Is Cloud the Answer for the CIOs and CFOs?

There continues to be much hype around cloud computing.  It's been increasing over the last 18 months and is likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future. A number of key factors are contributing to this, including (but not limited to):

Hype is one thing, but why are CIOs and CFOs starting to take cloud computing so seriously? Regardless of the cloud solution chosen, they all have one thing in common; a move away from a capital intensive model to an operating expense (opex) based model.

No CIO or CFO wants to be tarnished with the fact they invested huge sums of capital into a project that offers poor ROI. This cost-focussed attitude is helping opex-based cloud computing gain more traction at the executive level.

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Many CIOs are at a ‘crossroads’: should they spend millions of pounds on building new data centres and buying all new assets in order to refresh or grow their existing infrastructure? Or, should they consider a cloud model, which may see them only paying a penny a day for a server with no capital outlay.  

If you chose the former, it's likely the CFO will ask what was the value of the recent, expensive refresh. Also, in the mid-market in particular, it may no longer be a case of  ‘what will your data centre look like and cost to run’ but more a case of ‘will you own a data centre at all’?

Cloud computing changes the dynamics of buying IT infrastructure. In the past CIOs would request budget based on a series of technical requirements and the CFO would often have to trust the judgement of the CIO.