Ready to launch: Using the cloud to speed up time to market

Business agility is a goal that’s often more discussed than delivered. For their part, IT decision-makers are under increased pressure to make sure business solutions can deliver on these ambitions. In its latest “Business Value Scorecard”, Forrester found that business leaders increasingly measure success by comparing what percentage of their IT-spend actually supports innovation and agility to how much just helps “keep the lights on”1.

The cloud is one example of how technology can truly improve a business’ ability to adapt quickly for growth or to enter new markets, and has therefore been widely adopted by forward-looking enterprises. As the cloud market continues to mature, enterprises can now choose from a much wider, more varied and more tailored choice of vendor cloud offerings, which means discerning companies can pick and choose from a large menu of business solutions to suit their needs.

While the different cloud models all have their advantages, it is the public cloud that has proved the most cost-effective way to reduce time-to-market for new services or quickly deliver crucial add-ons to customers using their existing offerings.

But how does the public cloud actually help to deliver agility in practice? The healthcare industry provides a great illustration of what can be achieved. According to recent research2, 67 per cent of healthcare institutions use Software-as-Service (SaaS) cloud-based applications. One of the chief benefits that these organizations expect from SaaS deployments – cited by almost half of respondents – is the improved “speed to deploy new services” that cloud brings them.

Because SaaS applications from established vendors are built on the same heritage and technologies as those traditionally developed for in-house IT systems, companies can seamlessly transition between a public and private structure as they see fit. This is where the technology can bring true agility: by enabling organisations to test, develop and launch new services in the public cloud – sometimes in a matter of weeks – companies can react quickly to changing market conditions and then move those services in-house if they want to keep valuable data or processes out of the public domain further down the line.

SaaS cloud solutions are also leading the way by helping mid-sized businesses and enterprises to improve agility as they seek to fulfil their growth ambitions. As they become more successful, businesses will need to build on the breadth and functionality of their IT systems. SaaS applications enable organizations to make scale-appropriate upgrades and implement expansion packages quickly, affordably, and in-line with the specific needs of their business. As a result, they can make the jump to the “next level” without the high costs and growing pains that have traditionally accompanied business growth. For these reasons, it’s hardly surprising that the market for SaaS cloud solutions is set to expand by 17 per cent each year up to 2018.3

Of course, SaaS does not suit every company or industry equally well. Many financial institutions and government bodies, for example, make widespread use of SaaS; while other industries may have specific requirements that make an in-house cloud platform more appropriate for some applications.

There is much debate – both within the tech industry and in boardrooms across the world – as to the relative merits of the competing cloud platforms, such as SaaS, Infrastructure- or Platform-as-a-Service. In fact, much of this discussion is moot. Ultimately, business leaders will make their decisions by examining the particular areas they want to address and choosing whichever cloud platform and add-on services they need to best meet these challenges.

For example, many businesses have already started creating their own mobile applications to empower employees to collaborate on projects in real-time. Application developers need the proper tools and resource libraries to build this software, and this will fuel rising demand for Platform-as-a-Service cloud solutions in the coming years.

Now that cloud is so widely implemented, we are in a much better position to ditch the hype of the early days and focus on what we know it can deliver. Thanks to the breadth and customization options offered by vendors today, business leaders have an almost unlimited range of models to choose from. By making their decision in the age-old way of business – identifying needs and assessing proven solutions to meet them – organizations can select the from a wide range of cloud platforms that will give them the extra agility to react to ever-changing market conditions and be ready for whatever the future throws at them.

1 http://www.itsvalue.nl/site/wp-content/uploads/The-Business-Technology-Value-Scorecard-Forrester-Consulting.pdf#

2 http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/07/17/83-of-healthcare-organizations-are-using-cloud-based-apps-today/

3https://www.gartner.com/doc/2738817/forecast-analysis-public-cloud-services