In Brief


It’s about virtualization of the computing environment to avoid risk and cut costs.

The term cloud is a metaphor for the Internet to suggest a ‘digital cloud’ that’s everywhere and can provide information services to web-connected users who are able to access their information resources from anywhere at any time of the day. Migrating internal applications to the cloud removes the responsibility to manage computing infrastructure.

The immense potential to massively scale applications on the cloud - and yet make them available to users anywhere through the ‘three screens’ (i.e. mobile/PDA, laptop/PC and large screen/television) - makes the cloud a powerful vehicle for global growth.


Benefits

Reduce/Avoid Costs
Focus on core business without the distractions of managing computer and networks infrastructures - cutting systems platform costs and associated IT HR-related costs.
Streamline applications development and deployment through ‘agile-to-cloud’ technologies.
Cost savings from commissioning that result from significantly reducing the time taken to introduce technologies and innovations, by reducing labour costs associated with the design, procurement and building of hardware and software platforms.
Only pay only for the services consumed (usually with no up-front commitment).

Decrease Risk/Liability
Acquired expertise: Cloud vendors are experts in computing who possess the necessary skills to professionally manage robust and secure hosting platforms.
Improve resilience and scalability of applications - peaks and troughs of usage are absorbed by the enormity of the computing platforms.
Remove shadow data by providing access to enterprise mashups via the cloud.
Remove dependency on proprietary software.


Challenges


For Business Leaders

Appreciating the business continuity risk implications of moving core business systems to the cloud.


For IT Leaders

Decision support: Appraisal of platform reliability, business continuity and virtualization security risks.

Selection: Cloud computing platforms use proprietary databases and support applications which make their selection difficult.

Operational overhead: Cloud computing platforms use a variety of platform administration and application design and deployment services. The risk of ‘manageability issues’ is high.