The term ‘cloud computing’ has been over used in the technology industry for so many years that people are tired of it. The online world is overflowing with content on cloud computing – how it works, its different flavours, its growth predictions and its long list of benefits. But often, the more you talk the less people listen.
The hyper-interest in the cloud is moderating. With end-users being force-fed cloud-centric information in every nook and cranny of the online world, this is hardly surprising. The weariness surrounding the relentless hype around cloud computing should not be mistaken for a sign that cloud computing is on the wane.
Far from it, we at Logicalis have seen cloud since it first came into existence and have seen its strong growth over the past few years. Cloud adoption is on the rise around the world, indicating that it brings significant value to organisations.
In this blog, we outline the 5 ways cloud technology brings value to end-users as well as software providers:
1. Reduced infrastructure costs
Cloud technology makes external hosting of applications possible, thus removing the need for software providers and end-users to build expensive infrastructure that will incur significant costs to maintain and upgrade. This is even more valuable as an organisation’s technology budget is often tight. End-users now choose to avoid applications that requires a complex IT infrastructure in favor of simpler applications that cost much less through cloud hosting.
2. Improved customer experience
Several cloud providers have packages that include the right people, processes, facilities, enterprise architectures, tools and service desk. Having it all provided by the one organisation makes the management of the technology simple and efficient. Some providers offer a monitoring dashboard that gives organisations visibility into their client’s experience. This is a great advantage as it enables software providers to proactively address customer issues and concerns, and provide immediate responses to customer enquiries as they arise.
3. Focus on core activities
Cloud technology has enabled the provision of managed services, whereby an external cloud provider manages infrastructure and maintains the system for a set monthly fee. This allows end-users and software providers to relieve themselves of the burden of time-consuming tasks that mostly revolve around “keeping the lights on.” These tasks include maintaining the infrastructure, administering updates and upgrades, monitoring incident reports and responding to alerts. Essentially, it allows organisations to allocate more time towards core activities that can improve overall business performance.
4. Increased revenues and profit margin
For software providers in particular, partnering with a cloud provider can bring additional value to the organisation, and end-users. A software provider that partners with a cloud provider with extensive managed services capabilities will have the ability to sell a complete solution their end users, including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), application management and other services that they otherwise would not have been able to extend to their clients. This lets them access a new revenue stream that can contribute positively to revenue and profit margin.
5. Stringent security measures
One thing that causes a good deal of concern around cloud technology is security. However, enterprise cloud providers in general have to meet stringent process and control audits to help organisations meet their industry-standard compliance laws and regulations. Over and above this, a cloud provider’s security measures extend to IT management and critical features such as disaster recovery and backup.
These are the five core components of value that cloud technology delivers. These benefits are advantageous now, but as the IT industry moves further into The Third Platform and unleashes a new raft of challenges for organisations, these benefits will pay off handsomely. To learn more, check out our blog, The Third Platform and its Impact on CIOs.
