To Cloud or Not to Cloud: AGILITY
AGILITY
While some technology manufacturers have talked about Agile Computing, for the purposes of this discussion we're really talking about business agility, the ability of a business and the people who work in it to move and work quickly and nimbly.
Former Novell president Robert Frankenberg may have been the first to suggest that in today's technology-enabled world, "work" is no longer a destination, it's an activity. And it's an activity that can take place literally anywhere the worker may happen to find themselves.
Information technology, and most specifically "cloud-based"
technologies, make it possible for people to achieve what Citrix
first dubbed "Any-Any-Any" flexibility in their work. This refers to the agile
ability to use
ANY application written in
ANY programming language on
ANY device, such as a desktop, laptop, tablet, or handheld device, across
ANY network that uses
ANY server and storage infrastructure from
ANY where at
ANY time!
This is the great promise of services such as the recently released Microsoft Office 365. A user in an airport with a wi-fi connection to the internet can pull out their laptop and check their email with ease. Let's say they left their laptop at home, or forgot to charge it and can't find a power outlet. So they switch to their handheld device or tablet. But let's say they were unfortunately robbed of all of their devices. They can still go to a public internet-access station, log in, authenticate themselves, and use all of the software they are accustomed to using to check their email, continue work on documents, communicate and collaborate with colleagues, and do whatever it is their work requires of them. This is the promise of any-to-any-to-any computing. This is true business agility, the ability to move and work quickly and nimbly wherever you may be.
ENABLING AGILITY
The
most amazing part of the emerging world of technology-enabled
business agility is that it is inexpensive to obtain. No longer does your
company have to allocate significant funding to capital
acquisitions of servers, storage, or other information
infrastructure.
Instead, all you need are the devices you currently use to compute
and communicate and a subscription to a cloud-based service that
delivers all the software you need whenever you need it wherever
you need it.
For more insight into the agility you can enjoy, contact your CloudStrategies Account Executive or Consultant today.