In reference to therecent articleconcerning the fact that the finance
sector is not convinced by the cloud, despite spending more on IT
than other industries, Hugh Scantlebury, managing director of
Aqilla, expresses surprise.
The findings of
the survey were surprising, as I know several senior managers
in investment banks that are already investing in
on-demand business intelligence in preference to traditional
on-premise, mainframe-powered systems, and left me wondering
exactly which professionals from the sector had been surveyed and
where the resistance is coming from.
IT people, for example, have been notoriously resistant to
change from time-to-time, and the results of numerous surveys
looking at the
uptake of SaaS mirror those around the adoption of other
technologies - many of which have become fundamental tools that are
widely used in the workplace. Very often, one of the first hurdles
a business must overcome is to convince its own IT department. Fear
of loss of control and security (and resources) has threatened the
adoption of many key modern technologies, including Windows, the
internet, client server computing, wireless networking, mobile
telecommunications, e-mail and even desktop productivity tools such
as Microsoft Excel and Word.
But it is not only those in IT who are cautious. Earlier this
year, a study by Kelton Research of more than 500 C-level
decision-makers across 17 countries in North America, Europe and
Asia-Pacific found that by a 5:1 ratio, executives reported that
they trusted existing internal systems over cloud-based ones due to
fears about security threats and loss of control of data and
systems. That said, the same respondents reported that their
current
internal systems were too expensive, whereas the majority of
those early adopters of cloud computing surveyed reported that they
were increasing their investment in the technology after seeing
reduced up-front IT costs and improved agility to respond quickly
to market conditions.
There are, of course, legitimate business concerns around
implementing any technology for the first time, and chief among
these are likely to be
security concerns, particularly when outsourcing core systems
and data. What is seldom understood is that it is possible to make
online systems more secure than those held locally as long as the
supplier adheres to industry standards such as ISO 2001. But buyers
are advised to
rigorously examine potential partners in terms of what security
and guarantees they offer regarding things such as availability
before signing up for anything.
With 80% of IT executives in the US believing SaaS solutions
reduce up-front costs, cloud computing represents a new model for
business and one that cannot be ignored. It is not always about the
money, but when it is, it is the responsibility of IT teams,
despite whatever natural reticence may exist, to support the
business in achieving any potential gains. Equally, businesses
should be proceeding based on the answer to business problems, not
the views of people internally who have a vested interest in
supporting systems that promote fiefdoms and obfuscation.