What's Holding Up Utility Computing?What's Holding Up Utility Computing?

Rushing headlong into a utility-computing project could lead to the very headaches and costs you were trying to avoid. To play it safe, follow these deployment steps.

Month 1 > Establish goals

Spell out goals. What do you plan to accomplish? What functions, processes, lines of businesses, or other business operations will be targeted?

Identify obstacles.

Establish an IT utility working group. Include executives from IT, finance, business operations, customer/supplier relations, and core IT vendors.

Month 2 > Identify targets and build the plan

Map out investment ideas and targeted business areas to a manageable and affordable set of projects.

Look for the most repeatable improvements, based on a common set of technology and process investments.

Draft a realistic utility-computing framework.

Focus plans on building blocks that enable streamlining and integration of technologies, processes, and systems.

Month 3 > Articulate, promote, and refine

Draft a simple, yet comprehensive, document to articulate business advantages through utility investments.

Review your plan with executives and managers in the selected target business and IT areas.

Answer all questions; then incorporate questions and answers into a refined utility-computing plan document.

Repeat the review process as necessary.