Competitive Advantage in the Cloud

A recent Harvard Business Review blog authored by Sinan Aral, Arun Sundararajan, and Mingdi Xin discusses the results from research they conducted on cloud computing and what the strategic implications were for firms considering cloud-based solutions.

Although the research sample was relatively small (about 2 dozen CIOs and senior IT managers), the research involved highly qualitative, in depth interviews.  The survey results found that although the cloud promises to create value on economic, technical and strategic fronts, firms report a wide range of performance gains from their adoption. Importantly, and not surprisingly, the firms that orchestrate a set of complementary capabilities report higher returns from their cloud adoption.

The research also found that agility is a plus when adopting cloud services.  Firms that are structured to quickly increase or decrease their commitment to new applications and innovations were better suited to cloud-based solutions, which themselves allow rapid scaling of resources and thus lower the risk of organizational innovation.

Finally, the blog states that their findings suggest that cloud-based models offer advantages for some applications and to some clients but not others.  They are extending the research on this front and posing a survey to hear what your company's experience has been with cloud services.

Riverbed's position continues to be that we focus on the performance aspect of cloud services. Once an organization gets past various cloud computing concerns ranging from security to vendor lock-in, Riverbed will assist with addressing the performance challenges.

 

Comments

[jodie_microsoft_smb]

After deciding on a Cloud adoption, you’ll have plenty of options to consider as being the best fit for your needs. When doing the research, don’t forget to check out Microsoft’s Cloud offerings – this link will help: http://smb.ms/Outreach92XFuX

Regards,
Jodi E.
Microsoft SMB Outreach Team
msftoft@microsoft.com