Discover the secrets of the Cloud

Cloud computing for enterprises, not only to reduce the efficiency, elastic expansion and other technical aspects of value, it has become the enterprise to accelerate the formation of differentiated competitiveness, maintain the competitive advantage of the key. This is the view of IBM's recent white Paper on cloud computing, the secret of discovering clouds, 2013. The white paper was developed after a survey of more than 800 cloud-computing decision makers and customers around the world. As we all know, the cloud has gradually taken root and its value in it has been widely recognized. In fact, the value of the cloud for business is far beyond the IT category.

Cloud computing stimulates business value

"The Internet industry, especially the gaming industry, needs a very flat product development cycle," he said. One of our clients has four teams for mobile game research and development, which can be evaluated at any time and will soon be eliminated if it is not adapted to rapidly changing terminal requirements. In fact, a lot of game items have not yet met with end users have been eliminated. After using cloud computing, the customer no longer needs to have separate IT resources for each development project, on average, each eliminated project costs less than $ one thousand or two thousand in it, dramatically compressing the cost of trial and error, and improving efficiency so that each project can complete all of its work within three months and be marketed. ”

At the "2013 IBM CIO Leadership Forum" (hereinafter referred to as the forum), the chief operating officer of the Beijing Capital Online Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the capital online) Zhaoyongzhi shared the case that they brought real benefits to customers through cloud computing. This benefit enhances the competitiveness of companies in the face of rapidly changing market conditions.

The white paper points out that companies that deploy cloud computing on a large scale are twice times more likely to use cloud computing businesses cautiously and earn nearly 2.5 times times as much. Through cloud computing, companies have increased their competitive edge. Cloud computing helps companies achieve outstanding financial performance, while the flexibility of cloud computing allows enterprises to be more flexible and comfortable in market-oriented and competitive.

Another case shared by Zhaoyongzhi is from the Kunlun game. The Kunlun game leverages the capital's online cloud services to quickly occupy the market, while avoiding the risk of IT equipment investment brought about by market uncertainties. "The Kunlun game acquired the South Korea's RO Fairyland legend network game, the plan pushes to the domestic market." According to calculate, on-line this game service, the Kunlun game needs 1.35 million yuan it hardware input, as well as 540,000 Yuan data center rental investment. The decision makers of the Kunlun game later opted to adopt cloud computing, mainly because the game was older, and they feared that the game would not be approved after it was launched. "By using the cloud services provided by the capital Online, the Kunlun game only needs to invest about 50,000 yuan a month," Zhaoyongzhi. As a result, the number of users of this classic game has grown rapidly, gaining good market feedback. The Kunlun game has benefited from this project, while also using cloud computing to evade risk. ”

According to the white paper, nearly one-fifth of companies have achieved a significant competitive advantage by applying cloud computing, not just using cloud computing to reduce costs or improve efficiency. 18% of companies surveyed are deploying cloud computing to enhance their core competitive edge and become cloud-computing application-led enterprises. These businesses are growing faster than other businesses.

Three major ways to use cloud computing

If cloud has become a powerful weapon to enhance the competitiveness of the enterprise, how can the cloud be applied to perfection? How does cloud-leading companies do it?

Yu Zhongning, general manager of cloud computing and management services at IBM's Global IT services division, said companies should use cloud computing to drive strategic change, make more accurate decisions and engage in deeper collaboration to gain a competitive advantage.

The white paper shows that cloud-leading companies are generally advocating the rebuilding of customer relationships through cloud computing, rapid product and service innovation, and new or optimized business models to drive strategic change. The likelihood of a leading enterprise using cloud to implement customer relationship change is 136% higher than that of simply applying cloud computing. More than half of the leading companies say they have changed their business model and achieved faster product and service innovation through cloud computing.

For example, the Hong Kong TP Vision Company uses cloud computing to build a new intelligent TV entertainment interactive platform, with IBM's help to form a data analysis based on customer insights and personalized customer experience. Target Corporation, the second largest consumer goods retailer in the United States, also uses cloud computing to accurately grasp customer needs and expectations and achieve accurate marketing decisions.

Every decision of the high level of enterprise is related to the survival of the enterprise, and cloud computing provides a strong support for the high-level decision-making of the enterprise. The white paper shows that in order to overcome competitors in strategic decisions by tapping unique insights, cloud-leading companies are nearly 3 times times more likely to use cloud-based analytics to tap into the value of large data than other companies. In addition, cloud computing can inspire new insights and support more accurate decisions by weaving data together. It is with this advantage that leading companies are twice times more likely to use cloud computing to share data across applications than other businesses.

In addition to integrating data, cloud-leading companies are using cloud computing to build relational networks. 60% of them represent a higher level of collaboration through the cloud. The willingness of leading companies to use the cloud to find and use the expertise of their ecosystems is 79% higher than the cautious application of cloud computing, enabling them to benefit from scale and specialization.

Fully build cloud capabilities

The White paper notes that business leaders ' perceptions of the importance of cloud computing strategy will grow from 34% to 72% in the next 3 years, or more than 58% of the IT department. This is enough to show that the value of cloud computing for the enterprise has gone beyond it, and that corporate executives and business departments are rapidly increasing their knowledge of the value of cloud computing.

Cloud computing is such a huge value, highly valued and rapid development of the market. In the face of it, IBM obviously will not stand idly by. IBM's leadership is beyond doubt in the private cloud market, and IBM's strength is emerging this year in China's public-sector cloud market.

In July this year, IBM announced a long-term strategic cooperation agreement with the capital to sign the public cloud, and launched a comprehensive strategic partnership in the public cloud to build a common cloud platform. The platform is based on IBM's world-leading enterprise-class public cloud platform technology and operational experience, the introduction of the latest technology such as IBM Pureflex, and for Chinese enterprises to upgrade and optimize the actual needs, is a highly available, high-performance, more suitable for Chinese enterprises to use the public cloud platform. This is the first time that IBM has worked with partners in China to provide a cloud computing solution spanning the design, construction, and operation of the entire lifecycle service, covering the cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). IBM not only undertakes the design, development and construction of the platform, but also fully participates in the management of the platform after its completion.

It is reported that the capital online will absorb IBM in the cloud computing advanced technology and industry experience; IBM plans to rely on the capital's online service capabilities to quickly enter the Chinese public cloud market, and expand the Internet industry customer relations.

"We have to consider long-term strategic partnerships and consider the best time to provide public cloud services to the Chinese market," said Luo Ruiyi, general manager of IBM Greater China Global information technology services. "In Luo Ruiyi's view, the current Chinese public cloud market is still fragmented, with providers offering only one part of the functionality, while IBM offers a fully functional, truly enterprise-class cloud service to its customers."

Zhaoyongzhi that enterprise-class cloud computing should have the characteristics of large-scale, scalable, high elasticity and super stability.

Meanwhile, IBM acquired the global public cloud service provider SoftLayer this year. At present, IBM is doing its best to consolidate cloud capabilities based on SoftLayer. SoftLayer has 21,000 customers in 140 countries worldwide. It is the original triple network architecture seamless integration of bare metal servers, virtual server instances and private cloud, and at the same level of control to provide external services.

"As the global leader in cloud computing, IBM is the only company that has the same technical capabilities in both private and public clouds, allowing customers to move easily between different modes as needed." Tao, general manager of IBM Greater China Vice president and Global Information Technology Services Division, said IBM's capabilities are not only embodied in cloud computing, but also in the integration of cloud computing, large data analysis, mobile technology, and social commerce.