Cloud or cloudy - Five groups of people that need to re-think cloud

The conversation on cloud has been around for a while now, with everyone talking about this new shift in ICT simply because cloud computing is the biggest thing since the internet. Displaying all the characteristics of a disruptive technology, creating new markets and radically transforming existing markets within the IT world, cloud computing is grabbing the attention of the business world.

Questions around cloud

Questions around cloud have evolved from, why I should adopt cloud? To how much should I invest in the cloud applications? To when should I move to cloud and how secure is my data in the cloud?

In the recently held media workshop by IBM, it is equally important for any organisation to embrace cloud computing. Perhaps, we would say it is getting 'cloudy' for every organisation counting on the opportunities presented by cloud computing.

From agility, increased productivity to cost reduction, every industry and sector is adopting cloud. There's a great sense of willingness in the enterprise today to adopt a cloud strategy. Cloud is finally announcing itself as standard practice. But like all new tech journeys, it's taken some industry pioneers to light the way in order for us to have made it.

The five groups

However, there is still some convincing that needs to be done and that's why we've pinpointed five groups of people that need to re-think cloud and why.

Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs need to invest in cloud so as to minimise on the investment of their startup. Cloud computing unlocks innovation within organisations of all types and sizes. No longer do they need to spend valuable human and capital resources on maintaining and procuring expensive technology infrastructure and data centres, they can focus their most valuable resources on what they do best: building better products and services for their customers.

Developers: In this category, developers need to invest in cloud computing and solutions to help them build faster, scale easy and focus on the code and tap services in the cloud.

CIOs: While CIOs see the benefits of the cloud, many still have reservations, particularly around infrastructure ownership. After all, there is a perceived notion that you give up a level of control with the cloud, which remains a struggle for many traditional companies. But times are changing, IT departments need to become comfortable with technology shifts in order to leverage the significant capabilities of the cloud for their businesses' benefit. One important step is to make the right decisions about where the elements of the applications and infrastructure belong in the cloud and how to integrate all areas together from a multitude of different locations.

There are also two main factors to consider in order to determine which aspects of your infrastructure go where in the cloud:

One is cost: CIOs can determine the cost of investing in the cloud by first considering what applications and infrastructure you'd like to target and then mapping the data flow of those pieces throughout the business.

The second consideration is flexibility: CIOs need to delve into which applications and infrastructure require on-demand expandability. The cloud can create flexibility and lay the foundation for applications and infrastructure to grow and shrink dynamically. Additionally, you may have applications that you don't want to handle the myriad of infrastructure maintenance and update requirements for on your own. For those, outsourcing into the cloud can be the perfect solution. In short cloud adoption helps CIOs improve their efficiency and reduce costs.

Sales, marketing, HR and procurement: Cloud resource based HR systems eliminate the need for complex infrastructure or its equally complicated maintenance. The need for high speed data transfer connections and maybe in-depth training basically is lost through the introduction of cloud based human resource departments because all that is required is a web browser. Cloud also helps them modernise their tools to drive better results.

CFOs: Cloud will help any CFO reduce capital expenses. Given the advantages of agility, productivity, and quality that cloud computing can have, you might expect it to be generally more expensive. This is, however, not always the case, and reduced cost is one of the main reasons why companies are turning to the cloud.

Cloud computing can help you achieve cost reduction through server consolidation, thin clients, or community cost sharing. Another reason related to cost is the ability, with public cloud, to replace capital expenditure (CAPEX) by operational expenditure (OPEX) in some cases.