Cloud essentially means you consume a core IT infrastructure component as a service. You might decide to move certain applications to the cloud or a full programming stack to cloud and run your custom applications. You may also decide that you don’t want to own your servers and hence go out to a cloud provider who offers the right specs with scaling on demand.
A business strategy essentially looks at optimum usage of available resources to create more than usual results so as to remain competitive. When we prioritize the business resources with a customer-centric business plan and use the cloud to augment the service quality of what matters most to the customers, which requires innovation and testing, the cloud becomes one of the integral part of your business – one that produces ever lasting value and stake holder equity.
Cloud is increasingly becoming a necessity for globally competing organizations to be customer centric and innovative
Approaching cloud in a market/customer centric way not only enhances the ROI, but also benefits the business in its overall fire power in an ever increasing competition. Rolling out multiple innovation projects using Cloud technologies helps in creating that winning combination of service levels that customers love. Today cloud is available for functions ranging from marketing, customer relations, sales, service delivery, IT infrastructure, software platforms and numerous other workflows that are available as SaaS applications. Through adoption of Cloud applications, organizations are in a better position to grab the best of thoughts and creations of the specialized group into their business strategy for creating lasting results.
Identifying the right mix and available choices in Cloud providers to mash up multiple services is a competency either one should have or source externally. Also organization-wide agile roll outs, data sharing and privacy policies govern clear scope and boundaries. A service oriented design of the organization that has its underpinnings to business strategy is essential to fully leverage the flexibility of cloud and many organizations are already adopting this path, opening up their services for integration.
Have an integrated plan where Cloud and Business Strategy is aligned. Open up your data silos for services to consume each other’s data. Look for vendor neutrality, and embrace open source. Standardization of data formats and central storage management, which can be both homogenous and heterogeneous, makes sense. Have an organization culture that supports fail fast methodology.
Cloud is increasingly becoming a necessity for globally competing organizations to be customer centric and innovative. Even though an organization has to go through a maturity model in its adoption, a careful planning linked to business benefits with ensures a right strategic move.
Founded in 2003, Carmatec is a provider of offshore IT solutions for SMBs across the globe. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Carmatec delivers management services for critical IT infrastructure to enhance the efficacy of business.
