Many people still think that cloud is a hype, that it’s just a matter of time and that cloud will fade away. Unfortunately, it’s wrong as the evolution to cloud is inevitable. Over the past weeks I had several discussions with IT professionals. I heard some bizarre reasoning from them that I wanted to share with you and comment upon.

Statement: ‘Our organization is so well prepared and everything is well planned in advance, therefore we see no need for fast and flexible provisioning.’

Cloud is not a technology as such, it a new paradigm on how technology is exploited. To fully leverage the cloud capabilities are a transformation of the organization and of the processes required. Organizations remaining in their current comfort zone will become fragile and exposed. Competitors are re-inventing their business models and exploit the capabilities of cloud. There is no alternative, it’s either joining the transformation or prepare to disappear.

Statement: ‘We will not adopt cloud, as it would make our IT department and ourselves obsolete.’

Adoption of cloud frees up resources from the IT department, enabling them to provide a better service towards business users. Commodity operations will be automated or even transferred to a third party who operates the cloud. Consequently, internal IT jobs will change and people might have to upgrade their skills. Such reasoning illustrates that reluctance of people to change remains a major inhibitor in the adoption of cloud. Business users will push for the adoption of cloud when comparing available services from the market with services provided by the IT organization. By the way, is making your own role obsolete not the basis for a career move?$

Statement: ‘There is no budget today to do any kind of project at all, which is due to the economical crisis. Let’s wait until the crisis is over and we get receive the budgets we had last year.’

The worldwide IT spending is growing year after year, but the IT budget shrinks within the IT organization when the scope remains unchanged. CIO’s are challenged on a daily basis to do more with less. The adoption of cloud is a smart move, as it frees up resources and increases flexibility need to become more responsive to business needs. The attitude of waiting till the crisis is over demonstrates the lack of a vision. A close collaboration between business and IT might lead to an improved business model, whilst leveraging the capabilities of cloud.

Dare to face the evolution, as the cloud is NOW!

Join the digital evolution or disappear!