If businesses are to make the best of cloud and remain relevant in the digital era, they must learn to collaborate more effectively.
This is according to a recent Oracle research: IAAS: building a business that innovates, which surveyed 1 200 technology decision-makers in midsize and large companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The research looked at how companies in the region are approaching cloud computing and the organisational issues impacting their ability to effect significant business change and innovation.
According to the study, many organisations operate in a way that is counter to effective collaboration. It says 61% of the respondents believe for the enterprise cloud model to succeed, lines of business and IT teams must collaborate.
While it's clearly essential for businesses to change the way they work if they are to successfully innovate in the cloud, the technology itself also needs to be addressed, notes the study.
Managing shadow IT (in which lines of business purchase technology unbeknownst to the IT department) is a significant barrier to adopting an integrated approach to the cloud, it adds.
In addition, a lack of understanding by business departments of the need for integrated cloud resources is one of the current IT infrastructure challenges around cloud deployment.
As companies have grown, they have inevitably accumulated a mixture of technologies, from software to devices, on-premise to cloud, says the study.
The approach taken has often lacked a clear strategy or unity - with new technology bolted on in an ad hoc fashion or increasingly bought by departments without the knowledge of IT, it adds.
"If businesses can adopt cloud from the infrastructure up, they can create an organisation which not only fosters closer collaboration but provides an environment for IT and lines of business that is primed for innovation and transformation," says Oracle.
It believes infrastructure as a service (IAAS) is critical in enabling the collaboration businesses will need to effectively compete in the digital era.
IAAS supports the move away from the on-premises world, in which a mixture of technology has been adopted over the years, leaving an inefficient organisation which is often working at odds with IT, says the study.
However, Pascal Giraud, senior director IAAS Foundation and Cloud Platform Oracle EMEA, warns that collaboration cannot be enabled at the flick of a switch.
"IAAS absolutely facilitates collaboration and makes it easier to share applications and data across an organisation, but companies need to foster a culture that encourages collaboration.
"Enabling it needs to go hand in hand with encouraging it. The technology is there but often it is the culture that needs a push."
Giraud says a gap has definitely opened up between IT and lines of business and it's not uncommon for business departments to go it alone when it comes to new technology projects.
However, the trouble is the IT department often can't provision resources for new projects in a timely manner.
"Business departments then perceive this as IT creating roadblocks - but with IAAS, IT departments can ramp up resources when needed, without the need to release them from other parts of their on-premises infrastructure."
With this increased flexibility, IT can enable projects initiated by business departments, rather than constantly delaying them, says Giraud.
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