How is the cloud going to affect our business?
The cloud. This appropriately named solution is starting to look like a very attractive proposition for many businesses out there and with good reason too.
Anyone that works within the IT Industry will be well aware of their competitors and their activities on the internet. I work in the IT Support Sector and it has become apparent that everyone is now placing a lot of weight on the cloud sector online, with many businesses starting to increase the amount of online activity that advertises their ‘hosted’ cloud based solutions. It is interesting to see that many companies out there are starting to place videos on their websites which explain how cloud computing works, either via a tutorial or by an animated cartoon. There are some great examples out there actually; I encourage you to take a look.
Why are IT Companies prioritising cloud based solutions? The answer to this is simple, cloud computing is the future of IT, or so it seems at the moment. If companies are going to start moving away from in-house solutions then there will be less of a need for in-house network support and more of a requirement for cloud based solutions which will take over. These solutions will typically include Hosted Desktop which provides a comprehensive ‘all in one’ solution to replace your entire IT Network, Hosted exchange, which is basically replacing your in-house exchange server with a cloud based solution and Hosted SharePoint.
Then there are the other cloud based solutions we don’t always think of such as Online Backup. I read an excellent article the other day about online backup and why it is so important to make sure that your business data is backed up. You often hear a bit of scaremongering going about in order to encourage people to purchase solutions such as these, but I actually do know someone that had to fold their business because they lost everything in a building fire, and no one had bothered to take a backup tape home. There is no excuse for companies not to implement a backup solution in my opinion. In the past it was expensive, especially if you had a lot of data to backup, but now you can use an online solution for peanuts, I am £10.00 a month upwards!! At least you know that you can continue to trade should the worst happen.
The cloud is going to affect many people’s lives. In the long term it could cost the IT Services industry dearly and I can foresee a couple of small companies going to the wall. I definitely think you will see a reduction in jobs across the industry if the cloud sector continues to grow.
However, things come and go, and while I am not suggesting the cloud is a fad, it could be that people eventually come ‘full circle’ and loose interest or trust in the idea of hosting all of their important data externally. It wouldn’t be the first time that we have seen such a shift in the industry, and it won’t be the last.
