Using cloud computing to make companies aware of cost savings and increased profits

Whether you should migrate your enterprise it to the cloud is a difficult decision. After all, this means that the purchase and delivery of raw materials for IT products and services will be completely changed. However, many companies are willing to try, at least for some features. A recent CDW survey of 1242 IT professionals found that more than half of the companies were moving their capabilities to cloud computing, and most were aware of cost savings and increased profits.

"These findings are a good indicator of cloud computing deployment and the benefits of cloud computing," said John Engates, chief technology officer at Rackspace hosting, "which can save money for businesses while boosting their profits." ”

Rackspace recently worked with Manchester Business School and independent market research firm Vanson Bourne to investigate 1300 companies in the US and UK.

The survey found that 88% of cloud users said cloud computing could save costs, while 56% per cent thought cloud services could help them raise profits. In addition, 60% of respondents said cloud computing reduced the need for their IT teams to maintain their infrastructure, giving them more time to focus on strategy and innovation. In fact, 62% of the cost-saving companies put the money into cloud computing to increase headcount, raise wages and promote product innovation.

"This study shows the significant impact that cloud computing has on UK and US companies," Engates said, "and it is particularly interesting that half of the companies are increasing profits and developing their businesses by using cloud computing, despite the continuing economic downturn." This includes investing in increasing staff and wages, and promoting further innovation. ”

Transfer storage and collaboration applications to cloud computing

According to CDW, the level of service or application that companies move to cloud computing depends to a large extent on the size of the business and the industry. For example, storage is the primary service for 40% of small businesses and 35% of midsize enterprises, and large enterprises and the federal government will first consider moving conference and collaboration applications to cloud computing (40% and 39%, respectively). Companies also move communications, office and production kits, business process applications, and so on to cloud computing.

However, according to cloud users interviewed by CDW, reducing it operating costs is just one of the benefits of cloud computing. In fact, companies that deploy and maintain cloud computing also point out that cloud computing can help increase efficiency (55%), improve employee mobility (49%), improve innovation (32%), and allow current IT staff time to work on other projects (31%). Lower it operating costs fifth place in cloud computing benefits (25%).

Calculate the return on investment in cloud computing

When you try to calculate the return on investment in cloud computing (ROI), you need to consider factors related to your enterprise application portfolio and specific computing needs, says Paul Croteau, a Rackspace Corporate solutions engineer.

First, your ROI analysis should take into account a wide range of factors, such as the cost per unit of computing power, the need to redesign applications to run in a cloud environment, and intangible assets (such as time).

"Moving to cloud computing also adds several factors to consider for this ROI formula, such as capital acquisitions, software licensing and depreciation," says Croteau. "For example, in a cloud computing platform, users only pay for the services they use, and, through the transparency of cloud providers, You can see what services you are paying for. Another cost benefit of the scale of cloud computing is the ability to quickly expand and shrink. ”

"Cloud computing can bring significant ROI, in terms of energy, licensing and management costs, and cloud computing can release money and people to further innovate," Croteau added, "Moving to cloud computing is a transformative investment, but it is also a valuable investment for many companies." ”

Develop a cloud roadmap

CDW provides the following recommendations for the enterprise to develop a cloud roadmap:

Carefully analyze the benefits and costs of cloud computing and then choose a cloud strategy that conforms to the enterprise IT Service implementation model.

First consider moving services that do not pose an unacceptable risk to the enterprise to cloud computing, which is not a business-critical service and has low deployment complexity (for example, storage, unified communications, and Office production applications).

Leverage your users ' familiarity with consumer-level cloud products to maximize success from cloud computing deployments.

Independent software vendors will quickly introduce new functionality into the marketplace through cloud computing applications, so businesses should keep track of these changes closely.

Start planning today to understand the internal "service costs" of each application, which will help determine the ROI of the public cloud computing solution.

Then work with cloud vendors to check service levels and safety standards in the contract.

Work with software licensing experts to clarify and resolve issues that affect applications that you want to move to the cloud