Is it only about the cloud?
We can accurately say that the cloud has changed the way we interact with technology. Its a key enabler in what you might call 'the IT landscape'; it's there when we need it, it's cost effective, and every day we're finding new and interesting ways to make it better.
Although we refer to the 'IT industry' as its own independent market, it really spans all industries, underpinning the operation of all businesses. It's simply become a quicker and easier way for all businesses to achieve their strategic goals and day-to-day tasks.
So, isn't 'the cloud' just a tool in the belt of the information technology industry? Yep.
A true cloud solution is really an ecosystem of technologies. Its the marriage of software, infrastructure and then a delivery of a measurable outcome of business benefit. This is the only reason why we should look towards cloud services - a place for our business functions to operate, however and whenever they need to.
Questions are then raised; How do you build your business case for cloud? How do you really know if a cloud-based solution is right for you and how do you know if it's even possible? What do you need to do and how on earth do you do it? Hard questions.
Best way to build your business case is to start with the outcome and work backwards. Think about what you're trying to accomplish, find a technology partner that efficiently services that outcome. Make sure that partner provides you with a holistic solution and then make sure they're 100% accountable for that cloud service. You don't want to be a victim of a reseller outage.
If you look at the number of vendors that actually provide end-to-end solutions you might start to wonder why they are few and far between, And to be brutally honest with you - it's really hard to be responsible for all aspects of a complex solution. You need experts for everything from accessibility to architecture, from search to support. Finding a single technology partner that can juggle all of those responsibilities is rare, finding one that also creates the underlying cloud is extremely rare.
At Squiz we've been able to build an international cloud offering, But it's not all about the cloud. We've been able to create a fantastic suite of products, but that's not the key either. We've been able to build amazingly talented teams of highly skilled professionals, however, it's not only about our people.
It's about how it is all sewn up to deliver your outcome.Nothing else. We are accountable for your end result, and all of the bits and pieces, all of the responsibility, all of the time.
So we'll ask you again, is it only about the cloud? Probably not.