Brenda Michelson at elemental cloud computing/a> drew my attention to a Mckinsey Premium Report, "Time to raise CIO's game."
“Since the downturn began, many CIOs have scrambled to control costs by delaying investments where possible and pushing service providers to cut prices. Some CEOs are raising cash through the sale and leaseback of assets such as data centers. But as competition intensifies, a more fundamental restructuring of IT operations will be in order.Certain companies are rethinking their current approaches to procurement in hopes of replacing the current model of capital spending on infrastructure with a more flexible approach to operating expenditures.
Basically the argument FOR cloudcomputing can be summarized as you won't get any more capital, so you better find money in your operating expenses. The stark choice is to do nothing and fail, or move to a variable, demand driven model that aligns with the business operational metrics.
This is something we've seen quite a bit in this recession. Even today, as we reviewed a pricing proposal, the question we confronted was, "what's the right metric." The old metrics are known, but prevent the customer from buying. The new metrics are about shared success, so they are better. But they are new, so it means stepping outside the comfort zone.
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