Cloud computing will have the same impact on the computer industry that the PC did thirty years ago, putting pressure on IT departments to adapt and evolve to this fact. The major challenge facing them is that their consumers, whether they are individual users or business units, can and will get their applications from the cloud if they feel it offers a better experience and/or bang for the buck.
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loud vendors will be employing extreme economies of scale and an attractive "pay as you go - for as much as you use" billing model. I recently attended a workshop for IT planners on how to evolve their departments to an IT services broker model, a hybrid solution that allows them to offer the best of both worlds.
The new role of IT will be to source and deliver value. IT will have to work much more closely, more collaboratively with the lines of business and business functions. IT’s job will be to ascertain how eachtechnology-enabled service, calibrated to each business outcome, is designed, sourced, delivered, and measured.
It’s really all about the value of the service. IT must manage a hybrid mix of services, from different sources. They must weigh the value of each service, factoring risk, security, data architecture and integration, process, cost, reliability and availability. Each service needs to be fit for purpose.
IT can’t call all the shots, and the LOBs can’t go off and make their own decisions on tech-enabled services. Governance and business relationship management will be critical for enterprise IT. With more complex channels and supply chains, IT will need to be more savvy, more aware, more open, and more agile.
Lee Kedrie from HP ran our workshop and below is a video explaining the process he took us through. I recommend this one day workshop for any IT planner wanting to understand the impact of cloud computing and the process to adapt your IT department to deal with it.
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