#cloudchat Recap: IT Transformation

gheath

#cloudchat Recap: IT Transformation

The term “IT transformation” is becoming increasingly popular, but its meaning can change drastically from one person to the next. In an effort to examine IT transformation a little bit closer, we made it the focus of this past week’s Twitter #cloudchat, where we were joined by industry experts who helped us define the term and discuss the different ways it’s being implemented.

The Rackers who joined the chat included Jaret Chiles, a senior director of Professional Services, along with our cloud evangelists Kent Kingery and Eric Johnson. They were joined by a talented group of IT experts including Bluelock’s Diana Nolting, GovCloud Network’s Kevin Jackson, Cybric’s Mike Kail, Apcera’s Mark Thiele and Cloud Technology Partners’ Ed Featherston. The group discussed the following questions:

  1. How do you define the term IT transformation?
  2. What’s the #1 thing businesses need to know about IT transformation?
  3. What are the top 3 factors driving IT transformation?
  4. Are “IT transformation,” “digital transformation” and “business transformation” different? How?
  5. How is IT transformation different for various industries, business sizes or B2C vs B2B companies?
  6. Should IT transformation be thought of as a one-time overhaul of existing systems or as an ongoing process?

One of the major themes that came out of the chat is that IT transformation is more than changing the bits and the bytes. It’s really a shift in the entire organization and culture. Mike Kail poignantly demonstrated this by tweeting, “#IT #transformation is first about changing hearts and minds, not technology.”

https://twitter.com/mdkail/status/895678287321513984

Diana Nolting echoed this thought, and noted that defining “IT transformation” is kind of difficult.

https://twitter.com/DianaNolting/status/895678102893805569

Kent Kingery said that while IT transformation is often viewed as “dramatic, large-scale change,” it doesn’t always have to be. Even a smaller scale change, such as moving a company’s email system from being on-premises to a hosting provider, is still considered a transformation.

https://twitter.com/KentKingery/status/895677880818163713

The group was asked whether IT transformation is an ongoing process or if it was a one-time overhaul of systems. In near-unanimous response, all the participants said that it is a constant evolution driven by people always looking to innovate or improve. Racker Jaret Chiles said, “Transformation should foster innovation.”

https://twitter.com/jaretchiles/status/895689203832553472

With constantly evolving technology and new innovations rolling out all the time, it may be daunting to keep up with it all. That’s why leveraging a trusted partner like Rackspace can help with the ongoing process of IT transformation.

If you’re curious about some of the other answers that appeared in the #cloudchat, explore our Twitter Moment. And be sure to join the next #cloudchat on August 17 at 11:00 a.m. CST, where we’ll be looking at ways to plan a successful IT transformation.

https://twitter.com/i/moments/895717911851016192