Justin Fielder, CTO, Easynet Global Services
It comes as little surprise that The Register’s research into cloud adoption confirmed that in a real-life scenario connectivity could act as a barrier to the successful deployment of cloud computing technologies. In fact, in our recent survey of 800 CIOs across Europe, 43% said they would need to update their network if they were to move to the Cloud. However – this left a worrying 57% who were not considering the impact the Cloud could have on their network.
The Cloud offers the potential to greatly enhance the way in which organisations do business. The levels of efficiency and flexibility it offers are unbelievable, but only when the business has a robust, reliable network to transport data from the source to a user. The number of CIOs currently overlooking the importance of the network is alarming, but also provides a logical reason for the number of faltering Cloud deployments. To give you a parallel example, a retailer with a faulty supply chain is about as much use as a Cloud infrastructure with an out-dated, unreliable network – both have delivery issues.
Putting all your applications into the Cloud is one thing, but if the network is not up to scratch then the real benefits of the Cloud will never materialise, as end users won’t be able to access the systems, information or data. And if the users cannot benefit from the convenience and flexibility of the Cloud, the business will fail to see the benefits that it expects too.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
