Grazed from Forbes. Author: Maribel Lopez.
Cloud computing is top of mind for computer geeks, information technology (IT) providers, web and mobile start-ups, and most CIOs (chief information officers), but should other senior executives care? After all, can CxOs afford to take time out from global growth concerns, foreign corrupt practice allegations, dysfunction in D.C., and other business exigencies merely to immerse themselves in abstruse technology plumbing? To be a leadership priority, “computing” in general and the “cloud” in particular—a network-centric, pay-per-use, on-demand service model for IT—would have to be strategic.
It’s been argued that “IT Doesn’t Matter,” since IT is available to anyone, and thus is a commodity like electricity. Therefore, this argument concludes, IT can’t be a source of strategic competitive advantage. This line of reasoning seems plausible at first glance, but conflates IT’s infinite malleability and algorithmic possibilities, often limited only by imagination, with its more mundane physical incarnation—computers, storage, and network gear—and therefore fails to explain how a Google or Facebook—started from scratch with no brand, no assets, no preferential access to resources, no marketing, no sales force, no regulatory protection, in fact, with nothing more than ideas and business concepts encapsulated as IT—could rocket from dorm room project to multi-billion dollar annual revenues in short order…