A business manager identifies an urgent need for a software application that promises to support a growing revenue stream. He goes to his IT department to request a server to run the new application. The business case is a slam dunk. So true to the corporate standard, the server and the software purchases are quickly approved.

Then the request moves from the fast track to the slow track, as the server provisioning process kicks off. There’s the acquisition of the server, storage arrays and more.

There’s licensing the business application and the security software that must be installed with it. At the same time, IT staffers must determine if there’s space in the data c...