FD Insights Issue 4 | Page 28

The Quiet Revolution:
How Cloud Computing
is Changing The World
Without You Knowing
Joe Baguley, CTO for VMware EMEA, talks
through the impact cloud is having on
businesses and wider life…

W

hen it comes to emerging technologies, there is
one phrase that has drawn more controversy than
others: cloud computing. Two words which have
driven countless debates, caused numerous arguments in
IT departments and, more often than we’d care to admit,
have left many in the industry deeply confused!
But interest has continued to increase and many organisations have moved elements of their IT into the cloud. We’ve
also become accustomed to the idea of storing our personal
data in the cloud, whether it’s via Dropbox, the iCloud or
even Facebook.
But this really only tells half the story.
So far cloud computing has, for the most part, been used
to speed up and reduce the costs of existing processes. As
Henry Ford supposedly said, “If I had asked my customers
what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” It
is only now, as the Cloud journey grows more maturity, that
we can begin to see the full potential to transform business
models and working practices.
We’re moving into what is becoming known as the mobile/
cloud era. Our thinking is being shaped by several key
areas: the need for flexible IT infrastructure, the emergence
of big data analytics and increased mobile usage. But how
can we use these ideas to help organisations not only improve but transform their internal processes? Just as email
rendered the memo as obsolete, cloud computing is set to
impact on the way we do business, offering a competitive
advantage to those organisations bold enough to think
outside the accepted.
Frimley Park Hospital, for example, is an NHS Foundation
Trust serving more than 400 000 people across its region.

With budgets cuts beginning to bite, the hosp ital looked
to innovate its IT systems in order to save cash without
impacting front-line services. Thanks to the Cloud, Frimley
Park’s staff are now able to access all clinical records from
tablets, meaning patients experience an increased level of
one-to-one care. Additionally, the savings in IT mean that
the organisation is able to push more resources into patient
care rather than tying it up in back-office maintenance.
And in the private sector, businesses such as online
gaming company Betfair are using the Cloud to ensure
they stay ahead of their competitors and can offer exciting
new options to its established customer base. These days
customers are used to having instant, mobile access to
the latest odds as well as the ability to bet in-game and
receive real-time feedback. Without the Cloud this would
be impossible. For Betfair, cloud technology is critical as
the organisation looks to react quickly to market events,
creating and deploying new applications in time to capitalise
on key trends.
WorldPay, one of the leading online payment providers, has
also benefited from cloud technologies. Time has always
been a valuable commodity for businesses, and now, with
the world moving at a faster pace than ever before, its worth

VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel [phone] Fax [phone] www.vmware.com

Copyright © 2013 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed
at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be
trademarks of their respective companies.

26 | www.firstdistribution.co.za