INTELLIGENT CLOUD
Crossing the finish
line first with cloud
Cloud gives a business analytics, collaborative innovation
and data storage, explains Miguel Vega at IBM.
Key takeaways
Miguel Vega is Vice President Systems
Hardware at IBM Middle East and Africa.
F
or your business to lead the race, it
needs, like a champion athlete, to
have the ideal build. By that I am
referring to IT infrastructure, which has
now become vital to so many organisations
that succeed in crossing the line first.
Specifically, I am talking about
cloud infrastructure, which handles all
those prized traits: real-time analytics,
collaborative innovation, secure data
storage and more. Mastering these tasks is
becoming a necessity in today’s business
world, but one of the biggest hurdles is
sourcing the right blend of traditional IT,
private cloud and public cloud . . . and fast.
According to Gartner, by 2020, a
corporate no-cloud policy will be as rare
as a no-Internet policy. Cloud computing
is quickly becoming both the delivery
and consumption models for IT. Once the
infrastructure becomes the norm, which
it very nearly is already, those who do it
best will be the ones to succeed in their
respective markets. This is simply because
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the cloud has the power to help you do
many great things.
Business critical applications can be
designed, built and delivered on the cloud
faster than ever before. Meanwhile, your
most valuable data can be kept locked
safely away on a self-managed private
cloud platform, speeding up disaster
recovery should a crisis hit.
This would explain why the value of
cloud services delivered in the Middle
East and North Africa is predicted to
grow by 18.3 per cent this year, topping
approximately $880 million, says Gartner.
More and more businesses may be getting
in better shape by moving on to the cloud,
but making the transformation yourself is
no straightforward task.
You first need to understand precisely
what kind of traditional IT, private and
public cloud infrastructure is required,
and then transition the business to this
new infrastructure seamlessly, without
disrupting operations. Moreover,
cutting costs and increasing security is a
prerequisite for any IT development these
days. Today’s cloud infrastructure can
deliver all this and more.
Once there, you need to keep up the
pace by quickly creating new applications
and delivering services as your customers
demand them. Open source automation
simplifies the process of installing your
new system.
When you are up and running, all
on and off-premises virtual machines
can be managed from one single place
for simplicity, while a system of record
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According to Gartner, by 2020 a
corporate no-cloud policy will be as
rare as a no-Internet policy
Business critical applications can be
designed, built and delivered on the
cloud faster than ever before
Cloud computing is quickly
becoming both the delivery and
consumption models for IT
Once the infrastructure becomes
the norm, those who do it best
will be the ones to succeed in their
respective markets
Your most valuable data can be
kept locked safely away on a self-
managed private cloud platform,
speeding up disaster recovery
should a crisis hit
You first need to understand
precisely what kind of traditional
IT, private and public cloud
infrastructure is required and then
transition the business to this new
infrastructure
workloads and data can be tied to cloud-
based apps with complete security. That
ticks the four boxes of world-beating cloud
infrastructure: speed, simplicity, security
and scalability.
Technology developments have helped
to level the business playing field for small
and medium enterprises, which means
successful companies need to be faster,
smarter and more agile to win. Cloud IT
infrastructure can make all this happen
and more, but are you prepared?
Issue 06
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS