Often due to the new technologies and the changing trends, CIOs face countless challenges. Two of such challenges are: The revolution of smartphones and tablets (i.e. BYOD – Bring Your Own Device). Another is the loss of control of the use of IT, when IT managers are no longer able to decide about their IT infrastructure or in-house data centers.

The reason is very simply, if you go beyond BYOD, we have cloud computing technology available in the market which enables user to utilize computational power and services without getting CIOs involved in the process.

These moves accelerate the wear process, already underway in the areas of IT, viewed by many companies as specified providers of support, without greater involvement with business strategies. If this is the ambition of IT, okay. It is fulfilling its role, however, it runs the risk of seeing your status going down every day. Nothing prevents from, over time, be replaced by other services, which providers more flexibility and are cost-effective. In year 2004, a jounalist named Nicholas Carr discussed this issue in his book “Does IT Matter?” which was one of the best and recommended book for reading.

Arguably, we can see that now companies are seeking at and using IT strategically, however these examples are the exceptions, not the majority. Given this framework, IT must modify themselves and transform. They must assume another role, acting not so reactive, but proactively, looking directly towards contributing to the revenue generation of the organization. This change requires a new mental model for IT managers. It has become necessary for companies to get out from the comfort zone, where the world is connected to the ERP (Enterprise resource planning) implementation, e-mails and infrastructure, and enter a world of “pull” innovation. Enter a world of applications described at least as “unusual”, comparing their own infrastructure with Internet companies in the world and not just with enterprises within the same industry or the same size.

In order to be developed for the Internet, enterprises and organizations need to leave the world in which they are developed for the intranet applications.

Cloud computing hosting can be a powerful weapon to offer this transformation in IT and has expanded quite rapidly. In a survey conducted by IBM in conjunction with the EIU has proved this fact that cloud computing is a quite powerful tool which can help in IT transformation. In a poll conducted, around 600 IT executives and businesses participated. As a result, it was clear that about 72% of companies worldwide make use of cloud computing or cloud-based services. Also, the figure of cloud computing users (enterprises and organizations) will rise up to 90%.

Moreover, the other survey conducted shows that almost half of the U.S. companies have adopted a policy of “Cloud First”, i.e. preference to cloud computing based solutions would be given in any decision to adopt technological solutions.

Today, most of the SMBs still see cloud computing as a way to improve the efficiency of their infrastructure, however, is not recognized as a force for itself leveraging IT transformation. The research has also shown signs of Economist Intelligence Unit changing this scenario. Most of the companies have started identifying that the cloud-based services can help them accelerate business innovation and the trend “cloud and leverages innovation” is likely to accelerate in the coming years. The survey showed that while efficiency in IT infrastructure is the driver of short-term, most companies already understood that, strategically, the cloud will have a key role.

Thinking “outside the box” and forgetting the current model of buying on-premise hardware and software (based on the model CAPEX), will it be replaced by another product, anchored in OPEX (operating expenses)? What could we do if the computational resources available to us were unlimited? What could we do if we could, quickly and inexpensively develop new products and services? Can we leave the model to provision computing resources to test an application that takes weeks to twenty minutes? What if the iime for installation of an OS decrease from day to day half hour? What if the design and delivery of an application plunged and have to wait for months?

An interesting examples are Netflix, which can withstand critical variations of computational demand simply allocating more virtual servers without maintaining your own data center. Or a small e-commerce business, that can run an analytic application that analyzes a billion page views generated on monthly visits to your site in a cloud of virtual servers, thereby achieving what once only large retailers could scale with their own servers.

The survey conduced by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) have shown three different models, each varying degrees of opportunities, but also varying degrees of risk. A disruptive company can achieve a unique benefit by taking the lead and creating a new market, but at the risk of going into a business model unproven and possibly unsuccessful.

So with cloud computing being seen as a strategic weapon, not just an alternative to improve IT efficiency, we can transform the very limited role of your IT provider to support an active business. It is at this point that begins to make sense of a sentence said by Gartner, untranslated here not to lose its effect: “In 2021, cloud computing is simply computing, corporate office parks are senior housing facilities and the IT organization of the future has been absorbed by the business.”

• Internal IT becomes an internal cloud
• IT becomes a services broker
• IT will become a function of the business
• Cloud technology enables businesses and IT to create and deliver value in fundamentally new ways.

Helps to build enduring customer relationship: Businesses can obtain clients insight and utilize it to improve the quality of products & services as well as developing trust and loyalty among the constituents.

Helps in improving the speed and skills: With cloud hosting services, businesses can easily optimize and accelerate the delivery of IT computing resources and services and serve them with a better and flexible business model.

Helps in delivering IT without boundaries: Cloud computing can also aid businesses in unlocking the value of their new IT and business processes that breaks down the traditional silo, simplifying the access to the enterprise data and connect people across your ecosystem.

Helps in transforming the economics of IT: It can also aid companies in improving their speed in delivering the new offerings and services with better and enhanced models like self-service and deployment.

Well, this requires that IT managers and business executives take together the IT strategy (cloud should not be exclusive IT, because it is much more than technology infrastructure), with goals and business objectives to be achieved in the short and medium term. Evaluating a good cloud hosting india provider is much important. Hence, make sure you have a list of your needs in hand and identify the right kind of tools that will help you improve your businesses processes.