Blue-sky thinking on Cloud Computing. A new series of three focused articles from Fifosys – demystifying the rhetoric on Cloud Computing  

The benefits  

Yes, the Cloud concept of hosted environments can deliver significant benefits for your business – and this is why we think so
by Mitesh Patel,
managing director, Fifosys Limited 

We know about clouds. They’re fluffy, with undefined borders; they change shape constantly; they drift with the wind; they’re difficult to pin down. “Clouding the issue” or “head in the clouds” are not the most sought-after characteristics of successful business or IT management.   
Business likes certainty.  It likes definition and boundaries. It thrives on solid foundations, plans and controls, minimal risk, common purpose and direction. 
We’re confident that Cloud computing can help you achieve all of those objectives.  We appreciate, however, the natural concern of any business owner, finance director or IT manager that handing your data, systems and applications over to something as seemingly nebulous as a cloud could be seen as fraught with danger for your business and IT environment. 
Firstly, then, some definitions: Cloud computing refers to services hosted by a third party that enable you to deliver your business-critical applications to your users, customers and suppliers over the Internet on an ‘access-anywhere’ basis.  Cloud computing isn’t new technology as such, but it represents a new way of collating and delivering computing resources.  From billing to Blackberries, from payroll to payloads, every service that can be managed in an IT environment can be hosted for you in a Cloud environment. 
Next, how does a Cloud environment add value to your business? 
Among the benefits: flexibility, scalability, “access-anywhere”, reliability,  ease of administration – and a significant opportunity to reduce single points of failure in your IT environment
A major benefit of this approach is that you can increase the flexibility and scalability of all your IT-related services, reduce your hardware infrastructure and storage requirements and optimise your physical and virtual space overheads. 
You pay only for resources you need and can pay incrementally without having to make upfront investment in infrastructure and applications; a ‘pay as you go’ approach that supports your business growth plans as well as fluctuations in demand.  
In a hosted environment, new releases, patches and upgrades to hardware, software and applications can be applied centrally without the need for multi-site visits.  Reducing or eliminating multiple workstation installations and upgrades maximises consistency across your user base and promotes data integrity and transferability.
You can also trial new applications and test the business benefits before committing to a full implementation and roll-out. This gives you greater scope to investigate the feasibility of applications while minimising risk and disruption to your business.     
“Access-anywhere” facilities support multi-office environments and your users on the road or at home, while also minimising risks for you as your business grows and during relocation programmes.
A major business advantage of a properly-managed hosted environment is the reduction in single points of failure. The right supplier will make sure your business continuity is covered by providing power supplies, internet access and infrastructure on what is known as an “n+1” arrangement which simply means there’s always a spare device in case of any hardware failure.
In summary, for all sizes of business, there’s a clear advantage in having your applications hosted on high-powered servers that are properly managed, optimised and centrally upgraded to new release levels, without having to deliver, control and upgrade that IT environment yourself.  
What about downside risks?  By divesting the onerous responsibilities you don’t want or can’t manage, you are free to focus on your core business but are you potentially compromising your data integrity, your system security, your confidential business data?  In Article 2 we take a look at some of the concerns you may have and explain how we minimise or eliminate any risks.   
All things considered – our view: shining a light through the Cloud
We like the Cloud. Our clients like the Cloud. They like the way it offers fast, on-demand services without the need for long-term commitment in resources and applications.  They like the way it supports their mobile employees as well as office-based teams.  They like its flexibility and the opportunities for them to grow and enhance their IT services portfolio at low risk.  So yes, we all know about fluffy, drifting clouds – but as long as we’re talking about properly-managed environments hosted by a reliable, expert supplier, we believe this Cloud can deliver some serious benefits to your business IT environment. 

Coming up next in our series “Blue-sky thinking on Cloud Computing”
Article 2:  Exploring any risks from the Cloud approach and – most importantly – the risks of ignoring the Cloud