The transformative value of the cloud lies way beyond its impact on IT - it lies in how one combines its parts to create a new solution to revolutionise business.
So says Bernard Donnelly, senior manager, Cloud Architecture, at Cybernest, who adds that individual solutions such as CRM as a service and infrastructure as a service deliver their own benefits. “But only once you pull together these individual components into a BPM as a service solution do you start seeing the magic that becomes possible,” he says.
“Enterprises need to think about how the cloud can transform the entire business, not just how it transforms IT. You're going to get left behind if you aren't looking to how the cloud can revolutionise the way you run your business,” Donnelly says.
Donnelly notes that cloud computing supports the growing need for rapid business strategy change and agility, something traditional IT cannot support.
“IT changes at a glacial rate compared to the organisation. Organisations can change strategy in three to six months, but IT changes require a lengthy gestation period. Traditional IT can't keep up, but BPM in the cloud will allow you to put together all the major elements needed to run your business in the cloud, and change and adapt very rapidly,” he says.
Donnelly says, in its first phase, cloud computing was used as a convenient testing and development environment, in which computing capability was temporarily provisioned for non-critical business use. The next phase saw non-critical business applications moving to the cloud. Now, he says, the cloud is moving to the strategic space, where enterprises are entrusting their high-risk business applications to the cloud.
]“The main concerns now are still security, as well as sovereignty of data. People want to know - where is my data?” This, he says, presents opportunities for local aggregators to deliver cloud services answering the data sovereignty question.
Donnelly says enterprises in the US and Europe are now moving to full infrastructure as a service models, and are starting to see the real benefits of the cloud. In SA, particularly among major enterprises, this swing has been slower.
“Large enterprises are hampered by their considerable investments in legacy systems,” says Donnelly. “However, as they start replacing older systems, they are looking to cloud solutions, too.”
What true cloud computing means in the long run is that smaller enterprises will be able to tackle large enterprises, by accessing application mashups that allow them to compete on the same footing as major players.
Donnelly will address the ITWeb Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit, in Bryanston, from 17 to 19 July. For more information about this event, click here.
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