It is said that Encyclopedia Britannica simply did not see Wikipedia coming.  The greatest innovations in the world are often disruptive to current trends, even the established industry leaders.  And this is the reason why your business needs to be innovative in order to come up with the disruptive innovation that it needs to survive.  And to be innovative, you would need cloud computing technology.

How does your business handle disruption?  If you are losing sleep from the threat that you are missing out on being innovative, then you are not alone.  Tech Research Asia has found that 73 percent of companies worldwide think that their businesses will encounter some sort of digital disruption and that 61 percent of these companies are moving to embrace it.  But what is the biggest roadblock to innovation?  Legacy systems.

Startups are lucky in that they can choose to be agile and they do not have old IT purchases and legacy systems to think about.  This is the reason why AirBnB and Uber have an edge; they can rely on digital technology and cloud computing, and not worry about legacy systems.

However, those who have been in business longer, especially blue chip firms, do not have such luxury.  They cannot even be as agile as they want to be because of their IT purchases in the past.  On the average, IT applications are two decades old.

It is easy to understand how these older companies are getting left behind as far as innovations go.  All companies now have to deal with customer requirements that are always changing, but those who are not agile will mean they would have to respond to the rapidly changing consumer needs with equipment and software that are decades old.

Cloud solutions are the answer

The good news is that CIOs and other C-level executives can now tap into cloud services to help them run a business ecosystem when they need it, instead of relying on legacy software and hardware.  They do not even need to run in-house servers or rely on their in-house IT staff.

Cloud computing technology is giving them the chance to be agile.  Fortunately, for these executives, cloud services are now focused on workloads.

As such, cloud computing has become the platform for innovation, not only for startups but also for older and more established companies.

The change brought about by cloud computing services

Before, executives have to rely on their in-house IT personnel and systems to test out their ideas.  This might take months, as IT has to create the applications they would need to code, test, stage, and deploy.  This would include coding and writing the application, testing and staging it, and then making it live.  If there are additional hardware needed, that would also need approval for the budget, and may take time to be usable on site.

With cloud computing, you do not need to go through all that.  You just need to find a cloud service provider that offers the applications you need.

For instance, in the old days, if you want to have access to a customer relationship management software to help your salespeople become more efficient, you would need to wait for years to have your IT personnel code it for you, test it and perfect it.  You would need to make sure that you have the servers in place as well as the necessary software to run your customer relationship management system and ensure that it works well with all the other systems already in place.

But now, with cloud computing companies in the picture, all you need to do is call and have them set it up.  They will take care of the installation and everything else.  Sometimes, they even offer to train your salespeople on how to use their system.

They will also take care of maintaining everything – from storage to integration.

Cloud computing also allows you to use unlimited numbers of testing, development, and staging servers.  Instead of relying on a single physical server, your IT teams do not have to wait for that server to become available and free to continue their development, testing or staging work.

Cost efficiency makes cloud computing technology ideal for innovation

When developing a software for instance, cloud services can give you a very cost efficient way to innovate and experiment.  For instance, if you are developing a content management software and you think that a particular feature would be useful, you can easily spawn an instance that would allow you to code and test that feature without affecting the rest of the software being written.  You do not have to wait until the entire project is finished.  In fact, you could easily work on two different versions of your software.

And because these instances are easy and inexpensive to create, you are encouraging experimentation and innovation that would ultimately satisfy your customers better.

In short, you really do not have to wait with cloud technology.  You do not even have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on capital investments and worry that these would become obsolete.  You do not have to fear about failing somewhere along the way and ending up with expensive hardware that nobody uses.

Cloud computing technologies are often “pay as you go” and you only spend money when you use them.  This gives you the agility and flexibility that you need to be innovative.

What’s more, you can add more features and functionality as you go along.  For instance, you might decide that analytics is important, or that you need more computing and storage resources.  No problem, just add them.

Another reason why cloud solutions encourage innovation and creativity?  Cloud computing companies take care of the maintenance work, so your in-house IT staff are free to focus on innovations.  So instead of working on cyber security or worrying about technology upgrades, your IT staff are focused on the things that your customers want to see in the applications they are working on.

If you need to become more innovative when it comes to your customers and employees’ needs, then you should take a long hard look at cloud computing services.  Four Cornerstone can help you get a handle on cloud computing, including putting together the necessary technologies that allow you take full advantage of the cloud.  Call us at +1 (817) 377-1144 and let us help you with your cloud deployments!

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk.