Midsize
companies are rightly lauded for the impact they have on the global
economy, and most of them have an eye on continued growth. In the U.S.
alone, the nation’s 200,000 midsize businesses are expected to grow
revenue by 5.8 percent and employment by 3.3 percent in the coming year.
To help foster this growth, the middle market in the U.S. is looking to the cloud. According to Deloitte’s recent “Mid-Market Perspectives: 2014 Report on America’s Economic Engine,” 37 percent of middle-market businesses intend to make the cloud the primary target of their investment in technology—a bump of nearly 4 percent from the previous year, and a higher percentage than any other technology investment response. That level of intent indicates that businesses clearly see
that the scalability of the cloud will allow them to pursue much-needed development projects that previously called for more resources and a heavy initial investment.
Globally, public cloud services increased by 18.5 percent in 2013 to $131 billion, from $111 billion in 2012, according to Gartner, an IT technology research firm.
Learn how technology can increase productivity and job satisfaction.
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings such as those from Google and Amazon are the fastest-growing aspects of the cloud, and help enable companies to meet basic IT needs such as networking, servers and storage on a pay-as-you-go model. Some businesses are taking advantage of project management systems that help employees keep cluttered inboxes free of annoying status-update emails, while others are using cloud-based software that provides remote access and virtual whiteboards to employees for collaboration.
“From an overhead perspective, [cloud-based technology] starts freeing up additional resources,” says Joe Hamblin, Director of Emerging Platforms for IT Enterprise Services at Sprint. “In other words, a business can deliver more for less.”
IT to rival the biggest companies
For midsize enterprises, tapping into SaaS (software-as-a-service) and IaaS delivery models can give them access that helps them rival IT departments at large multinational firms. By building on top of already existing platforms, midsize businesses can stretch investment dollars while they focus on innovation without the need for building from scratch. Even the corporate basics—once requiring a complex intranet platform—are covered. For example, Google Apps for Work is now used by 5 million businesses worldwide, allowing collaboration on anything from presentations to meeting software without the need to ramp up an IT department. With cloud, “companies can change and expand their architecture on the fly,” says Hamblin.
Discover a bold new model for your business
More importantly, the changes can impact the bottom line. At Sprint, quickly emerging cloud capabilities now mean that onsite hardware can be less costly than in the past, according to Hamblin. Employees no longer need full-powered desktops because they often run applications remotely, as the company invests in more flexible, less costly tools that are easier for employees to use. “We want to get to the point where you can go grab any device with a browser on it and you have the same secure access,” Hamblin says. And allowing employees to have remote access while working from home has already saved the company $30 million in real estate costs, he adds.
Crafting a tailored approach
Even as companies see the pros of cloud-based technology add up, it’s important to take a measured approach. Moving employees away from traditional IT setups to more streamlined offerings comes with challenges.
Some employees can feel unprepared for the change, which is why when Sprint decided to roll out robust conference-calling capabilities across the enterprise, it did so over the course of two years. This approach allowed employees to chat over IM, conduct video calls and use conference calling in one integrated system. Still, the transition was tough on some longtime employees who had become accustomed to the previous tools. “Some of us old guys don’t want to change the way we do things,” says Hamblin, “but it’s important to gain stakeholder buy-in at all levels.”
To help foster this growth, the middle market in the U.S. is looking to the cloud. According to Deloitte’s recent “Mid-Market Perspectives: 2014 Report on America’s Economic Engine,” 37 percent of middle-market businesses intend to make the cloud the primary target of their investment in technology—a bump of nearly 4 percent from the previous year, and a higher percentage than any other technology investment response. That level of intent indicates that businesses clearly see
that the scalability of the cloud will allow them to pursue much-needed development projects that previously called for more resources and a heavy initial investment.
Globally, public cloud services increased by 18.5 percent in 2013 to $131 billion, from $111 billion in 2012, according to Gartner, an IT technology research firm.
Learn how technology can increase productivity and job satisfaction.
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings such as those from Google and Amazon are the fastest-growing aspects of the cloud, and help enable companies to meet basic IT needs such as networking, servers and storage on a pay-as-you-go model. Some businesses are taking advantage of project management systems that help employees keep cluttered inboxes free of annoying status-update emails, while others are using cloud-based software that provides remote access and virtual whiteboards to employees for collaboration.
“From an overhead perspective, [cloud-based technology] starts freeing up additional resources,” says Joe Hamblin, Director of Emerging Platforms for IT Enterprise Services at Sprint. “In other words, a business can deliver more for less.”
IT to rival the biggest companies
For midsize enterprises, tapping into SaaS (software-as-a-service) and IaaS delivery models can give them access that helps them rival IT departments at large multinational firms. By building on top of already existing platforms, midsize businesses can stretch investment dollars while they focus on innovation without the need for building from scratch. Even the corporate basics—once requiring a complex intranet platform—are covered. For example, Google Apps for Work is now used by 5 million businesses worldwide, allowing collaboration on anything from presentations to meeting software without the need to ramp up an IT department. With cloud, “companies can change and expand their architecture on the fly,” says Hamblin.
Discover a bold new model for your business
More importantly, the changes can impact the bottom line. At Sprint, quickly emerging cloud capabilities now mean that onsite hardware can be less costly than in the past, according to Hamblin. Employees no longer need full-powered desktops because they often run applications remotely, as the company invests in more flexible, less costly tools that are easier for employees to use. “We want to get to the point where you can go grab any device with a browser on it and you have the same secure access,” Hamblin says. And allowing employees to have remote access while working from home has already saved the company $30 million in real estate costs, he adds.
Crafting a tailored approach
Even as companies see the pros of cloud-based technology add up, it’s important to take a measured approach. Moving employees away from traditional IT setups to more streamlined offerings comes with challenges.
Some employees can feel unprepared for the change, which is why when Sprint decided to roll out robust conference-calling capabilities across the enterprise, it did so over the course of two years. This approach allowed employees to chat over IM, conduct video calls and use conference calling in one integrated system. Still, the transition was tough on some longtime employees who had become accustomed to the previous tools. “Some of us old guys don’t want to change the way we do things,” says Hamblin, “but it’s important to gain stakeholder buy-in at all levels.”
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