Seven Steps to Greater ROI in the Cloud

Peter Job, CEO at Intergence, the leading IT Optimisation Consultancy, has outlined seven steps that he believes are crucial to tracking and improving Cloud performance.

A recent report by industry analysts, IDC, Quantitative Estimates of the Demand of Cloud Computing in Europe and the likely barriers to uptake1 has highlighted the unresolved issues that are holding Europe
back from taking up Cloud Computing; these include security, cost benefits, performance and legal and compliance issues.

However, the report also showed that as a result of adopting Cloud Computing, 80% of organisations reduce costs by 10-20%, with other benefits including enhanced mobile working (46%), productivity (41%), standardisation (35%), as well as new business opportunities (33%) and markets (32%).

Peter comments:

“Despite the proven benefits, business Cloud adoption in Europe is still lagging behind the US by around two years. The key thing to getting the greatest ROI from your Cloud-based services is to check whether they are performing better or worse since migration and to do this, you need:
1. Good analytics – Understand how your applications are performing and what the end user experience is. Ensure you can rapidly identify any sources of impairment to user experience.
2. Process – Do not implement additional services without first understanding the impact they may have on the existing ones.
3. Innovation – don’t be afraid to experiment with technologies such as WAN Optimisation to improve performance from the cloud to the user.
4. Partner SLAs – the 3rd way – Ensure your applications perform as expected by requiring your provider to guarantee minimum levels of service.
5. Continuous improvement – Always look for ways in which to improve the existing service by identification of impairments and new technologies.
6. Scaling ability of your management tools – plan for growth, can your existing management tools support the networks of the future?
7. To provide a plumbing service not a spanner!

“Cloud Computing is going to play a major role in reviving the European economy over the next few years by creating growth and new jobs. After several years of “hype”, Cloud Computing has now become mainstream, with factors such as new applications, user demand, virtualisation and data silos – that is, different management teams working separately – pushing demand.”

A recent survey by Tata Consultancy Services2 shows that Latin American companies are the most aggressive adopters of cloud computing, with the average large company in Latin America putting almost two fifths (39%) of its total applications in the Cloud, followed by Asia Pacific with over a quarter (28%) and less than one fifth (19%) in the USA. In Europe, the figure is closer to one tenth (12%).

Peter continues:

“However, you need to have good processes and methodology to get it right. My advice is to engage with partners who have the experience, and don’t be afraid to innovate. And remember, the end user will be the ultimate judge of the service! Poor user experience leads to poor take up which means that fewer businesses enjoy the productivity and cost reduction benefits that cloud computing can bring.”