The Cloud has been around for a while now and with it followed opportunities, risks and an impact on your growth. if you don’t consider it to transform your business. Canada may be lagging behind the US in Cloud adoption due to Canadian businesses and IT leaders still looking for the silver lining. However those that have moved to the Cloud reported improved agility in their IT strategy.

Most executives will convey that the benefits of cloud adoption far outweigh any growing pains that they may experience through implementation*. Cloud has now become a ‘when and how’ option instead of ‘why’ should we consider it.

You can view the cloud as a technology enabler and a potential competitive differentiator for your business. A lot has been said about the cloud as a way to achieve cost reduction and significant efficiencies, but you should consider it even more as a strategic approach to develop new business opportunities, revenue streams and operating models.

So if you are ready to consider the options out there, here are some thoughts for you to think about since all clouds are not equal and you need to understand which one has the right fit for your business requirements. Also, when adopting the cloud, know that it is not an IT-centric project. The ecosystem of participants required to collaborate includes a broad set of internal clients to look at old problems in a new way.

The role of CIO needs to evolve from Chief Information Officer to Chief Integration Officer, to lead and integrate the business more tightly with enabling technologies and to ensure the interoperability of an increasingly disparate set of applications and infrastructure.**

Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Managed Private Cloud, HPC Cloud, Cloud Storage, etc.

Public Cloud, or outsourcing, should provide a seamless, highly-efficient, stable but elastic IT for immediate and short term needs but can be more expensive. This would least impact your IT resources. It will also provide you with the ability to focus on your core competencies and growing your business. However, depending on third-party providers also raises the risks (operational and IT), so you need to choose wisely.

Private Clouds are a solid choice for the most critical functions, and can address regulatory and privacy concerns. Think boundless apps that can operate seamlessly across environments without being locked-in or physical constraints. If your IT resources are tapped, a Managed Private Cloud is also an viable option.

HPC Cloud (High Performance Computing) is right for you when your business' diverse and fluctuating demand for high performance computing continuously grows as data increases. Cloud allows you to tap into on-demand HPC resources in ways that are fast, secure, reliable, scalable and make sense from a budget perspective.

Cloud Storage/ Back-up and Disaster Recovery

Traditional cloud storage solutions can prove costly in terms of infrastructure, administration and resistant to growing smoothly. A Cloud Storage strategy will deliver infinite scalability and no-maintenance storage that can better align with your budget, capacity, performance and SLAs you need.

A Cloud strategy could have the following benefits:

 Improved utilization of your IT resources

 Lower TCO

 Simplified Management

 Improved Disaster Recovery

 Power Efficiency

 Improved Business Agility

 Modernized Data Center

 Support Big Data

 Implement a platform as a Service

Find out more in my next blog later this month as I share more insights about Cloud to help you transform your business, increase innovation and drive new revenue streams.

If you can’t wait and want to talk with an expert advisor, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Paul Oh, VP, Technical Services

Sentia

*(Source: KPMG Cloud Survey2013)

**(Source: Clarity in the Cloud. A global study of business adoption of Cloud)