The cloud conversation today often centers on how cloud computing can benefit the enterprise. However, it’s really those mid-sized companies and departments within larger companies that have the needs and capabilities to cloud compute.
Mid-sized companies are just trying to survive today’s shaky economic climate and they need the capability to scale with their needs quickly and economically. Agility is really the number one concern for mid-sized operations transitioning to the cloud. The cloud’s ability to scale is a key component of this agility that should drive them to cloud now and is closely tied to the economic benefit of cloud computing.
This is much like the days when Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) was just starting out and it was the mid-sized companies that were able to first adopt on-demand software. These mid-level companies and departments within larger corporations had the ability to, and the definite need for, on-demand computing models. Today, their agility needs will lead them to cloud compute.
David Linthicum recently wrote about conserving capital with cloud computing. Companies today need to have capital on hand in order to quickly respond to the restless economy. This concern is especially important for the mid-sized companies and departments that are in survival mode right now. David notes that cloud computing is a big part of conserving capital because of its pay-as-you-go model that doesn’t require businesses to buy hardware or software. He’s correct in noting business value as the primary reason businesses are jumping into the cloud, since the subscription model was a great motivator for companies adopting SaaS.
The implication here is that when a company needs to tighten the screws and scale back, it can change its cloud subscription to a lower cost model. The subscription provides the agility not found with hardware and software infrastructure, for which companies are still stuck with a bill when scaling back. Cloud computing’s ability to rapidly scale back or build out a business is especially critical today when companies cannot afford to either throw money away or quickly accommodate new business opportunities.
