The major trend in IT today is the continued emergence and importance of cloud computing in all of its forms, i.e. IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. I’ve heard on premise data centers described as “film cameras” and over time, Infrastructure and Platform as a Service will displace the infrastructure that supports the majority of our business processes and general collaboration tools (email, SharePoint, etc.) today. The cost advantage of cloud is just too compelling and the data management and security is improving to the point that even the most conservative CFO will begin to embrace the overall TCO of the cloud.
High Performance Computing (HPC) will be the last infrastructure environment to make the move, but new offerings are evolving to address even the most demanding HPC environments with flash storage, dedicated compute resources and high performance networks. SaaS offerings are still most prevalent in the CRM and HCM functions, but robust, enterprise grade SaaS solutions are evolving to cover a broad spectrum of business processes and provide new and different ways of creating systems of engagement with customers, suppliers and all internal company users of IT systems.
I feel like it’s a great time to have my job as the advances in technology and cloud offerings are giving all CIO’s more, better and less expensive options to address organic demand for IT services as well as introduce new technologies that can be game changers for companies. Taking advantage of cloud options and handing off many of the traditional pieces of IT support will allow us to focus on the things that really differentiate and add value to our individual companies.
