Searching for competitive advantage? It’s in the clouds

By 2016, cloud will matter more to business leaders than to IT. In fact, cloud’s strategic importance to business leaders is poised to double from 34 percent to 72 percent – blowing past their IT counterparts at 58 percent.

 

Why? It’s about beating the competition.

New research from IBM—involving more than 800 cloud decision makers and users – shows that cloud can deliver far more than just efficiency. Pacesetting organizations are using cloud to gain competitive advantage – through strategic business reinvention, better decisions and deeper collaboration. And they have the business results to show for it.

One out of five organizations has discovered a secret source of competitive differentiation. It allows them to serve customers in new ways, reimagine their business models, surface valuable insights and transform how they make decisions. And one more thing: It helps these Pacesetters grow revenue and gross profit faster than other organizations.

What’s their secret? It’s cloud computing – their engine for growth.

Pacesetter organizations have recognized the value of cloud – and asked the right questions to get help getting there. In “Creating a cloud computing strategy First in a series: Your roadmap to cloud adoption”, IBM shares the considerations for establishing a proactive, effective approach to cloud computing that is tailored to your organization – including re-evaluating how cloud computing can transform your business and utilizing cloud to gain strategic advantage.

For the first time, Chief executive officers are identifying “technology” as the number-one factor they see impacting the success of their businesses — and cloud is one of the key elements that will help move IT from service provider to strategic enabler. Based on IBM’s experience in assisting clients with the development of cloud strategies that support critical business transformations, this white paper will help answer questions such as:

• How do you prepare for the arrival of cloud computing?
• What considerations should a cloud computing strategy address?
• How do we utilize cloud to gain strategic advantage?