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 uptake(*) has highlighted the unresolved issues that are holding Europeback 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:
- 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.
- Process – Do not implement additional services without first understanding the impact they may have on the existing ones.
- Innovation - don’t be afraid to experiment with technologies such as WAN Optimisation to improve performance from the cloud to the user.
- Partner SLAs - the 3rd way – Ensure your applications perform as expected by requiring your provider to guarantee minimum levels of service.
- Continuous improvement – Always look for ways in which to improve the existing service by identification of impairments and new technologies.
- Scaling ability of your management tools – plan for growth, can your existing management tools support the networks of the future?
- 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 Services(**) 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.”
(*) IDC Report: “Quantitative Estimates of the Demand of Cloud Computing in Europe and the likely barriers to uptake” (19 October 2012), and http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prIT237442122.
(**) Tata Consultancy Survey – The State of Adoption of Cloud Applications http://sites.tcs.com/cloudstudy/the-state-of-adoption-of-cloud-applications#.T3R8pdWibLV
About Peter Job
Peter has been involved in the telecommunications industry for the last 25 years and held senior roles at Gandalf and Alcatel Telecom. Since founding Intergence in Cambridge in 2003, Peter has been at the forefront of developing Cloud technology solutions. Peter is particularly interested in the business benefits of Cloud Computing, particularly around the user experience and using best practice to building and managing Cloud infrastructures.
Peter is also the founder of Real Status, which was spun out of Intergence in 2010. Real Status uses computer gaming technology in its ground-breaking product Hyperglance, to enable IT managers to visualise and manage cloud infrastructures in real time. Real-Status has been recognised as being one of the most innovative cloud management technologies in the world and has won a number of prestigious awards including the GigaOM structure finalists and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Next generation Cloud Computing awards in San Francisco. Peter holds a BA Hons in Geography and Geology from Anglia Ruskin University and is married with 3 children and 3 dogs. In addition to his family, his passions in life outside of Intergence and Hyperglance, are golf and fishing and he is a long suffering season ticket holder at Manchester United.
About Intergence
Intergence is an independent IT Consultancy and Professional Services firm, headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with a regional office in the Middle East (Dubai, UAE). Privately Owned, Intergence was founded in 2003 to address the growing requirements of clients demanding high-level impartial expertise in networks and IT. Our close relationship within the Cambridge academic community enables us to innovate in partnership, rapidly incorporating the latest technology advances into our solutions.Intergence are experts in IT Optimisation, specialising in areas such as application, infrastructure and data centre optimisation. We provide Consulting Services to align IT to your business strategy; Resourcing to provide highly skilled expertise and Managed Services to deliver challenging IT projects on time and to budget.
Utilising a unique combination of world class expertise, industry-leading methodology and unique tools, Intergence has a clear and common purpose - to allow our clients to extract more value from their existing assets, whilst delivering a first-class service.
For more information, please visit: www.intergence.com
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For further information about Intergence, please contact:
Laura Brown/Justine Smith
KISS Public Relations
T: + 44 (0)208 12345 75
E-mail: laura @kisscom.co.uk / justine@kisscom.co.uk
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