Service Catalog Community and Blog

Stark Choice: Do Nothing and Fail, or Move to a Variable, Demand Driven Model #cloud

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:45:00 -0800

Brenda Michelson at elemental cloud computing/a> drew my attention to a Mckinsey Premium Report, "Time to raise CIO's game." “Since the downturn began, many CIOs have scrambled to control costs by delaying investments where possible and pushing service providers to cut prices. Some CEOs are raising cash through the sale and leaseback of assets such as data centers. But as...

Cloud computing Arriving Faster

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:31:17 -0800

Seems that even Microsoft is getting religion. SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Corporate customers are switching to "cloud"-based technology more rapidly than Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) expected, a senior executive at the company said Monday. "People are embracing cloud computing faster than we anticipated," Stephen Elop, who heads Microsoft's business division - which includes the ubiquitous Office tools - said in an interview....

Using Component Services in Your Service Catalog

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:53:08 -0800

Yesterday we launched our hosted free trial. Over the next few postings, I want to enrich the discussion of service catalog beyond the static documentation and talk about how newScale customers work with a service catalogs. Component Services comprise the most common service requests, technical and subscription services used or consumed by a larger Service Offering. Componentization, sometimes called Service...

Having Too Much Fun with My Service Catalog on My iPhone #ITIL #ITSM

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:28:23 -0800

Yesterday we announced our free new trial of a service catalog. What's cool, is that we are providing a private instance to every one. So I thought I'd get one too. So I'm having fun checking it out on my iPhone. Here's my own private ITIL business, technical and request service catalog. And another view of a business service It's...

A Catalog in the Cloud! Announcing a Complete ITIL Service Catalog for Free Trial

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:39:02 -0800

Today we are announcing a fantastic tool for ITIL practitioner building a service catalog: a free trial of a complete, on-line, private service catalog. Nothing to buy, nothing to download. The Service Catalog is the cornerstone for any ITIL program, but many organizations get stuck in this first step, spending countless hours trying to get agreement on what is a...

Boo-yah! newScale Wins InformationWeek Editor's Choice for Best Service Catalog Tool.

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:02:02 -0800

We were selected as the “Editor’s Choice” in the new Nov. 2nd edition of Information Week Rolling Review of Service Catalog products! We were rated in an independent lab evaluation using newScale's product as well as the service catalog tools from CA, PMG, and Service-now.com. Here are some higlights.We were also impressed with NewScale's service designs and workflow. Its templates...

Don't Like ITIL? Go Write Some of Your Own. Fame, Fortune, Tedium, Oppobrium, Odium Follow #ITIL

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:16:00 -0700

There's an update to ITIL v3 coming in 2011 and the TSO is looking for authors. This could be your opportunity to become famous, wealthy, and an ITIL superstar. TSO has put out a tender for authors and reviewers, found here. I read it, thinking it might be a cool thing to do, but boy oh boy! It's a process...

A Quick Start to Defining the ITIL Service Catalog Webinar #ITIL #ITSM

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:29:24 -0700

Are you struggling with the question: “What’s a service?” Is it hard to get people to agree to a definition? Need I ask? :) Trying to document all your service definitions in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet? Don’t have the infrastructure to publish your catalog cost-effectively? If this is the case, then you are normal; most people are struggling...

Discussion: What's the proper level of detail in a service catalog? #ITIL

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:37:20 -0700

Great question from Marcello in Service catalog community site. I'm new in managing this type of issues. I have a question. I'm compiling a SC that describes services offered by my group towards our clients. What I want to know, is how to determinate the level of detail in describing services. For example: I need to write "E-Mail" as a...

The Cloud Adoption and Operating Model. Where Are We? #cloudcomputing

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:49:28 -0700

I've been reading a lot about the reality of cloud adoption in by business. All kinds of statistics are getting thrown about -- good info, but also contradictory and wildly diverging. This is normal when we have a fast moving paradigm shift -- all surveys are essentially behind the times for a while. I'm much more sanguine about cloud computing....

Good Take on Private Clouds in CloudComputing in the Enterprise from CloudBzz

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:43:00 -0700

I recommend this article for people building service catalogs. I think it helps to see how the catalog will actually get used. My comments, in-line. One of the first things IT needs to let go of, to get a cloud running to its full potential, is the concept of manually approving anything. All of the rules for approvals need to...

Growing Interest in #CloudComputing Calls for New IT Governance Tools. People Just Beginning to Wake Up.

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:05:44 -0700

EMC announced their new cloud service recently; buried within the announcement, was this quote: ...a field of growing importance in enterprise computing circles as businesses try to set and enforce limits on who can access the cloud, and what they can put there. (via gigaom.com) The service catalog is a central tool for providing those controls to IT. Here's how...

The Service Catalog as "Desktops R Us"

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:01:37 -0700

Recommended reading from Steve at viewyonder.com on the way to get to desktop virtualization: The only way to achieve this is to evolve to a Desktop as a Service. Use something like newScale to build a Desktop Shopfront to connect your end-users to the desktop offerings, like Amazon does. Develop a Desktop Factory on the back end with multiple production...

Is ITSM / ITIL Going to Get Run Over by CloudComputing? Yes, If Gets in the Way

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:43:11 -0700

There's a lot of discussion / questions going on about the relationship between ITSM / ITIL and cloud computing. At some level, cloud computing is nothing but IT; of course ITSM will play a big role ... no? Yes, but there are also big differences. And there's a great need to begin to understand those differences. To understand what changes,...

Does ITIL Hinder Technology Adoption? Good Question Stevie. #ITIL

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:52:00 -0700

Stevie Chambers, on his ViewYonder blog, has a thoughtful posts on ITIL's sometimes complicated relationship with technology. I too have felt that this people, process ONLY focus rather than technology is counter-productive. I've written about it before. If ITIL is to be useful for anything other than being a lingua franca, it is making technology adoption successful. Why is this?...

An Effective IT Service Catalog at Work: DISA ramps up cloud-computing platform

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:19:43 -0700

The biggest challenge in adopting a service catalog, I've observed, is the reluctance of teams to adopt standard packages, bundles, configurations, products, and offerings. The adoption of cloud computing is changing that by the day. Read the excerpt below. It's a description of a service catalog that offers standard configurations. The service offers Windows Server and standard Linux, Apache, MySQL,...

ITIL case study: ITIL best practices at two financial services firms

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:07:00 -0700

Great article on two case studies on ITIL implementations. And two of them are newScale customers. Here's an excerpt. Using a service catalog for improved efficiency and IT transparency One of the key objectives Patel was hired to accomplish was to implement a service catalog that would allow both IT and the business to view all the services offered by...

Survery Says! "Not much value in OGC’s ITIL Software Scheme"

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:20:01 -0700

It seems that most ITIL practitioner's are not buying into the ITIL software scheme. The poll reflects the ongoing discussion about the ITIL sofware scheme. It is striking that 29% of the voters prefer PinkVerify over the new ITIL software scheme. Futhermore, another 29% of the voters thinks the ITIL software scheme is a waste of money. Not one of...

First help desk (via @ServiceSphere). Who Said ITIL Had No Humor?

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:36:08 -0700

Thanks to @ServiceSphere the tweet. This is pretty hilarious: The first help desk call. It does remind me of recently sitting down with my Mom showing her how her new iPhone worked. Amazing, how even my mom defeated Apple's usability assumptions.

So we need to move IT from hunter-gatherer to a consumer model? I like it! #cloudcomputing

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:46:10 -0700

So we need to move IT from hunter-gatherer to a consumer model? I like it! Supermarkets seem a far closer paradigm. There was a period of natural household economy when basically people were raising their own crops and more or less producing most of the stuff they needed day to day. And of course we do not really do this...

Outsource vs Cloud: What Roles and Function Will Remain IT? Career Planning

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:25:36 -0700

If all the servers go to the cloud (unlikely to happen), the question is what remains in IT? What is the mission for IT in an outsourced world? I can think of things like governance, service catalog, vendor management off the top of my head. What else?

Good coverage of Fusion 09

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Good summary of Fusion of 09 by Brian. Thanks Most Discussed Topics: I didn’t hear as much interest in more basic processes and functions (such as problem and incident management). The people seemed most interested in the service catalog, service level management, and the CMDB/CMS. So lot of interest in these more-advanced service management topics also points to an overall...

new to ITIL? Here are Skep's Recommended links

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:08:54 -0700

New to the ITIL world? Here's a list of useful links from Skep. Here are some links that may be of use or interest to readers. [Updated 20/9/2009] via www.itskeptic.org

Apps.gov is a trendsetter for ITIL practitioners; and the death of the ITILista.

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:50:10 -0700

Nice article from James Urquhart and a nice shout to newScale there! Apps.gov, a federal government initiative out of the General Services Administration, demonstrates several concepts that have been the dream of many private enterprise IT departments for some time, but have been successfully executed by very few. I blogged this last week, but I thought it was worth adding...

Cloud Operating Model in A Box? Eucalyptus and NewScale Put It Together

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:23:32 -0700

Today we are announcing an important relationship with Eucalyptus to deliver a complete solution for people building cloud environments. Eucalyptus turns data center resources such as machines, networks, and storage systems into a “cloud” that is controlled and customized by local IT. We are doing this because many of our customers are curious about cloud but cannot use the existing...

Accelerate Catalog Development with New Super Easy Program. It's Wicked Good.

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:59:21 -0700

Today we are announcing a new, super easy program for customers or ITSM consulting firms working on customer's service catalog development. It's a hosted, cloud-based edition of our catalog documentation and publishing tool, PortfolioCenter. The first questions in any Service Catalog initiative are typically ‘How do I define my services?’ and ‘How can we effectively communicate and market what IT...

Five ways that Apps.gov is a trendsetter | The Wisdom of Clouds - CNET News

RodrigoFlores — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:42:25 -0700

Apps.gov, a federal government initiative out of the General Services Administration, demonstrates several concepts that have been the dream of many private enterprise IT departments for some time, but have been successfully executed by very few. Here are the five trends that I think Apps.gov demonstrates, and why you should pay attention: The IT service catalog. For years, business managers--sick...

Hacking the IT Value Equation: What We Can Learn About Pricing From Menu Engineers

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:36:00 -0700

Pretty interesting. If the service catalog is a menu, what can we learn from menu engineers? I had no idea people like this excited, but it makes total sense. The article is oriented around pricing to maximize revenue, but I read it as a way to maximize perceived value. As a way to communicate value, and as a way to...

Heading to the UK next week. Session seems sold out!

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:07:14 -0700

Lots of work. First, I'm at PinkWeek in the U.K. on Tuesday in Reading delivering a service catalog workshop. If you are planning to go, let me know. I believe the session is either sold out or there may be one spot left. This is good news as it makes the workshop real fun. I'm also doing a special one...

Marketing IT: Please Come to The Dark Side. It's Nice Over Here.

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:33:00 -0700

Marketing IT: Sell Services Internally, Win Respect is a neat article. Lots of good thoughts for service catalog practitioners. Often, technical IT staff looks down on marketing - it's the equivalent of going to the dark side. It's not. It's about understanding the value your customers need from you, communicating and delivering it. Excerpt: For many IT professionals, the idea...

What Does CloudComputing Have to Do with ITIL and Me? The Impact of vCloud

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:19:00 -0700

For my regular readers, you may have noticed that I've been talking a lot about cloud computing recently. In particular earlier this week I wrote about the impact of VMware's vCloud API announcement. So I thought I'd take a moment to write about why this is relevant to ITIL and ITSM practitioners. In a nutshell, the vCloud API makes all...

Paul Maritz, VMware CEO - General Session Keynote Mentions Service Catalog

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:45:46 -0700

Paul Maritz presented their view of the Front Office of IT, that includes Service Catalog, Self-service, charge back and service profiles. This is all about offering cloud services. In other words, VMware has really bought into newScale's Front Office vision; which is great. However, based on the Lifecycle Manager lab that I attended last night, their 'catalog' is still very...

Quick Comment on Our ITIL Service Catalog Book: We Need Updated Reviews

RodrigoFlores — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:04:25 -0700

Thank you to all who have written such nice words about our book, Defining IT Sucess Through The Service Catalog: A Practical Guide, Second Edition For some reason, the reviews of the first edition are not linked to the second edition. Which is unfortunate, because they were good reviews! So if you've read the book, and hopefully liked it, I'd...

Part 9: Preventing Sprawl and Shaping Demand with Showback - 10 Things VMware Admins Should Know About Self-Service

RodrigoFlores — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:54:54 -0700

Part 9: Preventing Sprawl and Shaping Demand with Show back The service catalog can be used to shape demand by making clear the cost of resources; then you can use that information to shape demand and better plan capacity. You can starting by putting clear prices and costs for resource consumption. Whether you do charge back or "showback" (showing costs,...

Part 7: 10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service. Role Based Access Control.

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:57:21 -0700

Part 7 of the series "10 Things VMware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management" that I'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks. 7. It's safe to offer your services in a catalog as long as there's robust role-based access controls down to the granular level and policies. At larger companies, there's often a concern...

Going to the UK to present Secrets to Service Catalogue Success Seminar at PinkWeek

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:28:31 -0700

If you are in the UK, you might be interested in attending this event. Pink Elephant is hosting PinkWeek from 14 to 18 September in the UK. It's a week-long series of ITIL and ITSM events for IT professionals focused on service improvement. I'll be representing newScale and co-present a one day seminar entitled "The Secrets to Service Catalog Success"...

newScale Extends Cash for Clunkers Program to ITIL Service Catalog

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:32:28 -0700

The Federal "Cash for Clunkers" - car edition ended yesterday. This morning newScale is extending the program to help take failed service catalog implementations off the road. First a question: Is this your service catalog below? A lot people are struggling with service catalogs that were "bundled" or given for free as part of their ITSM purchases. At best they...

Part 6: 10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:47:33 -0700

Part 6 of the series "10 Things VMware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management" that I'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks. 6.There's a lot more to self-service than a web form. I'm shocked by what some people call self-service. A 1996 style web form painted against someone's workflow API's with all the appeal...

Part 5: A service catalog will help Vmware admins get ready for cloud computing, public or private.

RodrigoFlores — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:16:54 -0700

Part 5 of the series "10 Things VMware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management" that I'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks. 5. A service catalog will help VMware admins get ready for cloud computing, public or private. When I first came up with the concept of a service catalog to drive fulfillment process...

Part 4: 10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:49:04 -0700

Part 4! of the series "10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management" that I'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks. 4. There's a lot more to setting up environments than provisioning servers, the service catalog provides access to all the other required services. It's great that you can quickly get a server...

Part 3: 10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management

RodrigoFlores — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:19:52 -0700

This is part 3 of the series "10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management" that I'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks. 3. The catalog system is more than a document, it's also used to manage the lifecycle. What's great about VM's is how fast and easy they are to provision, but...

Part 2: 10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:32:00 -0700

This is part 2 of the series "10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management" that I'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks. Number 2. The service catalog is the place where your user can document (communicate) their request Let me show you an example. If you to the Dell storefront and choose...

The Future of IT Services: How to Prepare - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:15:14 -0700

The Future of IT Services: How to Prepare - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership. New Delivery Models The lines between products and services are blurring — Software-as-a-service (SaaS), solution accelerators (pre-built code that systems integrators use to kickstart client projects), and cloud services are all examples. And while these hybrid solutions are often pitched as being less expensive in the...

Part 1: 10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:00:00 -0700

This part 1 of the series "10 Things Vmware Server Admins Should Know About Self-Service Catalogs and Lifecycle Management" that I'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks--I hope! (The boy is nothing if not ambitious). 1. The service catalog is a tool for driving users to standard configurations. To get the operational efficiencies we hope to achieve from...

Q&A: "How to retrospectively create a Service Portfolio?" Discussion ensues

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:55:30 -0700

Interesting discussion in the community How to retrospectively create a Service Portfolio? Hello All, Over the past 3 yrs we have run a program of change to transform our internal IT division into a "Service Oriented" organisation. We have created new roles and knocked down the boundaries between divisions to create more effective and efficient ways of working. One of...

Reading: Control Self-Service VM Requests - Service Catalog 101

RodrigoFlores — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:27:15 -0700

One of my colleagues at newScale blogged: Control Self-Service VM Requests about the process of creating the new service catalog for VMware. We interviewed VM admins and heard a number of painful stories; too many of them over and over again. Not sure who owns what Can't keep track of new requests Too many "temporary" VMs Too many custom VMs...

Beware these risks of cloud computing, from no SLAs to vendor lock-in. I Say: BEWARE COMPLACENCY

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:22:54 -0700

This is a good article about the state of cloud computing, beware these risks of cloud computing, from no SLAs to vendor lock-in. All the issues raised are very valid and should be considered. But many of these issues have relatively straight-forward solutions and counter arguments. I've picked a few paragraphs below to illustrate the ones I'm most familiar with....

A Picture of Why Some ITIL Service Catalog Tools Fail

RodrigoFlores — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:41:00 -0700

Some service catalogs fail due to usability and Total Cost of Ownership. On paper they seem to have the right things but how they are put together creates problems. This picture says it all: Faucet, check, electricity, check. Usability = being able to accomplish the objective w/o negative consequences. TCO = Being able to accomplish the goal, at a reasonable,...

LMAO Friday: Funny ITIL Service Catalog Videos

RodrigoFlores — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:14:30 -0700

My colleagues at newScale like a bit of fun and created a newscale YouTube channel. If you'd like the lighter side of service catalogs. Or if you are trying to figure out, do I use Excel or a newscale tool? What's the difference? These hilarious videos will provide comfort and laughter and education. Mostly laughter. Enjoy

"The service catalog will make or break my service portfolio. If I can't describe it and let you order it then I sure as hell can't sell it to you."

RodrigoFlores — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:09:43 -0700

Best quote ever about the impact of a service catalog from a service provider "The service catalog will make or break my service portfolio. If I can't describe it and let you order it then I sure as hell can't sell it to you." Which makes a lot of sense, no? Internal IT organizations take for granted that no matter...