Christelle Hicklin, Mimecast

Cloud is seen as a disruptive technology, but at the core, signals advantageous and even necessary change for companies today.

As Rob Lith, director of Connection Telecom, states: “Cloud transformation is only disruptive to businesses which can’t or won’t adapt. For the competitors to those who are slow to adapt, it is a very powerful disruptive strategy.”

According to Jeff Fletcher, co-owner of three6five, cloud is seen as disruptive because it presents a new way of doing things, and businesses are generally resistant to change. “As a new technology catches on, and goes from curiosity to an accepted mainstream service, there is an emergence of implications for not adopting the new technology. There is a point where it is no longer possible to ignore the trend,” he says.

The word ‘disruptive’ may have a negative connotation to some, says Jed Hewson, director of 1Stream, but in fact the cloud is only disruptive in the sense that it forces companies to change their operations for the better. “It is disruptive the way that laptops or iPads were disruptive a few years ago, because it allows companies to move away from the office-based model and provides mobility. A synonym for disruptive in this sense would be ‘impactful’ – as the cloud impacts all aspects of a company,” he explains.

Jane Thomson, MD of Softworx, agrees: “Disruptive technologies can be a positive force within a business, and this is particularly true with cloud computing.”

Says Mimecast SA’s customer experience manager, Christelle Hicklin: “In the technology world, disruptive innovation is all the rage. With cloud, the tables have finally turned on the technologists. Adoption of cloud means radical changes to working practices and learning many new skillsets – sometimes overnight, but also vastly improved productivity to existing skills and new opportunities for innovation and business development.”

ADVANTAGES GALORE

There is little dispute as to the massive benefits this transformative technology offers to businesses of all sizes. According to Jonathan Young, Microsoft product manager for Vox Telecom: “In a small business enterprise (SME) it frees up cash fl ow by moving large capex costs into an opex model, and makes enterprise IT available at SME prices.”

Fletcher agrees that one of the main transformations for businesses that adopt cloud computing is shifting the financial model from capex to opex and scaling as required – and not just for smaller companies. “This is an entirely different approach to budgeting, as there are no significant upfront costs, but your monthly opex will increase.”

Hicklin urges that cloud computing should not purely be viewed as a money-saving methodology. “The cloud has brewed up a storm in the IT infrastructure world in the last couple of years. Not only has it allowed new service delivery mechanisms, but has also spurred innovation, transforming businesses to create new revenue models which are more agile, adaptable and cost-effective.”

According to Thomson, cloud computing’s ease of access allows customers to easily deploy the latest technologies as they become available, and to take advantage of them, and not get stuck on old technologies. “Cloud allows access on a per use basis to new and specialised technologies that companies may not have previously been able to afford to deploy or use.”

Furthermore, says Jonathan Clarke, alliances manager at EMC, when an organisation’s applications sit inside a cloud, bandwidth becomes the service provider’s responsibility. “In a nutshell, cloud computing transforms a company’s IT so that it can react quickly to new demands, defend against security threats, and successfully manage data growth,” he concludes.