According to Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider, organizations without access to a new breed of business analyst could fail to realize the full benefit of a move to software-defined infrastructures.
 
According to a qualitative study carried out by Logicalis Service Management Consulting (SMC), a leader in European IT Service Management (ITSM), "software defined" has the potential to transform IT networks and data center infrastructures into the agile, flexible service platforms that will revolutionize the way companies provision, consume and manage technology.
 
Carried out by an international team of 100 Logicalis service and technology specialists, and including interviews with business and IT leaders across Europe, Asia, North and South America, the study also found that realizing the full transformative effect of a software-defined strategy depends heavily upon the availability of skilled business analysts who can bridge the gap between business  and operational priorities as well as IT policy definition and management - skills which are, at present, in short supply.

 

• Read the study, "Software-Defined Networking: The Rise of Programmable Networks," here.

These analysts will play a key role in transforming IT departments, acting as the "human interface" between the business and its intelligent, programmable infrastructure. They will analyze business priorities and translate them into IT business rules and policies, and they will play a central role in managing what is likely to become a complex and interdependent policy framework over time. 
 
"The software-defined movement has the ability to fundamentally change IT, delivering better performance of the technology infrastructure as a whole and better return on the IT investment," says Ron Temske, Vice President, Communications and Collaboration, Logicalis US.  "The greatest benefits can be realized by organizations poised to move from a technology-led IT model to a services-defined model, and one in which CIOs understand the requirement for business and technology to work together to achieve the best end-user experience possible."
 
"When we embarked on this study, we believed that ‘software defined' had the potential to be more than simply a new, more efficient way to control network and data center resources, and the findings have solidified that view," says Eugene Wolf, CEO of Logicalis SMC.  "'Software defined' can fundamentally transform the role of IT departments.  It can enable them to operate like internal service providers, combining the ability to manage core infrastructure intelligently and efficiently with the capacity to support line-of-business leaders by rapidly provisioning the services their strategic priorities demand - all while improving overall cost efficiency.  But the study also confirmed that realizing those benefits, and the significant competitive advantage they will confer, depends on access to a specialist and a rare set of skills. In the short term at least, it appears most organizations will have to look to service providers to supply those skills."