VMware this week announced the formation of a new industry group that brings together a number of blue-chip services firms that will serve as a resource for large enterprises transitioning to the cloud.

Called Cloud Ops Forum, the group includes EMC Global Services, Capgemini, Deloitte, Infosys and CSC. According to VMware, the group’s mission includes not just assisting enterprises with the technical side of moving to the cloud, but also the organizational and cultural issues that come with such a dramatic shift.

Ted Newman, Senior Director of Cloud and Virtual Data Center Services, EMC Global Services

“[For enterprises] to get the full value out of their investments and to really deliver the agility that end users a relooking for, they need to transform more than just the infrastructure,” said Ted Newman, Senior Director of Cloud and Virtual Data Center Services inside EMC’s Global Services division. “They really need to address process, operations, training, etc. and that’s what the operations forum is all about.”

Newman shared his thoughts on the new forum with Wikibon’s Dave Vellante, live inside theCUBE at VMworld in San Francisco, earlier this week.

Newman said moving to the cloud has significant impact on both IT and business processes. Rather than remaining siloed, IT and business processes are in fact merging due to the requirements of the cloud, leading to new business process management best practices.

“The important thing we’re seeing is the concept of business processes being over here and IT processes being over here is really going away. We’re seeing some incredible initiatives like DevOps collapsing processes within the IT side of the house. We’re seeing new technologies that allow you to really address business process and IT process, automation and integration, in the same tool.”

In fact, the very definition of services is in flux, Newman said.

“We’re seeing that as the rise of service management continues, the concept of what is a service has expanded off of just what’s included in the IT stack. You need to design services the same way regardless of whether it’s a business service or an IT service, because eventually the goal is those services are enabled by IT. And it could be provided by internal IT, a cloud provider, a private cloud, etc. But as part of that, application rationalization needs to continue to extend further up and address services and begin to think more in terms of services than apps.”

The whole interview is worth watching below.