roundtable: cloud computing 51
because he had a more important client or project to deal with.”
Leblond: “SMEs are key to the future success of cloud because it’s harder for the big guys to move and SMEs are more innovative and flexible. SMEs will drive change but they’ll will need trusted advisers to help them along the way.”
Freeman said corporates with large IT infrastructures were already talking to cloud consultants and providers, and weighing their opportunities fully and carefully. SMEs, however, without the time and money to utilise cloud consultants, were worrying – but unduly in her eyes. “The problem is that people are getting hyped and pumped up, and want to rush into cloud. They just need to sit back, let it happen organically, and make small initial steps.”
Healing: “Clients are always looking for competitive advantage. If they see their market moving to cloud, they’ll want to get there first. Most do reason though that if they are going to be first movers, they should at least talk to someone who has done it before! But, generally the consultant market tries to transfer skills and move on, rather than embed.”
Lovell: “People are taking small steps and gaining confidence in cloud, but it is a learning journey. It is about understanding how your organisation can take cloud services and use them to benefit other functions, business units and partners in your supply chain. Technology providers almost have to play catch-up; helping customers to build an approach that will allow them to exploit cloud.”
This is not a weather forecast, it’s a fact: the outlook will be cloudy and bright
Healing quoted the Jevons Paradox of 1865: Technological progress that increases the efficiency of resource usage, merely increases the rate of consumption of that resource.
“As organisations move to cloud they realise its unlimited power. It expands their opportunities and so they consume far more, but they’re doing amazing things with that extra consumption. In the future organisation will be happy to pay more. It is not just about cost savings; it’s about new opportunities.”
Freeman: “Cloud is not a simple variation on a traditional IT service. There is a broad opportunity here for business model innovation. Most companies can find some use of cloud to improve their work.”
She revealed that according to Cloud Industry Forum estimates, 48% of organisations are already using cloud-based services. TechMarketView analysis shows annual cloud growth of 40% despite an overall IT sector decline. Last year the UK cloud market topped £1.2 billion. By 2015 it is projected to be £3.9b.
Ron Brown
Workstyle change: Will cloud lead to blue- sky thinking?
Taylor: “Cloud is really just a reinvention of ancient ways of working and living.” And costs will fall, he said, just as they have with other technologies. “Cloud is liberating businesses because just as I can fly to Dubai and will rent a seat not buy the Airbus, so cloud is enabling relatively ordinary businesses to gain access to world-class facilities.”
Hughes: “Organisations are being driven into a different way of working through BYOD but also by flexible working, the need to reduce expensive office space, new regulations on maternity leave and so on. They are all business drivers playing well for the growth of cloud computing, which will be a big enabler in changing business models and the way we work in the future.”
Clark agreed: “When I first worked in a law firm the partners had two secretaries to take their shorthand-dictation, but now graduates joining us can do that themselves. When we need heavy-duty transcription we mail it to South Africa and it’s emailed back next morning. It’s taking those old jobs away but replacing them with other, new, opportunities.”
Freeman said cloud computing would be imperative for the future of small businesses. “Without cloud my publishing job would be so much more difficult. (She moved from London to Wales eight years ago).
Darren Atkinson THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2012
"As a small business I work from home through my smartphone and online, and I don’t have the office overheads. I can send my magazine
to the printers and see it to bed entirely online. Cloud has completely speeded up the publishing process and one person can now do the work of five. Having said that, as a journalist, I don’t think I could manage without writing things down in a notebook as well.”
Murray suggested: “Maybe one day ‘cloud’ will disappear as a word, because it will have become the business norm?”
Workstyle change: Going native in this digital world
Murray asked if cloud was a catalyst for the less office-centric workstyle of today.
Leblond: “Yes, the ‘digital natives’ will be bringing their own devices into work and multi-accessing stuff. The only way to be secure will be to separate the data from the local device. Cloud is perfect for this.”
Will BYOD cause real problems for the cloud? asked Murray.
Brown: “Yes BYOD will be a challenge. At CIO (chief information officer) forums that’s a number one topic for discussion and it’s being met by:
• The Denial: over my dead body will BYOD happen.
• The Let’s Embrace It: the security risks are no greater than they were before anyway.
• The Halfway House: you can bring your acceptable device to work but use it under our terms.
www.businessmag.co.uk Continued overleaf ...
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