ZDNet Cloud TV: Savvy businesses looking at ways cloud can make money (full video)
The jury is still out on whether cloud can save you money, says Gartner research director, Michael Warrilow.
While we wait for the jury to come back in on the cost-saving question, Warrilow says savvy businesses are looking to make money from cloud adoption. Businesses in the gaming (gambling), digital media, and media sectors are taking advantage of cloud's scaling potential to meet peaks in demand for services, he adds.
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Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) businesses have started to ramp up adoption of cloud in the last 12 months, in contrast to the situation a year ago when there was still a lot of resistance to cloud. "It's like a switch has been turned and a light has gone off," says Warrilow.
Warrilow was talking to ZDNet Cloud TV about what's happening with cloud in the APAC region.
The entry of some of the larger global cloud players into the local market has played a part in the growing acceptance of cloud in ANZ, Warrilow explains.
He says some of the traditional heavy users of IT have not necessarily been the ones that have moved first with cloud. In the government sector, for instance, he has seen different approaches ranging from "complete rejection to wholesale adoption." By contrast, organisations in the services and retail sectors are moving ahead with cloud.
Cloud has a higher priority in China than in any other economy, according to Gartner's 2014 global CIO research study. Other North Asian countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong are also moving ahead with cloud while Japan is moving less quickly, although local cloud services are springing up. South East Asian countries are also moving to cloud, but at a slower pace.
Warrilow cautions businesses against "falling into cloud", where small projects expand into larger initiatives and where the proper due diligence isn't done.
Some of the more prevalent use-cases for cloud right now are software development and testing and disaster recovery. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) also provides opportunities with Warrilow emphasising there are "a lot of discrete applications… better off handled by a 3rd party."
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