Cloud in a nutshell
Up until the last decade, enterprise technology ran exclusively on racks of servers inside corporate datacenters. New applications came with hefty implementation, integration, storage and security overhead. Appropriately, IT departments had big budgets and wide control.
The cloud shifts the layers of an IT stack—applications, storage, middleware, networking, security, computation horsepower—into a massive, redundant, globally distributed network of datacenters. Now the only requirement for access is an internet connection.
Critically, this accessibility of cloud applications puts the business owner at the heart of technology decisions. This provides:
Financial flexibility
Applications like cloud document management and workflow automation are bought by the sip rather than by the gallon. Services can be acquired via operational expense versus capital expense.
Obvious path to value
Cloud workflow and document management services follow a path of try first → buy small → scale up. This is 180-degree about turn from the traditional procurement process, which was buy big → implement → hope it works.
Administrative simplicity
The burden of security, redundancy and scalability are shifted to the cloud services provider. Business owners focus on process optimisation and worker productivity.
