SMARTER STRATEGIES

Four Tips: How IT Managers Can Improve 'Bottom Line' Results via Cloud Computing

Dennis McCafferty | Date: 11-22-10 | Comments

There's no stopping the cloud these days. And IT managers can greatly improve their company's business operations by effectively embracing it.

Just two years ago, Oracle's Larry Ellison famously fumed about a new tech-buzz phrase. "What the hell is cloud computing?" he said at the time. "I have no idea what anybody is talking about. I mean, it is really just complete gibberish."

Sorry, Larry. By now, we'd imagine that even you would concede that cloud computing not only exists, but it's emerging as possibly the dominate topic within the IT universe today. And it's one that IT managers cannot ignore, given how end users are eager to take more control of their tech services�a movement that's fueled by the wealth of opportunities that cloud computing, Web 2.0 and mobile solutions provide.

In the end, it's all about making an organization more efficient, effective and profitable, according to the book "Enterprise Cloud Computing: A Strategy Guide for Business and Technology Leaders" (Meghan-Kiffer Press, available now). In the book, authors Andy Mulholland, Jon Pyke and Peter Fingar present a guide for managers to take the best advantage of these rapid shifts within the technology landscape. For more information about the book, click here.

Here are four tips from the book that IT managers need to know about:

1. Business needs�not tech wish-list thinking�must drive cloud-computing decisions.

Value generation must be the key determination of cloud acquisitions. The cloud increases the speed and tempo of an organization, helping people work smarter and collaborate better. But IT budget planning usually works a year or more in advance, presenting a challenge for the need for speed that cloud-adoption models require. The solution? Make cloud computing purchases part of a monthly operating-cost budget. This will allow for enough elasticity to deploy as many or as few cloud computing tools as needed for new business initiatives.

"Enterprise Cloud Computing" provides crucial information about cloud computing in the business world. Here are four tips from the book you need to know now.

2. Ensure cloud buy-in from naysayers by stressing its better and faster qualities.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) demonstrated the sheer swiftness of this trend's capabilities when it used cloud computing to respond to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. There weren't any basic communications networks available. So the DOD made available what it calls the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE) system to serve as the network platform for relief workers, so they could share information in this impoverished region. Workers were then able to collaborate using this tool, tapping upon social media networks to pinpoint and direct local Creole translators and counselors throughout the world to assist with local needs. In a traditional computing environment, getting this kind of response would have taken considerably longer. While not all businesses work is the kind of life-or-death scenarios that the Haiti situation presented, the same demand for faster, better response often translates to success or failure of the mission.

3. Proper governance provides needed foresight. But it shouldn't prevent cloud computing initiatives either.

The mobile worker who heads to product launches, makes on-site client presentations and performs other out-of-office roles is less likely than ever to simply wait for the IT gang to magically find and acquire IT tools. With Web 2.0, this worker can simply find the right stuff and buy it off the cloud. This presents governance issues, of course. Potentially trouble questions will emerge, such as "How do we allow for a service to be supplied when we have no idea how many will access it, and where they'll be getting it?" and "Who ensures that these tools are secure and reliable?" But these inquiries aren't deal-breakers either. IT managers must work with suppliers to ensure that cloud resources are effectively deployed throughout the enterprise. Policy management must provide the kind of education that allows users to self-protect, for example, as the days of inside-out, centralized command-and-control IT architecture and governance are fading.

4. Be prepared to adjust your interpretation of "measurable success."

Ultimately, because the cloud must work as a business tool first and a tech resource second, you won't fully quantify its value as you've done within the traditional IT environment. Instead of focusing, say, on uptime stats, you may be creating some new ones�like "new business opportunities created."