Cloud is designed to fail... so fail

Embrace the changes cloud brings and don't be scared to fail...Fail fast, but keep moving forward.

In today's technology driven world it's easy to be pulled into an endless stream of "buzzword bingo".

You know the terms I mean, 'disruption', 'culture of innovation', 'age of the application', 'consumerisation of IT'. We could go on forever.

Recently I put together a presentation on technology trends for my management. As I reviewed the deck, I found these terms, and many others, littered throughout.

The foundation of all these terms and business models can be summed up in one word, 'cloud'.

The distributed nature of cloud has brought about the 'democratisation of IT' (last buzz term in quotes, I promise).

This has shattered the cost barrier to IT - at least on the surface - and made it easier to architect and deploy new business solutions. However, the opportunity and threat to our businesses and careers goes much deeper.

Cloud has unleashed a complete revolutionary shift - where borders are irrelevant and the world is now your market, and your competitor.

Take Uber, for example. Uber took a cloud based technology platform and applied an aggressive business model on top, to create advantage and exploit a global transport market with little capital investment.

Established businesses have been practicing this for years - changing the rules before our eyes. Amazon sacrificed years of profits, leveraging cloud to gain market share and dominance.

Google makes their profits from search, yet their forays into new businesses - such as Google Glass - have provided valuable learnings and innovations that will drive future success.

Let's take a moment to look at smart watches. They have been around for awhile but Apple has given them relevance, even though a few startup brands have better products, in my opinion. However, Apple getting in has caused the Swiss watchmakers to respond, proving disruption can come from above and below.

Let's stop debating technology and platforms and start applying business solutions enhanced by cloud. The reality is, we don't have a choice and need to embrace this revolution. All of the legacy vendors thought cloud was an evolution, but it was not. The cloud revolution started in technology, but is now part of all of our businesses regardless of industry, size or geography.

My advice to you is to not only embrace the change, but drive it.

Fail fast, fail often, learn and empower your people to not only change your organisation, but perhaps your industry and the world. Now that is the power of the cloud.