As Cloud Computing continues to evolve, a pattern is starting to emerge where the end user is becoming empowered. As more workers take advantage of being able to bring mobile devices into the work environment (BYOD), the IT department can not only offer greater flexibility but have also begun to look at how they can better optimize the end-user experience.
Cloud computing will spawn more user-centric technologies, building from the consumerisation of IT, an increase in remote users and more open attitudes to flexible work habits. In today’s connected world, businesses have to allow users to connect to the office from virtually anywhere and any device. To support these goals, providers of cloud infrastructure need to ensure that their offering is more client-aware.
With Bring your own Cloud (BYOC) hot on the rise, employees of the business are using public or private third-party cloud services to execute certain business functions, often entwining consumer and enterprise software, on site and in the cloud, in order to facilitate business users access to critical information and systems.
IT departments are finding the need to integrate both BYOD and BYOC into their corporate IT strategies and to include mobile device management and centralized integrated management tools that are geared towards providing simple solutions for the end-user. It will be interesting to see if most companies can get it right. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan’s Global Enterprise Cloud Computing Market Survey — An End-user Perspective, finds that the cost-effectiveness and scalability of the cloud are key factors driving its use among enterprises.
In the United Kingdom and the United States many businesses are perceived as keen to deploy cloud solutions, but Western European countries such as France and Germany cite security and safety concerns as the reason for holding back.
“Organisations are willing to adapt to evolving consumer needs in order to strengthen their position in the market, and cloud systems are viewed as a catalyst that could enable positive change and impact external customers” said Frost & Sullivan’s Shuba Ramkumar. “However, the availability of numerous cloud offerings in the market, ambiguity regarding choice of cloud models, and the process involved in cloud transition complicate the decision-making process.”
The report suggests that enterprise attitudes vary between different regions and verticals, and that cloud vendors need to tailor their cloud services accordingly. They will all need to remember that “what really counts is access to information and experience as opposed to the systems that get you to it”. As Jo Radcliffe suggests, when it comes to accessing these end user technologies, there should not be a learning curve as ultimately it can result in downtime.
About
Jo is more interested in people and how they live their lives than in the technology itself. Before entering the IT space she spent the previous 20 years in the design industry as part of Arper SpA, a leading international design furniture manufacturer. She is passionate about transforming workspaces and the way people spend their working lives.
Now the MD of 404 team, a company that specializes in virtual desktop technology, her vision is to set companies free from the ball and chain of PCs on desks and to remove the worry of IT from SMEs.
About the Beyond Cloud series
Taking a conversational, interactive approach, we pose four broad but critical questions on the issues impacting businesses today to perspectives including Technologists, Strategists, Users, CEOs, Marketers and other Business and Thought Leaders across the sector. Each session begins with positioning our guest, by means of what Cloud means to their role and their business – either the delivery or use of cloud – including views on the risks and the opportunities. The conversations – each unique but overlapping as a result of the various points of view on offer – then move to the outcomes and the promise of this technology and, from there, where and when regulation and standards should (or shouldn’t) come into play. We close with their views on what this cloud thing really means and where it is might take us, going forward.
The nature of our guests and the variety of discussion provides a broad set of insights which in whole or in part promises to deliver some clarity and a framework for understanding of the impact of cloud technology to all audiences. We welcome your comments and feedback.
Produced by IntelligentHQ, hosted by Groupe INSEEC London and presented by Daniel Steeves, Beyond Cloud is a “mostly pitch-free” environment: discussions will necessarily include product and company references but, hopefully, used to illustrate rather than to sell.
Daniel is a management consultant with Beyond Solutions Ltd. More a realist than a futurist, Daniel Steeves advises SMEs to transform and grow their businesses – and enable a different way of thinking – both as a Partner with James Caan’s Advisory Business as well as independently across the Digital, Social, Technology and IT sectors. Daniel is a growth-focused change agent with thirty years leading, brokering, designing and selling complex programmes. He collaborates at C-level, adding experience and perspective to fine-tune what your business says and does (and sells and delivers) with a focus on profitable, sustainable growth.
