4. Journey to a Mature vCloud Implementation : 4.1.4 Stage 3 – Strategic Differentiator
   
4.1.4 Stage 3 – Strategic Differentiator
This stage is the final stage for a mature cloud. At this stage a highly efficient, scalable cloud with hybrid capability is available for an organization. IT is delivered as a service. There is automated, policy-driven governance and control across the vCloud environment with zero touch operations supported by predictive and self-healing operational tool capabilities. True application mobility and device-independent access is available. The vCloud is considered to be the de facto model within the organization. The term strategic differentiator implies that IT has changed roles and become a business differentiator by increasing agility, resulting in faster time to market, increasing efficiency, resulting in reduced costs, and increasing reliability, resulting in dramatically increased quality of service. The following are key capabilities for this stage:
*Financial model and measurement:
*Usage-based pricing and chargeback for services provided to business customers.
*Service demand-based budgeting.
*Priced catalog of service offerings.
*People and organization – The Center of Excellence manages all elements of infrastructure, end-user, and application operations.
*Process and control:
*Optimized, integrated, and fully automated IT processes enhance business agility and efficiency.
*Continuous process, service, and performance improvements based on predictive capabilities.
*Tools and technology:
*Full hybrid capabilities.
*Tools that support single-pane-of-glass management across private and public vCloud environments.
*Service-level disaster recovery.
*Tools that support automated corrective actions for self-healing.