Last year, Gartner research reported that CIOs were focused on several business strategies as they move towards 2014.B The top 3 are:
- Increasing enterprise growth
- Improving operations
- Attracting and retaining new customers
And, CIOs are tasked with facilitating these objectives with a watchful eye on the b purse stringsb .B In other words, the goal is to do more with less.B Cloud computing is one of the tools that is gaining widespread adoption as a result.
Cloud computing allows the organization to make use of scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities.B The organization can adapt quickly to changes in the business environment making it possible to capitalize on opportunities without the limitations inherent in a fixed environment.B The consumer of the services (internal or external) doesnb t care how the technology is made available, they only care that it IS-and is convenient.
So, the CIO is left to deal with the b howb .B What does that look like?
- Software as a Service (SaaS) b software that is accessed online and is paid for typically with a monthly subscription or per-user fee such as SalesForce.com
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) b this includes server virtualization, hosted firewall or security, online storage and backup including disaster recovery
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) – the organizationsb proprietary software may be delivered from the b Cloudb using a Cloud service providerb s hardware and operating systems
What would I like to leave you with?B Visionary CIOs know that they need to embrace the b Cloudb to accomplish their objectives.B You want to increase your geographic territory?B With the b Cloudb that is not a problem.B The only limitation is our ability to b see itb .B In the words of Wayne Dyer, b Youb ll See It When You Believe Itb .
