:
– Sensitivity to associated data
– Security provisions required for regulatory
purposes
– Integrations to interoperate with other applications
TYPE OF CLOUD
Application Public Private Hybrid
Archiving/Off-site
Backup ✔
CRM ✔
Ecommerce (with
PCI security) ✔
Email ✔
ERP (with
compliance) ✔
HR Portal (HRIS) ✔
Development, Test
or QA ✔
Web portal (user-generated
content)
✔

9. www.rackspace.com 9
Develop a List of Possible Providers
• Sort stakeholder requirements list into
– High-priority requirements (“must-haves”)
– Lower-priority requirements (“nice-to-haves”)
• Research providers
• Match list of applications and providers
that can meet them

10. Do Your Due Diligence
www.rackspace.com 10
• See a cloud demo to evaluate offerings
• Determine whether you want a single
provider or multiple providers
• Single vendor advantages:
– Similar interfaces
– Consistent API for integrations
– Transparent monitoring
– More reliable support

11. www.rackspace.com 11
Pick the Best Candidate for Each Workload
• Must be able to support public, private and
hybrid cloud
• Must be able to handle provisioning and
configurations
• Should also provide you with
– Robust networking
– Flexibility
– Online dashboard
– Outstanding support
– No vendor lock-in

12. Monitor Each Vendor with a Scorecard
www.rackspace.com 12
• Establish key metrics/outcomes and
evaluate providers in five critical areas:
– Price
– Performance
– Security
– Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
– Support
• Measure expectations versus actual
delivery based on empirical data

13. www.rackspace.com 13
Reboot the Role of IT in Your Organization
• The new model of IT as a service broker
means becoming more strategic IT
thinkers and trusted advisors:
– Gathering internal requirements
– Selecting cost-effective services from an
expanding range of third-party providers
– Evaluating vendors
– Managing on-premises and off-premises services

14. Is your organization ready to transition
from doing routine maintenance to making
a strategic contribution to revenues and
www.rackspace.com 14
profits?

15. Next Steps
Rackspace has the expertise to help you move to an IT service broker
www.rackspace.com 15
model, and can help support at any point in the process.
Contact Rackspace or read more at
7 Tips on Becoming an IT Service Broker – White Paper
Rackspace consultants have years of experience and Rackspace offers a
Cloud Readiness Assessment to begin your transition to an IT service broker.
Call Rackspace at 800-961-2888 to get started today.

16. We Serve FORTUNE®
60%OF100
www.rackspace.com 16
About Rackspace
Global Footprint
Customers in
120+ Countries
9 Worldwide
Data Centers
$1.7B Annualized Revenue
THE
Nearly 6,000 Rackers
200,000+ Customers
90,000+ Servers
45,000+ VM
≅70 PB Stored
Portfolio of
Hosted Solutions
Dedicated - Cloud - Hybrid
OVER

17. www.rackspace.com 17
About Rackspace
Founder
OpenStack®
Open source software for building private and public clouds
A Leader in the Magic
Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled
Managed Hosting, 2014
North America & Europe
Named a Top Performer for Hosted
Private Cloud by Forrester Research Inc.
in “The Forrester Wave™: Q1 2013

18. THANK YOU
RACKSPACE® | 1 FANATICAL PLACE, CITY OF WINDCREST | SAN ANTONIO, TX 78218
US SALES: 1-800-961-2888 | US SUPPORT: 1-800-961-4454 | WWW.RACKSPACE.COM
Rackspace, US Inc. | RACKSPACECE LTD. ® AND FANATICAL SUPPORT® ARE SERVICE MARKS OF RACKSPACE US, INC. REGISTERED IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES. | WWW.RACKSPACE.COM
Copyright 2014