As cloud computing is currently enjoying a wave of global discourse by the business community, it is projected that more and more businesses are adopting cloud computing services as the preferred way to do business. Senior Vice President of Research for Gartner, Mr. Peter Sondergaard claims that cloud computing sits among the top four trends that will change IT in the next few years. It is no secret that any business outfit that is still reluctant in the adoption of this technology is losing out on a lot of benefits. The early adopters, furthermore, are not sitting pretty and enjoying these benefits but rather are looking for more effective ways that they can harness for a more competitive edge in their field of business
Competitiveness is often acquired when a business attains an upper hand through practices or resources that will outperform its competitors. These practices, strategies or resources are those that will save the company money in cost reduction, those that will improve effectiveness and or increase revenue. Any business can indeed achieve competitiveness through strategic exploitation of cloud features as follows;
Cost Reduction
To ensure a higher ROI, which is a realization of your competitive edge, you ought to reduce costs as much as possible. The first cost that cloud computing will help hive off is the “cost of ownership” or the capital expenditure; the setting up and the maintenance of servers, physical space and staff.
This reduces significantly the need for a humongous capital base and ensures that small enterprises can go up against bigger businesses with bigger capital bases and still claim a competitive muscle. Cloud computing also ensures that businesses pay only for what they use and utilize through the ‘pay as you go’ feature of cloud computing.
Information & business scalability
To be competitive in the current market environment one needs relevant information; the correct data, forecasts and analysis that will help them make strategic decisions. The business may not have the necessary hardware and algorithms to access, tabulate and utilize such data but they can easily and cheaply access them through cloud Service Providers. Such data may include data on customer/consumer demographics or “socialknowledge” that will give you a competitive edge in terms of better market intelligence.
Depending on the current need, a company can keep up with the competition through the ability to easily and cheaply scale up or down-size their systems to fit instant or essential market conditions. This hassle-free scalability could not be achieved without employing the magic of the cloud.
Flexible working practices
There is a generational and perceptional change in modern day working practices where employees tend to be more productive when placed in flexible working environments like working from home or at their own time.
When Google launched Google Docs, it broke ground in the world of file sharing and document accessibility. This allowed anybody with an account access to a cloud ‘storage’ or virtual office facility where they can keep their presentations, spreadsheets and other office documents. This flexibility in access means that your employees can work from their preferred environments. They get increased internal and external coactions coupled with quick universal access for improved productivity.
The environment is also crucial because there is an increasing universal pressure on environmental concerns. There are a lot of people now with changed or changing perceptions when it comes to environmental sensitivity. Businesses can achieve a competitive advantage by addressing these concerns. You can go “green” with cloud computing as it cuts down your carbon emission by reducing the need for massive energy usage in the data centers.
By John Omwamba