It all starts with your own intelligence!
Armed with the correct facts about your current IT infrastructure, you can make the decision of when, or if, a move to cloud infrastructure suits your organisation. Whatever your conclusions are today, the answer will inevitably be a resounding yes if the below predictions are true to form:
- IDC predicts that by 2016, there will be an 11% shift of IT budget away from traditional in-house IT delivery, toward various versions of cloud computing as a new delivery model.
- In 2016 over 80% of enterprises globally will using IaaS, with investments in private cloud computing showing the greater growth. Ovum forecasts that by 2016, 75% of EMEA-based enterprises will be using IaaS.
- Gartner estimates that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion in 2020.
- IDC state that the worldwide market for IoT solutions will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020.
It is imperative to understand where you are today, in order to know where you need to get to tomorrow. This statement is never more true than when discussing cloud technologies. An in-depth analysis of your current IT Infrastructure may sound like common sense, but you would be surprised how frequently this first step is assumed rather than identified to the correct level of detail.
What the cloud offers businesses today is resiliency, global reach, and future proofing of the technical infrastructure for you and your company. With security and mobility being high on any company’s agenda, this can often be difficult to resource and budget for, for any given enterprise.
The tangible business benefits of cloud adoption include things such as shifting expensive CAPEX costs to a monthly OPEX model with flexible contracts. Whilst the intangible benefits of can include mobility, resiliency and scalability of the IT Infrastructure to name a few.
But hold on, when does the cloud not suit you?
Cloud technology will not fit all, so a hybrid approach is needed. Just as the technologist out there will understand that hybrid clouds are coming of age with the choice of infrastructure and location, the business consumers know that hybrid support is also needed to help them through the transition and beyond. And let’s face it, they are quite literately running blind, all of their technology and systems are now being supported and run by someone else.
This may seem like an anti-cloud argument but it’s actually quite the opposite. Cloud technology will only ever get faster, cheaper, more flexible until there will be no other choice but to use it. However we need to keep an eye on the actual consumers that are buying this technology and the reasons why they are doing so – we must never lose sight of this.
We are entering the “Internet of Everything” where quite literally everything is connected and this includes home utility devices such as fridge freezers, bins and even toilets. With this new age of technology we must make our decisions wisely as they will definitely determine our future at work, as well as in our personal lives.
I personally have an interconnected house, with a smart phone, smart watch, smart bin smart TV and unfortunately a smart wife (just kidding with the last comment). Everything I do can be made public in an instant, I can monitor emails on my watch, I can even tell my fridge what to order or even let it decide for me. These interconnected devices will only accelerate and become more mainstay as we move forward a few years. Moving to a cloud centralised IT model is inevitable, unless you wish to live in the wild like an animal.
As cloud technologists, we have a duty to our clients, a duty that requires us to understand why anyone would migrate to cloud environments ,and we need to have the integrity to say when it’s not fit for their desired purpose. If we work in partnership and educate along the journey to cloud adoption we will retain them for the future and trust will be formed. The cloud marketplace is a relatively young industry and there are many choices a consumer can make, we can ensure you make the right one!
Neil Cattermull, Director of Cloud Practice, Compare the Cloud
Neil's focus is on developing cloud technology and big data. You can often find him advising CXOs on cloud strategy.
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