FBlog

Do you know what Cloud computing is? Do you understand the implication of Cloud computing for a business, its brand and potentially the future of ‘work’?  If you are like most people – it is part of a whole new lexicon of terms and vocabulary which is re-defining business today. However, the reason why it has profound implications for branding is that amongst the UK’s fastest growing private companies, ‘Cloud computing’ services are ranked near the top of the list for where and what the most successful firms are having impact in the 2010 economy.  The old terms of ‘enterprise led computing’, ‘system integration’ and ‘outsourced data warehousing’ are still applicable – however, what ‘the Cloud’ now means is that the infrastructure of the past (the ‘IT crowd’ department) may in the future be redundant…literally and figuratively. Research Group Gartner forecasts that by 2014 the cloud computing sector will be worth several billion pounds and that a fifth of all Fortune 1,000 companies will have scrapped their own IT equipment entirely! So, what is this all about and who is behind it?

First of all, ‘Cloud’ computing is basically just the outsourcing of hardware (servers and data storage to you and I, plus web applications) to another firm. This ‘bundling’ of hardware and their correspondent services (e.g. email, data storage/retrieval/usage) for business are now handled off-site and via the internet. This is the ‘cloud’ of services which ‘floats’ above and outside of the firm outsourcing thus releasing capital that was previously tied up in cap ex/infrastructure costs to develop more business content, services and new product innovation. Ideally, using the ‘cloud’ to handle, drive and facilitate more transactions. It allows firms of various sizes (Small, Medium and Large) to transform the way they do business. They can gain increased capacity for business data transactions without the investment. They can scale to meet demand more effectively. They can manage customers, the supply chain and internal data in an integrated and efficient manner.  It is all about improving communication and productivity.

One of the main brands, unsurprisingly – behind Cloud computing is Microsoft as they drive a platform to help foster greater innovation in content, communications and efficiency for business. The UK Sunday Times ‘Tech Track’ report  features Cloud Computing as one of the hot trends associated with growth industries. Firms in this space are leading technology, design and business service innovation which is driving a new way of working and doing business. Along with Crowd-sourcing and On-line gaming, and price comparison aggregation the knowledge economy is alive and well and fuelling new jobs and growth.

Crowd-sourcing is the other growth industry and tool for fuelling ideas within a category or business segment. The wisdom of crowds  as coined by author James Surowiecki in his book by the same name is driving a whole new stream of innovation in products and services as firm’s try to engage, capitalize and commercialize their customer database and prospective customers to ‘co-create’ future products and services. This has led to both new software platforms being created, and new tools being offered in marketing services which help firm’s to identify, create, filter and manage potential content and assets. Similar to the IT investment ‘outsourcing’ for business services, the Crowd (as opposed to the Cloud) is making use of an external facility and ability to generate greater efficiency for a firm. The ‘Crowd’ can be both an internal audience (e.g. employees) OR an external audience (e.g. customers) and the ability to manage and leverage their input, interaction and ideas is potentially the competitive advantage that business needs.

But it is when the crowd and cloud start to combine that things get really exciting. When your people have access to their contacts, documents and applications from anywhere and any device, you liberate their potential to work flexibly. The boundaries of an office are no longer ‘barriers’ to productivity. Couple this with collaborative working processes and social technologies that bring diverse groups of people together and you immediately increase the size and expertise of your team – to include your customers, consumers and partners. All of which accelerates your ability to identify and solve problems as people work together across functions, time zones and operating businesses.

The Cloud and the Crowd are two forces which in combination are changing the way companies ‘do business’ and both have the potential to transform and generate economic value for a company. As Brands seek ways and means to drive more efficient service and pricing, while also seek to generate and drive added-value content and new revenue models – expect to see and hear more about the wisdom of the Cloud And the Crowd!