Migrating to Cloudware - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 421

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Migrating t o Cloudware
Cloud computing is an on-demand access to a shared pool of computing
resources. It helps consumers to reduce costs, reduce management responsi-
bilities, and increase business agility. For this reason, it is becoming a popu-
lar paradigm, and increasingly more companies are shifting toward IT cloud
computing solutions. Advantages are many but, being a new paradigm,
there are also challenges and inherent issues.
20.1 Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is an important development in the landscape of comput-
ing options. Although cloud technologies have been around for some time,
it has only been until very recently that the cloud as a business model has
gathered momentum. Cloud is viewed as a business-IT innovation that is
expected to accelerate the pace of some of the changes mentioned earlier
as well as an opportunity to foster new business models and innovative
solutions. Cloud technologies have come a long way and are maturing fast
along the evolving business models, and companies need to look beyond the
hype to fully exploit these emerging opportunities. Most of the conversa-
tions revolve around placing the strategy focus on the technology often at
the expense of real business benefits. The cloud hype proposes that cloud
adoption is a sure path to business benefits, often not articulating in balance
the cloud option against the trade-offs and interdependencies.
There is a need for a business-focused strategy that takes account of cloud
and its capabilities, and accords within the enterprises business and tech-
nology portfolio. IT decision makers need to determine where and how
cloud could offer business value for their enterprises by establishing a
strong foundation for a long-term evolution toward cloud and other emerg-
ing options as they mature over time. Just like any (information) technology
solution, cloud computing offers tools and techniques that may or may not
it business needs. Hence, it is imperative to consider the impact of cloud
adoption on short-, medium-, and long-term business strategy and opera-
tional delivery.
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