The impact of cloud computing on the IT department
Last week Computer Economics published research revealing that the move to the cloud is resulting in more than 15% reduction in IT spending for organisations who have fully committed to it. Additionally nearly 61% of CIOs surveyed reported that using cloud increases innovation and commercial agility. The research also showed that most CIOs are fans of the cloud.
This research underlines what I hear from many customers: not only does cloud computing offer a range of benefits, but adoption of the technology is now widespread. So, what actual impact does cloud have on IT departments? I asked three customers for their top benefit.
Most obviously, cloud technologies have the potential to help IT departments focus more on the business and less on the underlying infrastructure. IT directors have been complaining for some time now that they spend too much time resolving technological, rather than business, issues. But fundamental to cloud architecture design is delivery of a service to the end user.
Without infrastructure worries, I am able to focus more on solving business problems – said one IT Director.
Cloud technologies are also helping IT departments to ‘do more with less’ as they no longer need to have servers for all their software.
The space and running cost saving is actually quite considerable
– said another.
As the research highlights, cloud technology is helping many departments to become more agile. It took me a less than an hour instead of several weeks to procure a new server. Things like that are creating huge improvements in productivity in the department. We can just get so much more done. As cloud technology evolves, we are likely to see even more productivity gains.
Echoing their sentiments the Computer Economics research found that cloud technology is making business processes easier, allowing companies to increase productivity by offering trusted applications on the go and on their choice of device. The report also found the savings IT departments are making come not only from a reduction in data centre spending but also in IT personnel costs.
So there you have it: from both experts and those at the coalface, cloud technology is certainly making its presence felt in IT departments.
