Thrill Customers In The Cloud To Raise Profit
May 22, 2012
Want to innovate tomorrow? Put your head in the cloud today.
• What is it? Cloud computing is the online storage of information within a network of data centers. A decade ago, businesses had to buy and maintain a block of their own in-house servers. The process was expensive and tough to plan.
Now firms can get as much or as little computer storage as they need from Internet companies such as Amazon (AMZN) that have built banks of servers to rent out streaming data processing power. Software can run off-site…
Example: Google‘s (GOOG) popular Gmail exists in the cloud.
When a firm, small or large, needs to transmit or save chunks of information, it can do so quickly and more cost effectively by tapping the cloud.
"The cloud is enabling people to buy computing services just like electricity," Sacha Labourey, CEO of Cloud platform provider CloudBees, told IBD.
• Why does it matter? The cloud makes innovation easier and cheaper. Using the cloud, startups can open for business faster, without having to buy servers or maintain software, then scale up as they grow. Companies can spot-test new strategic angles.
"This kind of productivity is going to be a huge boost," Labourey said.
• Get ready. Hard goods — such as compact discs or books — are quickly being traded for digital products that live in the cloud. It’s because of cloud computing that you can carry your library everywhere you go.
• Jump in. Start brainstorming. How could you use the cloud at your company?
"Today the cloud does not play much of a role in the economy. But five or 10 years from now it’s going to play a big role," Labourey said. "Most companies that do not want to lose that war are already ramped up in the cloud."
• Move. Even if you don’t think you’ll ever work directly with the cloud, a seismic business shift is under way.
Once customers and employees get used to a cloud-based world, their behavior and expectations will change.
So says Thomas Koulopoulos, co-founder of Delphi Group, a consultancy that helps industry leaders respond to new technology.
In his new book, "Cloud Surfing," Koulopoulos suggests the cloud will transform the way people cope with every challenge they face over the next 100 years.
"The cloud is to the Internet what intelligent life is to primordial soup," he said.
• Swoop in. In exchange for the ease and convenience of accessing the cloud, consumers will be willing to give up a lot of information about their lives, Koulopoulos predicts. Firms can use the data to rapidly sense what customers want, then dream up new notions that meet a real-time demand.
"The cloud allows you to test an idea and then immediately respond," he said.
Take General Motors (GM). Its OnStar vehicle data system is an example of the cloud in motion, Koulopoulos explains.
Pooling facts about GM’s environment and vehicles, OnStar has the technology to know whether a car has crashed and, based on cloud-plucked knowledge, what was happening with weather and traffic at the exact moment of the wreck.
"They can identify, with precision, what kind of injury you or your passengers are likely to have," he said. "Then they can determine, based on that, where the first respondents should take you, based on your injuries. That’s the real-time value of the cloud."