When I first started my career, I encountered a common issue: the organizations I worked for seemed content to keep me in the same position indefinitely. Seeking career growth, I approached my managers for guidance on building a career path but was met with blank stares. Unsatisfied with this stagnation, I began identifying “vacuums”—areas where there was a need but a lack of skills to fill that need.

When I’m in the process of making a purchase, I often take a step back to observe the experience from a broader perspective. I enjoy analyzing the interactions between the parties involved and their overall approach to the exchange. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that many sales processes involve lies and manipulation just to close the deal. This often leaves me questioning whether ethical sales are even possible. However, I also recall positive sales experiences where both parties genuinely looked out for each other, aiming for a mutually beneficial outcome.

Back in July, I wrote a 2 part series on Demystifying the Cloud. You can find Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE. In parts 1 and 2, I talked through the different kinds of clouds, pros and cons and considerations for evaluating the cloud. While I definitely posted some opinion, I intentionally didn’t present a lot of opinion or speculation there. I have had some people asking for my take on the cloud, if it is right for them and where I see things going. So, back by popular demand, this is Part 3 of Demystifying the Cloud, where I’ll walk through my thoughts on the cloud.

One of the many areas where IT concepts dovetail well with the rest of the world is a conversation about whether you should use Best-of-Breed products or use a suite of products that optimally integrate with each other. This is similar to decisions we make in the rest of our life where we decide if we want the best possible individual product or if we want to pick the best collection of products that will work together optimally.

In the last blog, we defined the cloud and talked about what it was and wasn’t, various types of the cloud and so on. In this blog, let’s build on that and talk about the kinds of metrics and considerations you should make when considering whether or not to go into the cloud.

There has been quite a bit of talk and hype around a concept called the cloud that, I have found, really leaves people more confused than informed. The promise of low cost, rapid scalability, no CapEx costs, and no liability to maintain a system are very promising indeed. The question to ask is how much of this is hype and how much is actually real…I believe the reality is that there is a healthy blend of both.

When we engage with new clients, one of the top issues is that their technology spending is not aligned with their business needs. While it is also common to see technology that isn’t working right, we find that this is usually an indicator that an organization’s technology spending is not tied to business needs. This misalignment results in money being wasted because it is spent in the wrong places or spending is held back until there’s an emergency, at which time, the solution is usually a patch and more expensive. When we work with clients, we seek to start with a solid understanding of business objectives and drivers. From those drivers, we factor cost vs reward to figure out if various solutions are justified or will be a waste of money. The beauty of this is that we avoid wasting money and, if we determine to move forward with a solution, we have a clear understanding of exactly why we are doing it and what we are getting out of the solution.