Zivaro Blog

Automating the Care and Feeding of Your MOOSE

Information Technology (IT) departments have been traditionally designed to support MOOSE. No, not the large, furry mammals that roam forests in North America, Europe and Asia. In this context, MOOSE is actually an acronym coined by Forrester Research that explains the role of the IT department: maintain and operate the organization, systems and equipment. Times […]

Information Technology (IT) departments have been traditionally designed to support MOOSE. No, not the large, furry mammals that roam forests in North America, Europe and Asia. In this context, MOOSE is actually an acronym coined by Forrester Research that explains the role of the IT department: maintain and operate the organization, systems and equipment.

Times have changed, and while maintenance and operations are still needed functions, more and more the IT department is being called upon to contribute to organizational strategy through exploring and implementing innovative business solutions. Departments that spend all their time “feeding the MOOSE” are having a hard time contributing to the business in more meaningful ways.

New technologies such as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN) and cloud services offer flexibility and automation to make MOOSE-related tasks more efficient and less time-consuming. But these new technologies also blur the traditionally clear roles and demarcations of responsibilities in the IT department, challenging traditional IT organizations to break down silos and redefine workflows – a not insignificant task.

In my latest Cisco Champions blog post, I look at some of the methodologies that are helping IT organizations employ collaborative teams and develop faster response times in order to continue to maintain and operate while freeing up some resources for more forward-thinking projects. You can read it here: Converge Your Teams for Greater SDN/NFV Benefits.

Moose-waterAs any park ranger can tell you, moose in the wild are best left to their own devices. It’s not quite the same with the IT department MOOSE, which does require some care and feeding. But that doesn’t mean technologists need to spend ALL of their time tending to it.

Scott Hogg is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for GTRI.

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