In today's highly competitive and dynamic business environment, companies are constantly looking to technology to give them a competitive edge, be it lower costs, better efficiency, or improved productivity. One such technology is able to offer all of these benefits, and is rapidly gaining acceptance in the business world: cloud computing.
Cloud computing, or Internet-based computing, allows companies to access and share resources, software and information on computers and other devices, on demand, from a hosted environment, and it is driving a number of important paradigm shifts in the way companies operate. One of the most important benefits of cloud computing is its ability to address the growing need for corporate mobility.
With a company's applications and data all stored in a centralised data centre, enterprise mobility and cloud computing have become inextricably interwoven. It enables employees to access these mission-critical elements at anytime, from any device, as long as they have an Internet connection. And with the current state of the connectivity market in South Africa, characterised by higher speeds and capacity, and lower costs for both fixed-line and mobile solutions, we are rapidly reaching the tipping point with regard to the mobile computing capabilities of corporate SA.
This move to a mobile workforce offers businesses multiple benefits, such as the ability to speed up the rate at which business happens. For instance, sales staff can immediately place orders while on the road by accessing hosted enterprise CRM applications remotely. These orders can then be processed before they even get back to the office, ensuring the sales life cycle is significantly shortened. And because all the company's applications sit next to each other in the data centre, they are all easily interoperable and integrated to create seamless, more efficient business processes.
Another important benefit of cloud computing and the mobility that it enables, is its ability to significantly lower costs. First and foremost, cloud computing shifts the cost of IT on the balance sheet from a capital expenditure, to an operational expenditure, as companies no longer need to invest in physical server hardware and the associated management and maintenance costs.
Secondly, giving employees the ability to access the company's applications and data in the cloud means they can work from anywhere, at anytime. This enables businesses to greatly improve the productivity of their workforce, as they are able to work from home when required, and they will also spend less time in traffic as they can be more flexible with regard to the time they spend in the office, without sacrificing on valuable working hours.
The cloud-computing model is also driving the trend towards the decentralisation of the workforce. As everyone has access to the same information, services and applications, they are not required to all work in one physical location. This enables businesses to decentralise operations and group employees where it makes most geographical and business sense. This can create significant cost savings in travel, which are set to skyrocket with the proposed introduction of toll fees in major centres, such as Johannesburg and Cape Town. The same is also true of the rising cost of air travel, due to rising fuel prices caused by a weaker rand and a number of other global trends that affect the oil price.
This is also a very important element for business growth and expansion, as cloud computing and the mobility it offers allows businesses to rapidly expand into new growth areas, be they local or international. With everything stored in one place, it can all be accessed from anywhere in the world, which reduces the time it takes for a new satellite office to become operational.
Due to the always-on connectedness of the mobile workforce, collaboration between employees, departments and business partners is also improved. This is another key element in an organisation's quest to improve productivity and the speed at which business is conducted, as the co-ordination of multiple disparately located teams becomes easier and more efficient.
As such, with so many benefits on offer from the adoption of cloud computing, companies would be remiss if they have not already begun to consider moving their data, applications and services into the virtualised environment. And, as more employees bring their mobile end-devices, such as tablets and smartphones, into the corporate environment, there has never been a better opportunity to embrace the mobility that cloud computing enables.
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