IT as a service can ‘transform how businesses deliver real value’
Tue 1 Apr 2014
Evolving from “keeping the lights on” to delivering IT as a service (ITaaS) can provide significant business rewards such as greater agility, flexibility and user productivity.
That’s according to Derrick Loi, head of cloud business APAC for Citrix who will tell delegates at the forthcoming Cloud Expo Asia that understanding the strategy, planning process and tools for this transformation from IT department to internal service provider will help catalyse changes in the way the business operates and deliver real value.
“While many initial cloud implementations focused on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), organisations want to expand upon this foundation to deliver cloud services in all forms—software, mobility, infrastructure and IT,” he said. “We will be discussing the latest enhancements in extensible cloud service delivery platform. With integration and delivery of third-party services, enterprise IT can merchandise virtually any cloud service or application through a simple self-service portal.”
He said a number of trends in the cloud technology development are combining to create the ‘perfect storm’ for ITaaS. “Multi-service brokering and metering to deliver true ITaaS, starting with Desktop as a Service and mobile enterprise cloud, the transition from desktop virtualisation to desktop cloud and the consolidation of the service provider’s internal service delivery and operation functions, via network function virtualisation (NFV) to transform into a software defined service provider.”
He said he was particularly pleased to be able to discuss these issues at CEA. “Events like CEA get the ecosystem gathering to discuss and identify joint business development of partnerships to enable the full spectrum of ITaaS. They are very important for the industry.”
He added that Singapore offers a number of advantages for cloud businesses. “Singapore offers reliable and well-connected international secure connectivity with shortest hops, a reliable and affordable power supply, abundant skilled manpower and resources and it is conveniently located in the heart of APAC.”
