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Smart Companies will not Miss Cloud Computing Wave

“We are sitting amidst the single biggest technological change brought about by cloud computing and smart companies will know how important it is to ride the new wave,” he added.

He was speaking at a Press conference to announce seventh annual EMC Telecom Summit for the Middle East, North-West Africa and Turkey to be held in Dubai on March 3.

The annual summit is designed to offer senior executives for leading telecom operators greater insights into the challenges and opportunities facing the industry today. It will provide the strategic context required to transform IT infrastructures from cost centres into new business and revenue generating engines for growth.

Describing cloud computing as journey, Teuber, said instead of looking at it as a set of technologies, organisations should look on it as a model for delivering, managing and consuming information technology resources and services. “Cloud computing profoundly changes how information and technology resources are managed and provisioned to the business, offering the promise of a dramatically more efficient and effective model for delivering IT as a revenue generating service,” he said.

Explaining EMC’s approach to the whole concept, he said that despite the slowdown that affected the global economy and hit IT spending in 2009, the information and infrastructure solutions company, has continued to invest and acquire companies that help them deliver better IT solutions to the consumers. “To begin with we were primarily an information infrastructure company, but five years ago we realised the need to becoming leaders in virtual infrastructure. We realised that virtualisation of technology was the way forward since it allows you to use your infrastructure as one pool of resources which is ultimately the most important aspect of 
cloud computing.”

He also said that while most companies still rely on data centres to stack up their content, in the next one year they would be embracing virtual data centres which will more or less become their internal cloud. This would be used to manage and use their more secure applications and data. Along the way they will also reach out for the external or the public cloud domain to extend their capabilities on a more flexible, dynamic and pay-as-you-go approach. “As a company we want to be leaders of the next age of virtual data centres,” Teuber said.

Speaking at the conference, Mohammed Amin, regional manager, EMC Turkey, North West Central Africa and Middle East, said he was optimistic that companies in the region would quickly embrace the virtues of cloud computing and that there were major players who had expressed their eagerness to jump on to the bandwagon.

Dismissing the notion that the Middle East lagged behind in the adoption of new technology, Amin said that from an implementation standpoint there was very little that separated organisations here from those in the developed markets.

He said telecom operators in the region are facing a great pressure on prices and this has helped open up the market for value-added services. “Companies cannot afford to go slow in the current market scenario, so they are all looking at ways to not only trim costs but provide better value to their customers. This is where they will

Both Teuber and Amin were of the opinion that there will be more regulations on the telecom service providers in the region by the end of this year, but maintained that it will not lead to increased costs experience the true benefits of cloud computing.”

“Right now most organisations are spending 70 per cent of their IT budget on maintenance of infrastructure. Ideally they would want to split it 50 per cent with innovation. Cloud computing can help them get there,” said Teuber. 


anshuman@khaleejtimes.com