This is a question that is often asked by CIOs and LOB Managers, but the answer seems to be different from company to company. All companies want (or at least should want) IT to be aligned with the business, to support business groups and the goals of the business. Companies also want IT to be able to tie themselves to different business functions to more easily adapt to the needs of the business. Traditionally, IT has been more of an independent business unit providing services to other business units throughout the company (and in some cases external customers as well). Unfortunately this approach causes tension in the organization as resources have been stretched thinner and costs have gotten higher. Proper business alignment includes not only having IT support business units, but implementing best practices and methodologies that are proven to work (such as ITILv3).
Virtualization alone cannot make IT become more business aligned, but with an implementation based on a Cloud approach (think next generation SoA) and ITILv3, things at least begin to head in the right direction. Even with Cloud and ITILv3, these things don't directly align IT and business, they simply provide tools, services, and work flows to being successful if things are properly aligned. This is analogous to having the best and fastest engine, transmission, and overall race car, but if the driver isn't very good, they still won't win the race. To win the race, IT must interconnect and map business process and function to IT resources and procedures.
Aligning IT with the Business will also require the correct tools. This is where an interesting new problem lies, how can IT align with the business when all current and past tools have been designed for it to operate as a silo? This is made even more difficult as simply retro-fitting existing tools that don't take into account Virtualization or The Cloud would be a path to failure. This new crop of management tools has to allow IT to dynamically adjust IT resources to align with business units and for it to re-adjust that alignment dynamically or on demand at any time. If we assume for a minute that this will take place, then the viability of IT aligning with Business becomes far more practical and closer to reality.
