IT-CMF

A Framework
to assess
Cloud Readiness
Mainstream
Renewable Power
Case History
Company Profile
Mainstream Renewable Power
Mainstream Renewable Power is an organization
operating exclusively in the renewable energy
sector. It is a new business, established in
early 2008 by Dr Eddie O’Connor, operating
globally with offices in 9 countries.

The Significance of Cloud Computing Mainstream Renewable Power

Cloud computing offers many attractive benefits to Established in 2008, Mainstream Renewable
businesses, particularly to start-up organizations Power is growing rapidly and has a clear
that need to be able to scale to meet unpredictable vision for the future. ‘Our vision is of thriving
demand. The cloud computing model moves the economies and communities liberated from
costs of IT infrastructure from upfront capital the restrictions of fossil fuels, using renewable
expenditure to an operational expense. By moving energy as their mainstream source of power’
to a cloud computing environment, the IT burden John Shaw, CIO and Head of Information
and associated costs are shifted to the vendor. Services, Mainstream Renewable Power.
As a result, organizations can use the cloud
Mainstream’s core business is developing, building
to scale up or down and to buy or release IT
and operating large-scale wind and solar power
resources as needed on a pay-as-you-go model.
plants. Since February 2008, the company has
‘This elasticity of resources, without paying established offices in Berlin, Beijing, Chicago,
a premium for large scale, is unprecedented Cape Town, Dublin, Glasgow, Johannesburg,
in the history of IT’ (www.eecs.berkeley.edu/ London, Santiago, Santa Monica, and Toronto.
Pubs/TechRpts/2009/EECS-2009-28.pdf)
Mainstream is operating in a high-growth industry
There are many obvious benefits to cloud sector that faces hugely complex IT challenges.
computing including cost reduction, improved It is estimated that by 2050, 90% of Europe’s
functionality, and leaner resource management. energy will come from renewable sources, primarily
But there are also many challenges facing wind (50%) and solar (30%). The key enabler
CIOs in making the decision to move to cloud for this massive change will be the formation of
computing. Principally these relate to security, a Supergrid to capture and efficiently distribute
data ownership, complex and rapidly changing these variable, remote resources. The proposed
technology, a lack of standards, and vendor lock-in. digitization of the entire renewable energy supply
will be enormously data- and process-intensive. IT
Organizations need a systematic means of
will play a vital strategic role in ensuring that risk is
reviewing their business needs and weighing up
predicted and managed efficiently. Furthermore, IT
the potential gains and opportunities against the
will be central to ensuring that ongoing control and
risks, so that the transition to cloud computing
monitoring is managed efficiently across a diverse
is strategically planned and understood.
geographic area with a distributed workforce.
IT-CMF provides a holistic framework that
Cloud computing will play a critical role in helping
organizations can use to assess their readiness
Mainstream to gain advantage in this new world.
to move to a cloud computing environment, while
In this context Cloud computing is as much
minimizing risk. Furthermore, IT-CMF specifies
about overall business strategy as it is about IT.
a systematic approach to Cloud implementation
through an assessment and the creation of
definitive and practical improvement roadmaps.
Figure 1 Managing IT Managing Managing the Managing IT for
like a Business the IT Budget IT Capability Business Value
IT-CMF details four
Macro-capabilities
AA Accounting and Allocation BGM Budget Management CAM Capability Assessment and Management BAR Benefits Assessment and Realization
to manage IT
BP Business Planning BOP Budget Oversight and EAM Enterprise Architecture Management PM Portfolio Management
organizations for Performance Analysis
BPM Business Process Management ISM Information Security Management TCO Total Cost of Ownership
business value FF Funding and Financing
CFP Capacity Forecasting and Planning KAM Knowledge Asset Management
PPP Portfolio Planning
Source: Innovation DSM Demand and Supply Management PAM People Asset Management
and Prioritization
Value Institute EIM Enterprise Information Management PPM Programme and Project Management
IM Innovation Management RAM Relationship Asset Management
Each critical capability
ITG IT Leadership and Governance RDE Research, Development, and Engineering has five levels of maturity
ODP Organization Design and Planning SRP Service Provisioning

High
Optimizing
RM Risk Management SD Solutions Delivery
Advanced

Maturity
SAI Service Analytics and Intelligence SUM Supplier Management
Intermediate
SRC Sourcing TIM Technical Infrastructure Management
Basic
SP Strategic Planning UED User Experience Design

Low
Initial
SICT Sustainable Information UTM User Training Management
and Communication Technology

IT-CMF – A Framework An important aspect of the IT-CMF model

to assess IT capability is its ability to highlight priority areas for
An organization’s decision to move to cloud development by measuring the gap between
computing requires a process of objectively the perceived importance of a category to the
assessing their readiness to move to this new business compared to its actual maturity level.
environment. The IT-CMF offers a holistic
framework to manage this assessment by
The Journey for Mainstream
providing an objective assessment within each
Renewable Power
Mainstream Renewable Power joined IVI in
stage of the cloud computing adoption life cycle.
2008 and underwent an executive level IT-CMF
IT-CMF is made up of 33 critical capabilities maturity assessment to establish a baseline of IT
that represent critical areas that must be management maturity. The result at that stage
present and mastered to enable the IT was a basic, level 2 maturity. A comprehensive
organization to plan IT solutions and measure roadmap was then designed to achieve a higher
the business value they will deliver. level of maturity across various IT management
capabilities within the next 24 months.
Each critical capability is assessed and given a
ranking on the IT-CMF maturity curve – from
Level 1 (ad hoc) to Level 5 (optimizing).

Figure 2 The Four IT-CMF Improvement Strategies

Roadmap for IT Maturity Managing IT Managing the Managing the Managing IT for
Capability Maturity Levels like a Business IT Budget IT Capability Business Value
Optimizing Value Centre Sustainable Core Competence Optimizing Value
Economic Model
Advanced Investment Centre Expanded Funding Business Partner Portfolio
Options and Options
October
Management
2011 Goal
Intermediate Service Centre Improve Technology Expert Return On
Productivity Investment and
Business Case
Assessment Basic Cost Centre Predictable Technology Total Cost of
October 2009 Performance Supplier Ownership
Initial Beginning Beginning Beginning Beginning
Source: Martin Curley, Intel / National University of Ireland Maynooth
 Cloud Readiness Assessment How has IT-CMF delivered value
For Mainstream, cloud computing already plays for Mainstream Renewable Power?
a pivotal role in the business strategy. The
organization currently operates a secure, private
IT Business Alignment and Leadership
Mainstream’s IT organization already enjoys a
cloud computing infrastructure. Cloud computing
strong relationship with the business and cloud
will continue to play a crucial role for the company’s
computing is considered to be an integral part of
development in the future. Mainstream needed
business strategy. Using IT-CMF has highlighted
to establish a comprehensive way to plan cloud
the key areas where IT and the business differed
computing strategy with detailed roadmaps that
in their perceptions and understanding of the
include objective risk and opportunity assessment.
benefits of the public cloud. Mainstream’s business
The first stage in the cloud computing executives had a more positive view of the public
assessment was to identify the critical capabilities cloud than their IT colleagues. The assessment
in the cloud implementation life cycle. results confirmed that Mainstream’s cloud
1
computing strategy already provided their initial
objective of a ‘single version of the truth’, and that
9 the next phase was a business-led move to the
Review Investigate
BP SP SRC ITG BP SP
2
public cloud on terms agreed by all stakeholders.
Figure 3 ‘The end vision is to completely outsource
Manage the
Supply Chain
as e
4 Pha s e
A r ch i t 1
using a sustainable supplier to provide
The Cloud Life Cycle P h e f r e sh ect
Identify
CFP SRC TIM

SD SRP TCO
R SRC EAM
resilient and secure services that are managed
Source: Innovation 8
externally using a subscription model’
Value Institute 3
John Shaw, CIO, IVI Summer conference 2011.
Previous IT strategy had delivered a secure private
P h a s era t e

Operational Implementation
Ope

Roll-out Strategy
RM SD SRP cloud; consequently Mainstream’s executives
3

BP RM

aspired to move to the public cloud. However,

Phase 2 as cloud computing can be overhyped, it was
7 Engage
Negotiate 4 vitally important to set realistic expectations and
Business
SRC
Design clarify risks. The IT-CMF assessment results
delivered a strong mandate to move to the
SRP EAM
Select

public cloud. More importantly, the assessment

SRC

6
5 enabled Mainstream to convert this ambition
into a complete cloud computing roadmap
The second stage was to assess the with supporting cost-benefit analysis.
company’s maturity across each critical IT
capability throughout the cloud computing
Strategic Initiatives –
life cycle. An assessment of both IT and the
Design, Planning, and Evaluation
Cloud computing is a vitally important tool for
business was conducted for Mainstream.
Mainstream’s future growth but it is complex,
Key Assessment Results rapidly-changing and overhyped. Mistakes
Overall there was a positive consensus of opinion could be very costly while success will help gain
across the enterprise about the current state competitive advantage. The IT-CMF provided
of maturity (2.5 basic) and the importance Mainstream with a means to assess their
of Cloud to the organizations’ strategic readiness for the next phase of their Cloud
objectives (4.4 advanced). (Note the low level migration by assessing their critical capabilities
of maturity was actually an assessment of the across the key stages of the Cloud life cycle.
maturity of Public Cloud, not Mainstream).
Mainstream now have a baseline across the entire
The assessment showed strong business and IT IT organization with a clear understanding of its
leadership with a closely-aligned business and IT strengths and weaknesses in relation to cloud
strategy. This is based on secure universal data computing readiness. Their development of a
access, reduced cost, increased sustainability, comprehensive roadmap now enables a ‘managed’
and standardized technology in conjunction with transition to the public cloud via a hybrid solution.
single suppliers based on strategic relationships. Performance can be measured on an annual basis
to ensure that targets are reached or exceeded.
There is a clear-cut business and IT vision
This measurement capability will be an invaluable
of the future, that is to move to a public
tool for Mainstream as the organization plans its
cloud in a controlled and planned way
transition. It will ensure that risks are mitigated
while simultaneously minimizing risk.
and the opportunities created by cloud computing
Importantly, the assessment pinpointed are maximized in a planned and controlled way.
the most important critical IT management
capabilities at each stage of the cloud
IVI Contact Details
Derval Kennedy
computing life cycle, thereby enabling creation
Head of Business Development
of definitive roadmaps to improve maturity.
and Membership Services
[email protected]
+ 353 87 6620323
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