I just read this:
“The increasing move to a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) could result in the disappearance of traditional 2nd line IT support and force 3rd line teams … to embrace an increasingly customer-centric environment”.
I spoke about VDI last night and the impact it would have on IT. I agree that VDI will have an impact but I’m not sure I agree that we’ll see 3rd line IT becoming more customer facing. If you’re in 3rd line you do have a role to play when calls get escalated but I think we’ll see less IT involvement with the desktop and less of 3rd line interacting with the customer.
If we do things right then we’re trying to take IT out of the equation. We’re that “delaying” factor in the business getting on with things. That’s why I like SharePoint. We can delegate admin rights to business (site and/or data) owners so they can decide who has what access. Gone is the hassle with file shares where IT is left to decide who has what access (and we’re the worst people for that) or to try get someone to fill in paperwork (or InfoPath forms).
Take some like App-V on VDI. You can automatically deploy new VM’s to new users. Users sign in and go to a portal to request non-standard software. The budget owner (non-IT) says “yay” or “nay” and the user gets their software. If something breaks in the s/w the usual 1st line is called in.
I really think we’ll see users interacting with IT even less. When they do have a problem they’ll deal with that 1st line. The 2nd line probably be merged into the 1st line and have less work to do thanks to the automation. I don’t see the 3rd line doing anything more than it was.
But this is all assuming people adopt automation. I had to leave an interesting discussion on that subject last night to catch the last train home. Ireland is pretty weird because IT automation just has not taken off here. Some businesses deploy the software but never get much further than that. I’ve seen systems like Unicenter and SMS just gather dust, wasting away while IT departments struggle with the problems that the systems would fix. I suspect part of it is down to training, part of it is down to lack of interest by individuals and a good deal down to how the business undervalues IT and hires unsuitable skills for advanced engineering.