In our last blog on cloud adoption in mid-sized companies, we highlighted a survey that said “58 percent of executives and IT staff surveyed reported a significant increase in their understanding of the cloud.” This is great news, right?
Yes, it is. However, we have to discuss a critical disconnect that is still inhibiting the adoption of private clouds: chief information officers and CEOs are not necessarily always on the same page. Our discussions with customers (and various other sources, such as our friend Andi Mann, who recently participated in an interview on just this topic) tell us that CIOs not only understand private clouds and the benefits associated with automation and management solutions, but they are also actively trying to sell it internally to their CEOs and chief financial officers. To do so, CIOs need to think like their CEOs.
Virtualization was on the IT must-have list years ago, and it required CEO convincing back then, too. Virtualization was only the beginning of a company’s journey to a private cloud, realizing the increased flexibility, agility and cost-savings that it can provide. If you’ve implemented virtualization to improve agility and flexibility then you are probably off to a good start on positioning private cloud(s) to your CEO. Private clouds can evolve from being perceived as “infrastructure” to support the business to becoming a strategic enabler that not only drives down costs but also improves customer service. Competitive advantage? In certain cases, yes…
For both CIOs and CEOs, the benefits are often overshadowed by the challenges. A disconnect in expectations, results, and deliverables often creates tension and is manifested through misaligned priorities. The creation of a cloud requires people, process, and technology. Process re-engineering, aligning business goals with IT objectives, and ensuring the right measurements and people are in place is quickly becoming a requirement, not a nice to have. Companies need to embrace a pragmatic path toward a true private cloud so that CEOs do not have to fathom ripping and replacing an investment they made a few years or months ago.
It is especially useful to go into meetings with the CEO with solutions that deliver critical private cloud computing competencies quickly and effectively in order to deliver infrastructure as a service to customers. With a private cloud automation solution such as Embotics’ V-Commander, companies can promise their CEOs that virtualization is a strategic business enabler by establishing standardized processes for tasks such as requesting new services or fulfilling requests for change.
