As the pace of business intensifies, many organizations are considering a setup in which they focus on key operational areas and let third-party specialists take care of the many “nitty gritty” operational details, many of which can eat up gobs of time. This change can come out of a methodical weighing of the pros and cons, but most often comes because the company realizes that, to have success and be agile going forward, it has no other choice.
There is nothing overly complex about the concept of managed cloud, which obeys the truth that every cloud must be actively (and well) managed by someone or something. Like almost anything in life — your car, your house, your health — managed cloud is not self-powered; it will not manage or maintain itself. This fact leaves companies with two options when it comes to cloud:
- It can do everything itself. It can put up the capital to bring in and train individuals.
- It can work with a trusted technology partner to manage all or part of its cloud.
The second option is, of course, managed cloud, which lets companies effectively have their cake and eat it too — to access the power and potential of cloud computing without having to bear the burden of working to become proficient in everything.
Organizations using managed cloud are free to direct more energy and thought to matters of core business such as developing new products and seeking out and building relationships with new customers. Companies that get to this point are in an enviable position indeed; they are lean and agile, and do not have to put up mountains of capital on needless bloat in the form of engineers, system admins, and other IT experts.
Ideally, managed cloud creates a strong partnership between a service provider and an organization, one in which the former brings cloud tech, infrastructure, and expertise, allowing the latter to keep in hand the reins of control and oversight of application performance.
It is possible for companies working with a “nice fit” managed cloud service provider to derive a number of key benefits, including:
- Minimize capital investment in IT infrastructure and the need to build out data center facilities
- Eliminate the need to hire or train specialized IT staff for each application and system
- Ensure consistent, predictable application performance
- Protect data with security measures that might not be affordable in the private data center
- Align costs with usage, avoiding over-provisioning for peak times
- Manage against service level agreements that ensure you will get the outcomes you need
Managed cloud is not some thin, fly-by-night trend that will fade away any time soon. In fact, a MarketsandMarkets™ report has the managed cloud market more than doubling between 2017 and 2022 — from USD 27.15 billion to USD 53.78 billion, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of almost 15 per cent.
Organizations today must be agile and must be speedy in their technology deployments. On this level alone, there should be very little argument against making use of managed cloud services. However, not all CFOs are green-lighting these deployments. Some are on the fence while others are approaching the idea as a skeptic. This can create a chasm of sorts between CFOs and CIOs, who, while sharing a mutual goal of doing what is best for the organization, nonetheless approach managed cloud from different starting points. This chasm could potentially be bridged if focus is placed on the business value of managed cloud; from this, both parties could (and already have in many companies) arrive at the same conclusion: that managed cloud is the best choice for the company.
Click on this link to read “Are Cloud Managed Services the Right Financial Choice for your Business?”
