Change Management and the virtualized environment

[riskgeek...@gmail.com]

I'm writing a case study and would like to hear people's experience
with their organisation's change management team while trying to
implement virtualisation.

Virtualisation technologies are changing the way we think about
infrastructure. While change management is critical to ensuring
quality in a rapidly changing environment, often times, it is viewed as
impeding progress, especially when new technology is envolved.

I'd like to hear potential horror stories developers or engineers
implementing virtualisation technologies have experienced with their
own change approval board. Also, I'd like to hear any innovative
approaches any of you have implemented to make change management more
effective in a virtualized environment.

Joseph Greer

[roland]

Hello !

is "change management team" a typical role in larger organizations ?

i don`t know about such , but since i have been one of the persons actively
"introducing" virtualization technology into our company (while not being
the central responsible person for infrastructure) i can tell you:

since virtualization is such "revolutionary" thing (regarding change of
infrastructure) which isn`t easy to understand for persons who are not being
directly involved, it isn`t always easy to make a real progress and convince
people.

it`s just the "fight as usual":
technical progress meets conservatism.

you need time, you need energy,you need to create a lobby, talk to the right
persons, tell about the "good thing" over and over again, make small steps -
demonstrate that it just "works" and show the advantages over and over
again.

if you are not the leader of the change management team or the responsible
person for infrastructure and if those people being very conservative - you
need some strategy and some "missionary fervour" (sort of).

At least this is my personal experience

Good wine takes time...... :)

regards
roland k.
Systems engineer