At Oracle OpenWorld 2011 on Monday, Hill led a panel discussion, The Cloud: Transformative Ideas for the CIO, Chief Integration Officer, featuring Angela Carter, Global Oracle Lead Partner; Rick Wright, Global Cloud Enablement Leader; and Phillip Lageschulte, Partner – Advisory all from KPMG LLP (US).
The panelists largely agreed that the advent of Cloud is not a question of “Now?” but of “When?”
“Adoption is strong already, and we’ve seen rapid growth,” said Hill. “Expectations on Cloud’s impact on organizations are rising.”
To be sure, the adoption of Cloud will affect how data is managed in the future. “Data management is a complex business already. The bigger the company, and the more products you have – it’s cumbersome enough to manage it all. And then you add Cloud to the mix….” Carter said.
She added, “There’s a real opportunity here. [Smart companies] are taking advantage of the situation, and addressing it head on.”
Lageschulte said, “From a risk and governance standpoint, the CIO should realize that a broad range of areas needs to be addressed – many are in technology. They all connect to the business. But Cloud is about business transformation not necessarily about technology.”
Privacy and security pertaining to Cloud also are of utmost concern to businesses today. With Cloud, new critical security concerns could pop up, including knowing who is now patrolling your data and where your data is actually residing.
“Some Cloud providers actually have better security than their clients,” Hill suggested.
“There will be impacts on your business, particularly when it comes to roles and responsibilities. To achieve business benefits, you must embrace this change,” Lageschulte said. But there are also clear financial benefits to Cloud: “You’re not buying infrastructure; you’re merely borrowing it.”
To be successful in adopting Cloud, CIO’s must prepare for change in several arenas:
- Strategy and governance: Do you have a strategy? Do you have a framework? Does it tie into your governance strategy?
- Privacy: Know your data. Know where it is. Protecting data goes beyond cloud.
- Vendor management: Know your vendor. Institute a robust program. Ask questions. Where will our data be? How will it be controlled? How will it be cleansed when the project is over?
- Knowing your organization: Don’t underestimate the impacts of change to your organization. Make sure your business is ready to be enabled through communications training, etc.
The panelists offered advice on how to get the integration ball rolling, particularly for organizations that have holdouts who don’t necessarily support the Cloud.
“You must have a Cloud strategy in place. Cloud vendors understand the interconnected nature of enterprise architecture and are willing to assist with the integration work,” Wright said. “You basically have ecosystems, so recognize how your Cloud strategy relates to them. Plan it before jumping into it.”
Lageschulte agreed. Firms can encounter pitfalls as they leap into Cloud. “It can be dangerous for companies to jump in without a strategy in place. You should have a roadmap looking two or three years down the line,” he said.
Carter added, “Don’t duplicate capabilities. Fit them into your roadmap. What kind of business value are you trying to enable? The roadmap is utterly important.”
Beyond changes to technology and infrastructure, the CIO must adapt as well, Hill noted. “To ensure that your ecosystems achieve their potential, companies should consider redeveloping the role of CIO (Chief Integration Officer) to break the silos.”
Read more in Steve Hill’s post-session wrap-up.
To gain more insight into the business adoption of Cloud, review the new KPMG International executive summary (PDF) based on our Global Cloud Survey.