Arancha La Porte, Corporate Marketing & Communications

The constantly changing pace of life, the new way of doing business and continuous challenges placed on us by the market are changing the way in which we usually provide services to clients. In a complicated economic context such as today’s, what we used to do a couple of years ago is no longer of any use.

The 2.0 world is transforming the world, the markets and business. Given the current situation, companies must adapt quickly to the volatile market environment if they wish to be successful. Only the strongest and those who manage to adapt to the circumstances will be able to survive.

New business and collaboration models are emerging at increasingly short intervals. Companies depend on their clients and these, meanwhile, depend on their own customers and the services they provide. If everything goes well for one of them, the others thrive too. If it goes badly, this also has a negative effect on the whole chain.

New technologies and the major possibilities they provide allow companies to establish a series of basic requirements that are adapted to the current situation: the adjustment of services to clients’ occasional needs and the resulting cost reduction.

Nobody remains untouched by the passing of time. What we want today is not what we want tomorrow. Companies increasingly need technological infrastructures that adapt to the current pace of their work, their methods for creating business and the specific demands of their clients. As a result, it can be said that in the future, as well as now, in the present, we will refuse rigid structures that fail to adapt to any and all circumstances. We will, however, understand dynamic services that are adapted to specific needs.

Renting ICT resources instead of purchasing them, for example, is one way of facing up to current challenges. This is transforming the relationship between external technology suppliers and service users, that is, the organisations, whether public or private.

Scalable technological services and infrastructures are increasingly in demand, as are web-based platforms and applications. In this way, we can guarantee that the client will get dynamic and on-demand access to ICT resources through a range of platforms and networks, including a model increasingly available in our country – Cloud Computing.

Adjusting to today’s situation, understanding the needs and demands of clients and being aware of market realities are the key to facing up to this storm and coming through unscathed when the economic recovery that we’re all eagerly waiting for takes place.

Enrique Rollán Rollán, Head of Computing Services & Solutions T-Systems Iberia

Since the Cloud Computing concept first emerged, the interest shown over the last few years has increased at an astonishing rate in many different areas, for example in the world of business. This is due to the fact that entrepreneurs have seen its potential in a good light and appreciate that this new model for outsourcing services offers a wealth of possibilities.

According to analysts, about 60% of CIOs consider that by 2014 the Cloud will be the most important IT operative system. This comes as no surprise, as the introduction of this service in companies offers them big advantages, such as a permanently connected platform, available whenever they need it, anywhere, any time; another very significant advantage is that it can be used by any device with Internet access, essential in today’s globalised world, where mobility plays a key role. Furthermore, this represents an injection for our economy, as Cloud Computing is expected to bring in an estimated 110,000 million euros plus for Spain between 2010 and 2015.

The current economic context has led us to demand cost-cutting solutions which will, at the same time, represent a good investment. This reasoning ensures the success of the Cloud, because it means that now companies will not have to spend large sums of money on technological infrastructures in order to externalise their IT services, as they will only have to pay for the services they use. This all adds up to a reduction in costs, many of which will becomes variable rather than fixed rate, thanks to the fact that this system does not require continual updating, maintenance, etc.

So, if the advantages are undeniable and its introduction is becoming increasingly well accepted by large companies, what is the barrier to its success in other fields? Most technology managers see security threats as the biggest risk entailed by the Cloud. This is because, as it is a relatively new service, users are a little reluctant to place themselves in the hands of a new data management provider and set of applications and this is why security reasons are given as the main issue regarding use of the Cloud model.

Data and information are the support of almost all business models. To gain the trust of clients and partners, it is essential to ensure safe and responsible data management. What is more, national privacy and security laws vary from country to country and are continually being modified in order to avoid legal voids in the areas of new technologies. Therefore, the support of a technology partner with whom we can consult at any time regarding these matters is essential for the correct functioning of any business, as this leaves the enterprise free to centre on its core business and on improving its productivity, secure in the knowledge that the technological area is in expert hands.

Although there is still a lot more work to be done on the Cloud regarding security issues, it is safe to say that all IT contractors have perfectly appropriate security policies in place, which can fully guarantee this system.

That is why, instead of allowing security issues ‘cloud’ the benefits of Cloud Computing, we should pose the question of whether the success of this new model rests on the development of a relationship of trust with users, and that all parties, both contractors and companies, achieve responsible and safe use of this kind of technology.