The Era of Cloud Computing – Five reasons why your organization needs to adopt it

Patrick Mayoh

I cannot tell why I am turning geeky these days. I had to choose between writing on cloud computing or web 2.0 technologies. The reason I guess is because I believe those two topics just show how much, more efficient IT systems in the future will boost productivity and increase profitability. Cloud computing is one of those IT applications that your organizations should be thinking about for five reasons:

· It is trendy

· It is cost-effective

· It is sustainable

· It is Accessible

· It boosts your team productivity

What is it?

Simply put according to Jacques Bughin et al (2010) in the MC Kinsey Quarterly, cloud computing consists of “accessing computer resources provided through networks rather than running software or storing data on a local computer”. Mell and Grance (2009) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST provide a more comprehensive definition as they define it as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”. Let us see why you need it in your organization and how this will change and possibly improve your business as a whole.

It is trendy

This is one of the hot IT topics nowadays. It is one of those applications that will set the pace of the future and will be widely used by organization for its many benefits. It is gaining such momentum that the MC Kinsey Quarterly devoted a section to it in its article on the top “ten-tech enabled business trends to watch”. Big pharmaceutical giants like Genentech have begun to reap the benefits of cloud computing, as this enables them to design and create documents and spreadsheets from enabled web browsers like Google for example.

IT is cost-effective

Your company spends a lot of money on a yearly basis just to acquire software licences and purchase or maintain computer servers. Cloud computing means your business has a unique opportunity to save in capital investments. If your organization invests in a private cloud, the need to renew say your Microsoft Office licence or your Anti-Virus every year will become irrelevant. Likewise the need to buy servers to support your internal network will also disappear. Cloud computing simply means that if you invest in a private cloud for example, all you need is a reliable and fast enough working Internet connection to access all your files and documents on the “cloud” from your laptop or smart phone. So you can even think about getting rid of all your licences and servers now cloud computing is the new way.

It is Sustainable

Sustainability is one of those terms everyone has become so passionate about in the business world. It is all about how we use natural resources without preventing next generations from doing the same. I think Jim Wallis (2010) gets it better than anyone else. In his book “rediscovering values” he introduces a concept called “the seventh generation” principle whereby American Founding Fathers in the past would make decisions based on how these would affect the next seven generations. According to MC Kinsey Quarterly, the Electricity needed to power IT structures around the world generates greenhouse gases emissions of the scale of countries like Argentina or the Netherlands. This is set to increase by fourfold in 2020. This alone is a good reason why cloud computing is necessary for your business. No need to make capital investments in items such as USB drives, CDs, Servers and paper to name just a few. Because all IT applications can be organized, shared, processed and saved on the cloud using your normal Internet connection; there will not be any need to invest in hardware equipments anymore.

It is accessible

It just used to be something people vaguely knew about but just as Jimmy Harris, Managing director of Accenture Cloud services observes, “More and more money is being allocated to exploring and implementing cloud services; believe it, it is gonna happen and it is gonna continue to evolve”. This is because major software companies like Microsoft and Google to name just those two giants have already developed solutions for clients enabling them to access cloud computing services. Microsoft has devoted a whole platform on its website explaining and clearly outlining the benefits of the cloud for organizations. This just shows that nowadays this is an investment many organizations can venture to make.

It boosts your team productivity

Cloud computing means the IT applications containing your files, spreadsheets and documents can be accessed from anywhere and faster than before. Therefore enhancing your team mobility, flexibility and speeding up the way you deliver services and products to customers or clients.

Maybe you will even cut capital investments in infrastructure like buildings. Because data can be accessed anywhere some of your staff might not have to come to work Monday to Friday. Most of their tasks could be completed from the comfort of their sofas at homes just using their normal internet connection to work on projects.

Also projects could be treated simultaneously as staff can access the same files and documents from the cloud boosting the flexibility and productivity of your team while increasing the speed at which you deliver your services to clients. In an ideal scenario you could get team members from Europe, Asia and Central America to work say on a service or project that is meant for a client in Africa. And this could be done simultaneously using just the cloud and provided those team members can access it from where they are using a normal internet connection.

In a nutshell this is why you can benefit from using cloud computing services. Feel free to leave any comment (I would really appreciate if you did as it only helps me to improve and write about more relevant topics).

References

Jacques Bughin, James Manyika and Michael Chui (2010) ten-tech enabled business trends to watch MC Kinsey Quarterly

Jim Wallis (2010) rediscovering values: on Wall Street, Main Street and your street Howard Books New-York

Peter Mell and Tim Grance The NSIT definition of cloud computing