At the application or service layer, cloud computing offers a new service consumption approach that applies standardization and automation to enable rapid service provisioning. By standardizing processes, increasing automation and delivering IT as a Service, VMware solutions help drive additional savings beyond virtualization, while significantly reducing the amount of maintenance required per IT administrator.

Instead of waiting for manual IT procurement and provisioning processes, lines of business are able to consume services exactly when they need them. With new VMware products, IT organizations can now deliver standardized IT services on shared infrastructure through a Web-based catalog. By standardizing these service offerings, organizations can simplify many IT management tasks—from troubleshooting and patching to change management—and eliminate much of the administrative maintenance that burdens an IT team today. They can also automate provisioning through policy-based workflows that empower validated users to deploy preconfigured services with the click of a button. Meanwhile, IT retains control over policies and billing that govern service usage.

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