Thought I might share an interesting article from David Markus which is featured on the HP Technology at Work newsletter.
David looks at what he expects IT teams will need to know in the near future as businesses recover from recent financial setbacks. This article is mostly directed to US clients of HP, so a little bit of analysis is needed to make it relevant to the Australian market.
Essentially David's pointing out that cloud based solutions are going to be a major focus for all companies in 2011. As we've all seen, there's been a lot of hype around "cloud computing". Cloud computing, without getting into it's definitions (see Wikipedia), promises to deliver to businesses of any size cost savings and a chance to move IT projects into an operational expense - where previously many larger projects would have meant capital outlay.
The reason cloud computing is so important for Australians to come to terms with, is due to the way it's going to change our IT landscape. Cloud, hosted offerings now mean applications and infrastructure don't need to be owned or managed by a business any more. The cost effectiveness of cloud offerings also means that enterprise applications from large organisations like Salesforce.com, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP are now available to small and medium businesses on demand, without the percieved cost barrier.
David's article also describes how IT teams need to be looking into cloud offerings from their traditional IT suppliers to ensure their suppliers are able to provide a hosted cloud solution, should that be part of the businesses plan during it's recovery.
Where once upon a time a small IT partner might have offered hosted solutions as a point of difference over their competitors, cloud offerings are now becoming standard - so the competitive advantage of a traditional IT supplier will be maintained through providing a quality of service, security and products from the right enterprise providers; Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.com being examples.
My advice to Aussie small business would be to consider a cloud hosted alternative to any major project being undertaken. Consider the pros and cons of each offering - cloud or physical - and decide what's best for your business. Ultimately you'll want to ensure your IT provider knows what they're doing when they're moving you onto a cloud based solution, so there's a seamless transition for your applications, data and users on the network.
As business picks up for 2011 the demand for IT is only going to increase. Projects shelved for lack of funds during recovery are now being revisited and it's absolutely opportune timing with the growth of cloud computing.
David's original article can be found at; http://h30458.www3.hp.com/au/en/smb/1050641.html?jumpid=em_taw_AU_feb11_across-bg_1116016_hpgl_gb_1050641_27&DIMID=1130782636&DICID=null&mrm=1-4BVUP
If you'd like more information on Cloud Computing, Hosted Solutions or have a question relating to the blog, feel free to email me at peter.malone@hotmail.com
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