Cloud Technology Part 1

Topic: Cloud Technology Part 1


The rise in prominence of Cloud Computing is an
important development which every company needs to
take account of, and every manager needs to be aware
of its implications. The Cloud itself is enabling
business in many ways, but more important is the huge
range of opportunities it puts within the reach of even
the smallest companies. Many companies lack the skills
and leadership to fully exploit this technology.
So do you know enough about it? Let’s take a look at
what’s going on, so that you will have an informed
opinion at least.
Most large or medium sized companies will have a
Digital Transformation Policy in place, or should at
least be considering one, and this will become more
important as time moves on. We all need to understand
the issues, and be able to talk knowledgeably about
them.
Advances in emerging innovations are enabled and
driven by the ubiquitous nature of this internet
technology. It has literally transformed the structure of
business, encouraging organisations to reshape all their
activities. It offers scalability and flexibility, allowing
companies to rapidly expand their activities, launch
new products and enter new markets. It has
accelerated change because it eradicates the barriers
normally associated with rapid growth. New capabilities
can be delivered immediately, and equally quickly shed
again, if no longer required.
Gone are the days of needing to find capital to fund
investment in a new IT structure, and other new
processes and functions such as Finance, HR, and
supply chain management .There is no longer any need
to recruit or partner with people with the appropriate
skills and knowledge, design and develop the structure,
purchase equipment, install the system, and then begin
to expand the business using the new resources. In the
past, this all took considerable time and effort and
meant that gearing a company for growth was a time
consuming exercise, and did not happen quickly.
Cloud technology has enabled businesses to subscribe
to applications it can access over the Internet. The
application can be custom built or bought “off the
shelf “. This allows a “pay as you go” approach to
rapid expansion, enabling companies to make leaps in
their development that were previously undreamt of.
Organisations that adopt the Cloud report many benefits
from improved employee satisfaction, better customer
engagement, a more robust IT system. The Cloud is
greener than traditional systems, it is pay as you go,
there is very little capital investment needed. It
enables agility, that much sought after capability for
companies in today’s fast moving world.
What is the Cloud?
The term “Cloud” just means “across the internet”. The
use of Cloud technology just means storing and
accessing data on the internet, rather than on your hard
drive. This more traditional storage is now referred to
as local storage, and it is fast and easy to access your
data stored in that way
Using “Cloud computing,” means you access your data
or your programs over the Internet, or have that data
synchronized with other information over the Web.
Cloud technology has enabled Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS). This means that a business subscribes to an
application it accesses over the Internet, which can be
either custom built or bought “off the shelf “,
Also available is Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS),
where companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google,
and Rackspace provide an infrastructure available to be
“rented out” by client companies.