Clearway to the Cloud

Fierce global competition and tight capital markets have altered traditional decisions to invest in complex and costly on-premise solutions in favor of speed to objectives and a pay-as-you-go model. Cloud solutions can typically be deployed in a fraction of the time compared to an on-premise solution since the data center is in place and the software is already installed. The percentage of companies using cloud solutions doubled from 2006 to 2009, representing over 20% of applications; and it’s expected to more than double again in the next three years.

New Generation “Y” workers expect full access to Web 2.0 and social media solutions that are at least as powerful and intuitive as the solutions they use at home. As these workers progress through the ranks the potential gap between business demand for IT and IT budgets and ability to deliver with traditional solutions will expand. The proliferation of powerful yet affordable and easy-to-deploy cloud services will enable information workers to provision their own solutions to better support their perceived job requirements. This is especially true in organizations where reduced IT budgets, compounded by increased business demand, result in the perception that IT is unresponsive. Failure to recognize this trend is already creating mini disjointed siloes of information that are outside of the control of the organization.

Unfortunately, cloud solutions do put IT at the mercy of the provider for availability, new functionality, data security, regulatory compliance, and other key issues. Outages could halt business, affect productivity and poor response times will hamper productivity. Additionally, many cloud offerings limit a customer’s ability to add features, customize or integrate with third-party applications. These limitations or risks are rapidly being addressed and mitigated by cloud providers, but must be addressed before choosing a solution. That’s where Clearway can help. Our cloud assessments can help you rapidly navigate the potential challenges to ensure the cloud is right for your company.

Clearway can help you answer this question. Clearway has developed comprehensive cloud assessments to identify and overcome challenges typically associated with migrating to the cloud.