Key challenges to enterprise cloud adoption

Cloud computing has transformed the essence of information technology. Explained simply, cloud is the shift away from ‘computing as a product’ to ‘computing as a service’ where consumers receive information over the internet from large-scale data centres - or ‘clouds’.

The genesis of cloud can be traced to the very beginnings of computing. Building on cloud concepts of centralised investments, shared resources and efficient distribution, cloud computing has developed into a multibillion-dollar industry. Widespread acceptance, however, has faltered due to crucial security concerns and associated issues. The growth and triggers for cloud migration are widely discussed - what we need to examine and evaluate are the challenges of enterprise cloud adoption.

Enterprise cloud adoption

The realignment of an enterprise’s application platforms from dedicated, individually managed, inflexible machines to a flexible, scalable model of requirement-based usage has reinvented traditional IT services. Consider the following example: a mining giant with great industry expertise and proficiency, located in Australia or on the African continent, adopts a cloud-based services strategy. By doing so, the company alleviates the burden of ownership of non-core mining assets and instead focuses on services-based provisioning of solutions to the business.

Enterprise cloud adoption enables businesses to use non-real-time solutions such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and graphical and spatial information systems (GIS) messaging. Cloud adoption also offers enterprises greater mobility by allowing them to plan and schedule work and share business intelligence outside of the office.

For smaller enterprises, cloud computing decreases cost outlay by enabling businesses to address assorted business needs via enterprise-class applications.

Larger spenders, however, may not see such cost benefits since they already have economies of scale.

Key challenges

At some point we all have discussed how IT and business will be transformed with the adoption of a cloud solution. Even though there is little doubt over cloud’s potential to improve business, there is still concern over how businesses can overcome the various stumbling blocks.

Cost is a major factor in the transformational journey. Let us take a closer look at what may be described as the ‘enterprise cloud dream’.

When a banking major from Southeast Asia or Southern Africa agrees to adopt cloud, the decision comes with risks and benefits. While adopting a public cloud strategy may give it a firmer footing in front of fierce competition of m-banking solutions, PayPal and others, it may not be suitable as an internal IT option because of the security risks.

An organisation needs to consider how to align business IT needs with the cloud adoption model. The hybrid cloud strategy is one solution. In our hypothetical bank’s case, computing capabilities and resources are owned and maintained by both the bank and the cloud provider. By mixing private and public cloud hybrid services, a business can mitigate risk with a balanced approach as per the business requirement.

Cloud implementation can benefit fast-growing enterprises. An Australian retail chain that aims to expand business to a few hundred stores could potentially streamline efficiency, increase productivity and enhance the company’s IT services by adopting cloud technologies.

An organisation must understand that cloud adoption needs to be integrated at every stage of the enterprise’s expansion plans. If scaling demands are only developed at the drawing board level, cloud may present an architectural challenge to business IT. To avert this danger, an organisation must list needs on a micro level of application usability. This will provide a better picture of how future cloud usability will impact business at every strategic level.

Cost-effective IT

Cloud computing can help organisations reduce fixed IT costs by shifting expenses from capital to operational costs. IT capital expenses typically include enterprise software licences, servers and networking equipment. These costs tend to be less fluid, more expensive and harder to forecast than routine IT operating expenses. With cloud applications, there may no longer be any need to build hardware, install software or pay dedicated software licence fees. Adopting cloud services can allow an enterprise to shift costs from capital to operational or from fixed to variable.

Cloud as enabler

By delivering standardised and well-understood processes that streamline and speed up operations, cloud enables organisations to be more agile and elastic with their IT needs. Standardising and automating the processes and service offerings will help organisations gain the ‘speed’ advantage of the cloud in the long term. Cloud, as most suspected, is not just an IT cost-saving option, but rather technology that is transforming Business IT to Business Aligned IT.

*Pradeep Bindal is President HCL Technologies - APAC and MEA.