Getting Out of the IT Business

In today’s fast-paced and technology-based corporate world, IT is changing at an ever-increasing rate. IT is complicated and demanding due to constantly changing standards and advancements.  Traditional IT solutions often result in high capital and operational costs, low system utilization, inconsistent availability and service levels, and poor agility.

Fortunately, Cloud Computing helps businesses “decouple” their business operations from the complex IT infrastructure necessary to run their business. Decoupling refers to the separation of joint or coupled systems, in this case your IT infrastructure and your core business operation, thereby enabling them to exist and operate separately.  This allows businesses to step away from the provisioning and maintenance of complex IT systems that their business relies on and focus instead on the core tasks that are vital to the actual operation of the business.  Cloud Computing decouples business operations from IT by hosting business-critical data, applications, and infrastructure on the Cloud Service Provider’s proven, scalable Cloud infrastructure.

Key Components of Cloud Computing that Enable Businesses to Decouple IT from their Core Business

Signing up for Cloud services versus buying technology.  Signing up for Cloud services is a simple procedure and allows companies to focus more on the service IT delivers versus how the technology works and integrates. Cloud Computing de-couples the IT infrastructure from the business in the same way that virtualization technology has de-coupled applications and operating systems from the hardware. This is the hosted model.

An example of this type of decoupling is electrical utility. Initially, until 1882, companies were required to build and maintain their own generator, which was a very expensive and time-consuming, and took them away from their core business tasks. Edison’s proposition to pay for electricity as a utility, on “pay-as-you-go” model, as opposed to consumers producing their own was a highly-attractive proposition for businesses who didn’t want the cost and distraction of producing their own power. Therefore, the production of electricity was decoupled from the business tasks, and was finally provided through an electricity service provider as a utility. Cloud Computing allows IT to be provided in much the same way.

More Focus on Features and Capabilities.  Cloud Computing allows businesses to focus more on which features and functions their business needs in order to operate as efficiently as possible, with the most cost savings. It is the Cloud Service Provider’s (CSP’s) task to find the appropriate technology and method of utilizing the technology to meet your business’s IT needs and to deliver the required features and capabilities. Leave the IT to IT professionals; you no longer need to understand, research and acquire the technology – simply sign up for a Cloud-based service and IT tasks are managed for you. Now quickly gain access to highly productive technology services without the complexity, costs, and delay.

Less Focus on Technology, Brand, and Vendors.  The nature of the technology, how it works, which brand it is, or which vendor supplied it is the least concern of any business. What matters is that it works, and works well to support your core business! Cloud Computing is focused on delivering a set of business-class technology services without requiring knowledge of the technical jargon and specifications.

Keep Up With Rapid Technology Changes.  Technology changes at a break-neck pace, at a rate of approximately every 3 months, which often has a negative impact on business operation. Cloud Service Providers buffer customers from this rapid change, and lessen the business disruption, allowing for a better and more seamless transition from one technology to the next. Because the Cloud Service Provider looks after the technology, migration, and upgrades, you no longer have to deal with the headaches and costs of constantly changing technology.

Most businesses are not in the business of IT; therefore, IT needs to be a business enabler and not a cost center or core focus of the business. Cloud Computing allows a business to decouple IT from the business, effectively freeing employees to focus on vital, business-related tasks. Hosting IT service through a Cloud Service Provider delivers on-demand access to the most advanced technology without the headache and overhead of provisioning, managing and maintaining it. Whether you would like to decouple or outsource a specific business IT component or your entire IT infrastructure, Cloud Computing is a viable option that brings an unprecedented level of cost savings and simplicity.