Page 203 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

Y O UR CL OUD STRATEG Y: WHAT KIND O F COMPANY DO Y O U W ANT?

would drive the project asunder versus why proven compo-
nents were simply not up to the job.
All was going well until someone pointed out that a key
existing subassembly was in short supply and there was no
second source. The best brains in manufacturing were brought
in, but no solution suggested itself other than to redesign the

prototype. No one wanted to do that at such a late date, so
the team leader turned to his ring of personal acquaintances
on LinkedIn, seeking a reference to a young, eager company
that could be trained in the work of building a new sub-
assembly. A strong candidate emerged from the process.
An additional collaboration site was set up in an external
cloud so that engineers at the new subassembly maker could

talk with engineers at the manufacturer. The project leader
at the new supplier even had access to the manufacturer’s in-
ternal cloud sites. In fact, several additional virtual machines
had been provisioned by the project team, and three of them
were sitting idle, wasting resources. In a routine sweep,
IT discovered their lack of activity in the fourth week and
decommissioned them, with the project team’s permission.
The team leader attributed the overprovisioning to the over-
zealousness of certain valued team members.

The product was launched on time to head off the compe-
tition, and customers were impressed by what it could do.
Three months after the launch, the company Web site suddenly
experienced a rush of product information requests along with
increased purchase activity. Minute analysis of click-through
activity on the site showed that many of the competitor’s

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