Not so long ago it seemed that the discussion of cloud within the walls of the IT department at many an organization was a big “don’t go there”. Cloud was a menacing ogre that once it got its wart-ridden hands into your IT world, your job was going bye-bye. When it came to conversations about cloud, IT admins either tactfully veered away from them or, not so tactfully, explicitly refused to have anything to do with them.
Fast forward to today and reality has taken a quite different tack. IT folks responsible for their organization’s infrastructure no longer fear the cloud – in fact many have embraced it for doing something they never thought possible – protecting their job instead of doing away with it. Why? Because cloud frees up IT admins to focus on activities that are core to growing the business – something that is becoming a fundamental goal for IT – instead of simply keeping the lights on. Cloud enables IT to become a proactive force in an organization. Among its many benefits, using cloud for IT infrastructure cuts down on a ton of maintenance headaches and reduces capital expenses – not to mention all the soft costs it reduces too. But there are many cloud providers and many different clouds available and it becomes a question of finding the cloud that best fits your business and is easy to manage.
To be an integral part of an organization’s growth strategy, IT departments have to become more agile and responsive to business needs. For many customers, iland’s cloud has become the infrastructure platform of choice because it is based on VMware technology and hence offers a strong familiarity for users. iland’s Enterprise Cloud Services management portal has been lauded by analysts and customers alike as a tool that has transformed the lives of IT professionals – well, at least within their IT departments:). The transparency and visibility they get into their cloud infrastructure resources gives them control and management capabilities they never thought existed in the public cloud. And the portal’s forecasting capabilities are tremendously useful for budgeting purposes and the avoidance of surprise bills.
When the burden of managing IT infrastructure is relieved by cloud-based infrastructure that’s easy to control and very transparent, IT staff gain the opportunity to become significant contributors to an organization’s bottom line. As the cloud tide turns and gains momentum within IT departments everywhere, so the fear of job loss ebbs away as more folks embrace the cloud and the job security it promises for the future.
