Cloud Computing
Here are many reasons for CIO’s and IT professionals to monitor and adapt to projected trends in business. One of the main reasons is the ability to keep up with changes. Our society has now become a demand and supply world and being able to know when that demand will spike the beginning or the end of a company.One of the newest technologies being utilized in business today is a system known as cloud computing. Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.Cloud computer and storage solutions provide users and enterprise with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers. The goal of cloud computing is to allow users to take benefit from all of their technologies, without the need for deep knowledge about or expertise with each one of them. The cloud aims to cut cost and helps the users focus on their core business instead of being impeded by IT obstacle. All technology is normally housed in a separate location from the actual business and the company accesses the internet. Cloud computing works almost similar to the way the IBM mainframes use to work, but a little less tedious. According to the Gartner predictions website, one of the projected changes in technology is proposed through cloud computing and it’s transformation from IT to digital business. IT claim is that digital business relies on the agility, scalability and other attributes of cloud solutions, but the landscapes are still rapidly evolving. To build competitive advantage and cut cost, CIOS and other IT leaders need to constantly adapt their strategies to leverage increasing cloud capabilities. As technology changes so do mindset. In a recent panel assessed of CIOS,it was agreed that cloud can be great help in providing business users with the agility they increasingly demand to keep up with the pace of technological and market changes, Turning to an external cloud service provider is often a faster and less costly way to implement a new application than relying on the internal IT organization (Wladowsky, 2013). With an appropriate level of planning and architectural effort, it can be a valuable tool for any CIO, allowing them to focus less time on the utility aspect of IT and more time on adding value to the company. There are many reasons such as security, compliance, and cloud outage that effect business tremendously, but that is where the IT can come up with suitable low-cost contingency plans that will enable the business to flow properly. Another idea would be to ensure the company stays on top of laws such as PCI, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Hippa that can affect compliance.