By Pete Deacon, Director of technology and strategy at SaintGroup Managed Services

It is undeniable that there is much hype in the IT market about cloud computing which is often over-sold to CIOs looking to streamline IT processes. However, the emergence of cloud computing-based business systems does provide an opportunity to tailor IT provision to better suit individual organisations’ business computing needs.

Adoption of an effective cloud infrastructure is an initial step towards business transformation and will increase an organisation’s speed to market. In the past, companies would update old and legacy business applications - a customer relationship management (CRM) system, for example - by upgrading all of the equipment on the network individually: a wasteful process in terms of both time and IT resources. Through cloud deployment, this type of software upgrade and new service capability for the business can be streamlined and automated.

By Pete Deacon, Director of Technology and Strategy, SaintGroup Group

There is so much hype in Britain’s IT industry over Cloud computing that the model is frequently being “oversold” to UK companies that are looking to streamline their IT systems.  However the emergence of cloud computing is such a ‘breakthrough’ opportunity for firms to transform their competitiveness with more responsive IT that it would be a shame if firms lost out by failing to take some sensible measures to manage the risks around it.  If they can get their Cloud thinking right, UK businesses can tailor their IT provision and its billing to better suit computing needs far more effectively than before.