Why Do You Need A Cloud Strategy?
By Steven Kaye CDir FIoD
steve.kaye@cloudsolutions.co.uk
Contents
Introduction 2
Cloud Business 3
Where do we start? 3
Summary 4
Introduction
What is the Cloud?
This question alone could fill a book but a simple answer is that the cloud is everything the Internet was meant to be, which is an infinite amount of resources available transparently to the user community, on demand. And like the Internet in the last decade, the cloud has the potential to impose disruptive change on any business, only much faster.
It’s not cloud if………
1.) Its not presented through a browser.
2.) You need to buy additional hardware.
3.) There needs to be a team of consultants in your office.
4.) You’re subjected to large and complex upgrades
5.) You have to pay a separate maintenance fee.
6.) You need to load any software on your own machines.
Why does it matter?
Many organizations have aligned IT spend with business operations but investment returns are often disappointing. These strategic investments answer yesterday’s challenges; they cannot adapt quickly to fast moving environments or provide sufficient customization at the user level.
Large enterprises are particularly vulnerable to enlightened competitors who, though lacking the same economies of scale, can leverage cloud computing to achieve similar outcomes for a fraction of the cost.
Cloud computing in the hands of business users can really improve productivity without changing underlying systems or processes. This kind of collaborative, powerful computing is rapidly becoming an essential part of any company’s IT portfolio.
Cloud Business
Take some well known, very high growth companies who utilise cloud technology.
eBay’s website auctions generate the company annual revenues of 6 billion dollars. In order to reach that size before cloud computing, would have taken 13 years through television or 38 years through radio.
Facebook have 1 in 30 of the world’s population as registered users, who they claim, spend 3 billion minutes a day on Facebook.
Google’s search engine performs more than 2 billion searches every day on over 1 million computer servers.
Each of these examples draws upon the immense power of “on demand” cloud computing with infinite scalability and instant global reach.
Where do we start?
According to Russ Daniels, CTO Cloud Services at HP, “Something profound is occurring, something that will extend the reach of Information Technology to vast new markets, increase its value to existing ones and change the structure of the entire IT industry”. He goes on to say in his blog “Cloud Services enable businesses to create richer, deeper relationships with customers, to treat each one as an individual, to customize offerings to meet the specific needs of each, and to integrate with the business partners to make this happen smoothly and affordably.”
This eventuality is for me, the most important aspect for the IT market place. It exposes ‘the all mouth and no trousers’ vendors who are accustomed to ripping off customers at will without sharing the risks they impose on their customers. It encourages a totally transparent collusion between customer and supplier and most importantly gives the supplier the opportunity to make a massive tangible difference to their customer’s bottom line and future success.
First Step
Is to look for a partner(s) who is/are focused on cloud technology.
Technically they should exhibit experience and knowledge around the different types of cloud and the security and provisioning of cloud based services. They should be proficient around mash-ups, html 5, web 2.0,SOA, virtualization techniques to a lesser extent and CAP management around networks and storage.
On top of all this, the partner also needs to understand the ‘interface to the outside world’ of core applications such as ERP, and other on premise software via web services and SOA. They should also demonstrate abilities around change management and training and support
Business process modeling and design is also important. Development capability is a must. Knowledge and/or ownership of sophisticated migration tools would also be extremely useful.
Commercially these partners should not be reliant on the income associated with CAPEX based projects for hardware, software and services. Why? Because therein would be a real conflict of interest. Those organizations are desperate to stall the day when they must budget and survive off subscription based sales. They will attempt to sell you anything but Cloud!
Step 2
Engage with them to perform a high-level audit or discovery of business processes and IT operations to see if there is an opportunity to supplement these with cloud solutions. Ensure there is a road map that aligns with current business strategy and a proposed plan that covers all potential risks.
Do not accept the premise that you will always have to make changes or switch off your on premise systems. Of course, around utility computing such as messaging and collaboration and other personal productivity tools, the whole point might be to rip and replace this bit. In the case of the systems that you have developed/purchased that run your organization and is your company’s intellectual property then tread very carefully. The idea is to initially make two way communication with these systems without expensive modifications.
Remodeling your business processes at another layer above your core systems and not within presents you with the opportunity to innovate very quickly and align.
In the future these on premise systems vendors will be encouraging you to move these systems to the cloud also because of the compelling financial advantages, increased security and flexibility. The whole idea is to produce a technical environment that is agile enough to change with your company’s strategy and market positioning efforts. It’s not about saving money, unless you are just switching mail systems. It’s about making the whole organization agile and reactive to impending changes outside of the organizations control.
Step 3
Present the roadmap to the Board for consideration and approval so they are aware of the business impact of increased productivity, utility-style costs and business flexibility through cloud computing.
Summary
Don’t wait too long – somebody upstairs will be asking for your cloud strategy soon!
Steve Kaye CDir FIoD
steve.kaye@cloudsolutions.co.uk
217 The Triangle
Exchange Square
Manchester
0161 838 5664
www.cloudsolutions.co.uk
Footnote;
I would like to thank Cordys and in particular, Jan Baan, the forefather of ERP for some of this content, who I was honoured to meet with last month.
