Cloud Computing enables businesses to discover their entrepreneurial spirit

Large businesses can benefit from cloud computing and they shouldn’t feel restricted by legacy IT systems.

 While cloud services have levelled the playing field for SMEs, larger enterprises adopting the technology can also benefit although It is difficult to pin down just one factor that makes cloud computing such a game changer for businesses, perhaps the key benefit rests in its ability to "level the playing field". By removing much of the initial up-front costs, the cloud allows small and medium businesses to compete with their larger rivals – and in some instances, to surpass them. But large businesses shouldn't feel restricted by legacy systems. The ability to use the cloud to identify new opportunities and efficiencies isn't just for the new kids on the block – the key is determining exactly where cloud can deliver the greatest value. For me, there are three qualities the cloud brings to IT: first is scale – the ability to handle almost limitless volumes of data in milliseconds. Second is ubiquity, as cloud solutions are available anywhere, on any device. The third is user centricity, as the technology should be easy for all employees to get to grips with.

Levelling the playing field
With less infrastructure and fewer internal processes, startups and SMEs have always been considerably more flexible and agile than their market-leading competitors. In contrast, larger enterprises retained their dominance by relying on infrastructure, scale, access to multiple markets and superior technology. The arrival of cloud computing has eroded these advantages, so it's no surprise that large companies are beginning to become concerned.
Built on systems that have seen long-term investment, large enterprises are not often in a position to "rip and replace" their underlying infrastructure. However, they can instead look at solutions that sit on top of existing systems. For example, there has been much talk of big data and the opportunities from crunching large volumes of it to react faster to changes in the market. This is a perfect challenge for cloud software. With its infinite computing power, businesses can tackle large volumes of data held within legacy systems and, as the cloud is ubiquitous, it should be easy to compare the data held in systems with data and insights from staff on the ground. This capacity empowers end users, and allows businesses to recognise market changes and respond to them quickly, all within a secure and reliable cloud model.

Building for the future
Taylor Wimpey, one of the UK's largest construction companies, is a great example of a leading business doing just this. The company threw out its old forecasting processes (a sprawling set of Excel spreadsheets which was running forecasts for 24 UK offices) in favour of a new cloud-based system that could be tightly integrated with its legacy infrastructure. By taking data from this new system, the business can now make decisions quicker and easier than ever before, removing the many hours of effort that had previously gone into distributing, managing and consolidating spreadsheets. With everyone working from the same central data, the reliability and trust in the figures drawn from it has also increased dramatically.
What's interesting in this case is that while responsibility for the application remained with the IT department, its day-to-day usage was the exclusive domain of business-decision makers. Overall, the process of generating a forecast was cut from eight weeks to mere days. What's more, the organisation could check forecasts based on the market conditions of that day allowing decisions to be made quickly, helping the business exploit new opportunities faster than their competitors.

Cloud as the enabler
The cloud is certainly enabling a new wave of startups and entrepreneurs to compete in a competitive and often global market, but larger businesses are also getting a piece of the action. When you consider the cloud's scalability, ubiquity and user centricity, it's clear that cloud should be on the agenda in some way for businesses of any size. The key factor is that reaping the benefits doesn't have to mark a complete overhaul of IT systems; it's just a case of applying the cloud where it works for you.