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WHY CLOUD?
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"[Cloud] solves a lot of the technical problems and lets you focus on the higher level issues."
"It's about speed and ubiquitous access to the tool, plus the cost savings."
- Harvard Business Review Report, How the Cloud Looks from the Top: Achieving Competitive Advantage in the Age of Cloud Computing , June 2011
BENEFITS
Cloud computing savvy companies focus on “how” to solve business problems and less on “what” technologies to implement.
INNOVATION
- enhanced business agility
- speed-to-market
- dynamic scalability
- partner interconnectedness
- sustainability
- universal user experience
ECONOMIC
According to estimates from Amazon's James Hamilton, a very large data center (50,000 servers) enjoys a 5 to 7 times reduction in networking, storage, and IT administration costs versus a medium-sized data center (1,000 servers). Cloud data centers are built on an even larger scale.
- dramatically lower total cost of ownership (TCO)
- pay-as-you-go/metered payments
- shift CAPEX to lower OPEX
- cloudburst for dynamic capacity
- low cost low risk pilots
- virtuous savings cycles
A September 2009 study published by Aberdeen Group revealed top performing companies that have adopted cloud computing have reduced IT costs 18% and data center power consumption by 16%.
SUGGESTED READINGS
- Dot Cloud: The 21st Century Business Platform Built on Cloud Computing: an excellent book by Peter Fingar
- The Cloud Book by Timothy Chou
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
- Cloud Computing Benefits: by Cindy Waxer in Web Hosting Unleashed
- How to Explain Cloud Computing to Your CFO: by Bernard Golden
- Six Benefits of Cloud Computing: in Web 2.0 Journal. Cloud computing is still in its early stages, but the public sector is already beginning to see advantages
- Assessing the Security Benefits of Cloud Computing: by Craig Balding
- Cloud Computing: Benefits and Challenges by Dave Thomas
- Forrester Asks: Why Not Run in the Cloud?: by Fredric Paul
- What Does Cloud Computing Actually Cost? An Analysis of the Top Vendors: by Dion Hinchcliffe
- Global Study: C-Level Executives, IT Decision Makers Report More than 300% Increase in Planned Use of Cloud Computing: by Accenture/Avanade
- Forrester: The ROI of SaaS