Page 163 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

IT REORG ANIZES

interfaces that assemble the specialized app needed in a par-
ticular business domain on command.
In the end, cloud computing will impose both a greater
flexibility and new complexities on the computer profession-
als attempting to harness its forces. As Dell’s Forrest Norrod
so aptly observed, supporting the buildout of the cloud,

whether public or private, “changes the economics of IT.” Sud-
denly IT can do a lot more to enable end users to get the soft-
ware they want without requiring a lot more in budget or staff
resources. But it will have to reorganize with the cloud in mind
and bring its best energies to bear on capitalizing on cloud
resources for such a transformation to take place.
Ultimately, the cloud is a democratizing force, extending

more computer resources to those whose access was formerly
rationed. The degree to which IT recognizes the shift and all
the potential it unleashes may determine how crucial its role
will be in the next generation of computing. The bet here is
that IT is one of the indispensable leaders in moving an or-
ganization from the age of constrained computer resources to
the more open-ended, digital-sky-is-the-limit era of rapidly
enhanced resources. To fulfill that role, the computer profes-
sional will need to be in a new and nearly coequal partnership

with the end user in pushing forward all the options and ini-
tiatives of the cloud revolution.

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