Region Enterprises Expand Business Reach Through Cloud Innovation
By Niraj Kaushik, Vice President, Applications, Oracle India
Niraj Kaushik, Vice President, Applications, Oracle India
Cloud computing adoption is accelerating throughout key markets in the region as its benefits become more widely known, in particular, the cost savings and the ease of access-line-of-business (LOB) managers are becoming enthusiastic users. Even top executives are realizing that cloud reduces complexity, simplifies deployments, and lowers development costs.
But perhaps one of the biggest benefit is is that cloud enables enterprises to deliver new IT services more quickly, in turn positioning their organizations to better serve their markets and customers. In large measure, one can view cloud computing as a disruptive technology, which enables astute enterprises to leverage that disruption to enhance the value of their businesses.
Cloud- A Business Stimulator
Cloud can be an important accelerator for businesses, as new applications can be turned on quickly in the cloud, enabling LOB managers to capture market opportunities as they arise, when they arise. And by smartly applying cloud where it makes sense, IT departments can focus their resources on longer-term, transformational projects.
Proof of cloud's rising value is verified by the numbers. According to publicly available figures sourced from International Data Corporation (IDC), cloud services in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) will grow at a cumulative annual rate of 30 Percent for the next several years. By 2016, some $19.5 billion will be spent on public cloud services and additional revenues can flow from procurement of private clouds.
But one size of cloud isn't necessarily the best fit for all. Each nation and locality has its own unique political and social context, which businesses must take into consideration as they implement new technologies and roll out new services. In this regard, an important operative element in developing economies such as India is that disruptive developments such as cloud are often better positioned for rapid uptake than they are in more mature markets where legacy technologies are dominant. This "leapfrogging" effect is similar to what happened with cell phone adoption patterns over the past two decades.
Cloud vs Primitive Telecommunications
Although the underlying technologies are equally complex, where cloud differs from the historical telecommunications comparison is that phones are mostly a utility where the customer is handed a device and simply uses it as is. With cloud, while a LOB manager might interact with a service solely as a user via a Web portal, there are numerous possibilities for customization as well as many decisions to be made before the manager even gets to the point of clicking through his or her browser.
Those choices, made typically with assistance from (or even ownership by) the IT department, tend to be strategic in nature. First, an organization must determine its requirements. Are its needs limited to elastic compute capacity, to support a growing business? Or is online storage also necessary? Should you run mission-critical software in the cloud, or instead use it to essentially outsource non-core IT?
‘Software as a Service’ for businesses
The cloud consumption model is also a significant consideration. Is the way to get up and running quickest-by accessing applications in the cloud via the Software as a Service (SaaS) model-the best fit for your business? Perhaps your organizational requirements point towards Platform as a Service (PaaS), which provides an elastically scalable platform for consolidation of new and existing applications. Or maybe the on-premise cloud model of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where converged infrastructure from a vendor like Oracle, is deployed in your data center and paid for according to a monthly pricing model, is the best fit.
In choosing a cloud provider, local support is important. As well, national regulations, such as rules regarding the physical location of data, may impact consumption choices.
One size never fits all. A collaborative roadmap needs to be built so that organizations may choose from a variety of cloud services and deployment models. The right cloud solution must be aligned with business goals and benefits, encompassing an organization’s users and its technology.
