Forward-Thinking Leaders Leveraging the Cloud to Raise the Standard of IT Delivery
By Tim Duffy – TSI
Moving to the cloud has continued to penetrate the business landscape over the past decade and has presented insightful leaders with opportunities not initially envisioned by the transition. According to a study by cloud hosting company Parallels, spending on cloud computing in the small to midsized business sector topped $45 billion globally in 2012 and is predicted to rise to $95 billion by 2015. The move to the cloud has allowed organizations to reap anticipated benefits – increased mobility for personnel in the field, the rapid rollout of updates, increased collaboration driving return on investment, less of a need for complex disaster recovery plans to name a few.
The move has also enabled leaders with vision to reap initially unanticipated benefits. One of the anticipated benefits of the move to the cloud early in the paradigm shift was decreased IT personnel spend due to the lack of need to support IT infrastructure. Rather than reap the purely short-term financial benefit of laying off IT personnel, many leaders with vision have used the move to reinvent the IT function in their businesses to drive better aligning technology with business needs. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal describes how Enterasys Networks, the Ancient Group, and the University of California at San Francisco have shifted the IT focus to “value-added activities like high-end software development, business analytics, enterprise architecture, and strategic vendor relationship management”. Enterasys, according to the article has shifted the amount of time its IT department spends on new application development and end-user training from 40% to 70% over the past three years as it has moved to the cloud. Rather than pursue the short-term financial benefit of cutting IT staff, leaders in many organizations have rethought targeted benefits of moving to the cloud, and shifted the focus of IT services to improve user experience and drive organizational efficiency.
Although moving to the cloud is not a panacea for business challenges, there are many benefits to be derived from the transition if it makes sense for an organization. Moving to the cloud is not the answer for all businesses. However, when the move does make sense and will provide benefits such as increased efficiency, more flexibility, better access for employees, customers, and vendors, business leaders should benefit from rethinking the deployment of the IT infrastructure in their organizations.
