Tech Lover 9

For companies today, IT is a means to an end. According to Gartner, by 2013 more than 70 percent of all organizations will no longer own IT-assets. The new solution for companies is to purchase the functionalities they need and not the hardware. Five issues and observations for companies to consider as they make this change. include:

The definition of cloud computing is cloudy: Ask ten people about the definition of cloud computing and you will get ten different answers. The most important characteristic is that it is offered ‘as-a-service’ so that the customer does not need to invest in hardware, maintenance, depreciation, licenses, etc. A lot of IT today is offered ‘as-a-service,’ but to ‘clear the sky,’ a good definition of cloud computing is an on-demand, virtualized IT-infrastructure, provided as-a-service.

Interest in cloud computing: Increasingly, knowledgeable CIOs, and even CFOs, are convinced that cloud computing should be part of their current IT-strategy. They recognize that because of the economies of scale and on-demand character of the cloud, these infrastructures offer both flexibility and cost savings.

No technical interest, but problem outsourcing: Technological development and change is occurring so quickly that most companies cannot keep up internally. So now companies are becoming more interested in the best functionality for their business, which means cloud providers need to offer a functional and non-technical approach to customers.

The future is outsourcing: Companies everywhere are outsourcing non-core activities, and as technology infrastructure has become a commodity, it to is a candidate for outsourcing. Furthermore, since companies lack in-depth knowledge about the current technology, by outsourcing their infrastructure they can make use of the cloud provider’s knowledge.

Where do Companies start with cloud computing? Companies often delay cloud computing because they simply do not know where to start. A typical approach could be to divide it into three ‘tiers’; a quick fix (e.g. Linux environment, stand-alone application with relatively few external connections), a more complex fix (e.g. Microsoft environments, systems with multiple external connections to mainframes) and lastly the most complex fix (e.g. AS400, Oracle clusters and legacy systems).

Unless a company’s core business is IT, it should consider moving away from owning IT and only purchase functionalities. Waiting to take advantage of this new approach will only make a company fall behind. Now is the time to make the leap into the cloud.