Business Owners and IT Departments Need to Agree on a Cloud Solution
Cloud computing is everywhere, yet there are still plenty of businesses that haven’t migrated to the cloud or adopted cloud services. In many cases, this is due to business owners and IT departments not being on the same page when it comes to cloud computing.
It’s common for business owners to be sold on some big promises about the cloud, as presented by marketing materials that stress value and ROI. IT administrators might not be so anxious to migrate to the cloud; due to the fact that, from their point of view, the cloud represents major changes to their IT infrastructure. Granted, there are cases where the reverse scenario is true, and there are other reasons why a business may be hesitant to adopt cloud computing, but for the sake of this article, let’s elaborate further on the business owner being pro-cloud while facing resistance from their IT department.
Cloud Computing Benefits Sold to Business Owners
For a business owner looking to leverage technology in order to streamline operations and gain a competitive edge, the benefits of cloud computing are very attractive. According to InformationWeek, here are three of the top cloud benefits that have business owners rapidly adopting the technology:
- Business leaders see improved speed to market.
- The ability to rent instead of own, especially as things relate to new ventures that might not be permanent.
- The ability to rent infrequently used assets (like those for disaster recovery).
- Self preservation: "Why should I support something that's going to put me out of a job?" Developers obviously don't feel this way. But folks responsible for racking-and-stacking? Of course they feel threatened by work being done in an Amazon or Google data center.
- Span of control: Being responsible for outsourced infrastructure makes people feel like they're getting in trouble for someone else's mistake when that infrastructure is unavailable.
- Disbelief: The line of thinking here is, "This is just a fad, it's not really going to help us, and we'll go to a lot of trouble for nothing."