by Rob Llewellyn
I’ve explored a number of cloud computing solutions over the last few years, most recently Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, document management and project management. As most agree, no business can optimize their marketing without CRM, whether it’s an Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft CRM, SalesForce or Zoho, etc.
For me, the benefits of a cloud solution far out-weigh the alternative of hosting it yourself. Perhaps this is better backed up by the success of SalesForce in recent years. The move to the cloud is happening very fast. GMA is utilizing Zoho as its CRM tool, simply because many of the features they were looking for in SalesForce were being offered on Zoho at a lower cost.
Getting back to the cloud, and by the way Gartner has cast a big heavy grey one over the survival of IT departments over the next few years. In a Gartner recent report, they stated that Cloud computing is set to become so pervasive that by 2012, one out of five businesses will own no IT assets at all.
I suppose one can have their head in the clouds and ignore this prediction or heed and embrace change, even if it’s only to embrace the private cloud model – a compromise perhaps?
Ask most cloud solution providers and they will inevitably tell you that some of the main reasons to embrace the cloud include the following:
- Delivering Faster Time to Value
- Requiring No Up-Front Capital Expense
- Minimizing Operational Costs
- Requiring Fewer Technical Resources
- Simplifying Integration
Interestingly, two other Gartner predictions are that by 2012, India-centric IT services companies will represent 20 percent of the leading cloud aggregators in the market, and by 2014, most IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs.
On a lighter note, Gartner also predicts that by 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialization.
Read more articles by Rob Llewellyn at the GMA blog http://www.gma.ae.
