Cisco - Information Technology Team of the Year
Company: Cisco
Entry Submitted By: Global Infrastructure Services
Company Description: Cisco IT Global Infrastructure Services is responsible for the strategy and operations for Cisco networks, data centers, middleware, and databases. These systems provide the technology infrastructure services for Cisco’s global workforce of more than 65,000 people.
Nomination Category: Information Technology Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Information Technology Team of the Year
Nomination Title: The Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services Team
Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Cisco IT’s cloud management solution is called Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services (CITEIS). CITEIS manages our infrastructure and software platforms through automation based on the product, Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud. Employees use a catalog to order infrastructure and platform services (e.g. virtual data centers, middleware) on demand. Active directory integration with the catalog ensures a secure environment that is easy to use. CITEIS also provides a robust image mastering system (including customization) and features a library of standard images with flexible options. OpenStack Nova style APIs are implemented in CITIES to facilitate integration between internal IaaS, PaaS and other software layers. CITEIS is the prominent example of cloud in Cisco’s data centers.
The CITEIS team was formed to enable rapid scale, and reduce time to capability and cost of operations in Cisco data centers. This virtual team of nine, comprised of various subject matter experts, focused their attention on automating integrated infrastructure provisioning. This bundled approach for provisioning compute, storage, and network resources provides an innovative push-button solution. Employees’ orders are fulfilled within minutes. This significantly reduced cost by 24 to 40 percent associated with infrastructure provisioning and operations. Employees now use a self-service, one-stop shopping approach to provision their own services. Furthermore, the CITEIS team has worked to reduce provisioning time from 45 days to as little as 15 minutes.
As CITEIS became more popular, we expanded the catalog with more IT service offerings. The expanded catalog of services includes items like Virtual Office (for telecommuting), Virtual Desktop service ordering, and Telephone/PC ordering for new hires.
With operational tools now in the catalog, the CITEIS team has also managed to reduce the number of service requests. Employees no longer need to open a service request for help with data center changes, simple system reboots or assistance to shut down a virtual machine. These tasks can be completed via CITIES automation resulting in high integrity and superior quality experience.
The CITEIS team next tackled software platform capabilities, collaborating with six additional virtual team members from the Application Technology Services team. Early bundles were designed to include highly requested capabilities such as database schemas, application middleware and web servers. Now a user can order a complete application environment from the service catalog. This further reduces the time to capability and cost associated with provisioning and operations.
The highly collaborative CITEIS team delivered measureable business results. Their inventive approach to create a self-service catalog and bundle offerings greatly improves the user experience. Automation coupled with the team’s understanding of user needs and technology improves the quality, security and speed of delivery for our customers. Most importantly, the team enjoyed the fun of innovating the way IT does business at Cisco.
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Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:
Michael Myers is the IT Director in Cisco’s Global Infrastructure Services organization, responsible for the Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services (CITEIS) and the IT Automation Services (ITAS). In this role, Mike pioneers the use of Openstack in Cisco’s enterprise and develops Cisco’s cloud strategy. He partners closely with the Cisco Business teams to integrate features into products and help set the strategic direction.
Mike brings over 20 years of experience as a technology leader. Prior to joining Cisco, Myers held various managerial positions at companies such as Microsoft, Genius Inc., and Netli.