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Tapping the forces of change: Why cloud computing is the future

Ross Dawson, July 27, 2010 5:15 PM US PT

Through the month of August I will be doing the keynote address at a five-city Australian roadshow run by Telstra Business. I will open the breakfast events by providing a big picture view of how driving forces in technology, business and society are moving the world towards cloud computing, cloud working, cloud thinking, and cloud strategy.

I will be followed by Hugh Bradlow, Telstra's Chief Technology Officer, who will provide a more detailed vendor view of cloud computing.

There is no public website for the event; I was told to suggest you contact your Telstra account executive if you're interested in attending the event.

Below is a brief article I provided Telstra to help promote the event to their customers. I'll be fleshing out the thinking in this article in some further writing and quite possibly a cloud framework.

Tapping the forces of change

Take a deep breath. As you breathe in, think about the invisible substance that is all around us and sustains us, but we cannot see. Air is vital to us and fuels our energy. In the same way, businesses today are finding that access to a universe of computing resources on tap in the ether around them is helping to keep them healthy and drive their growth. A company's vitality increasingly depends on how readily it can breathe in this vital resource.

A confluence of powerful driving forces is driving the shift to cloud computing. In the domain of technology, exponential increases in bandwidth, rock-solid reliability, and mature technology platforms mean that on-demand computing resources now provide a compelling alternative to in-house computing.

However the business drivers are just as important. The rise of global competition and global opportunities, the need to innovate and reconfigure businesses at a ever-swifter pace, and the shift to technology as an enabler of new business models together provide a hefty impetus to the shift to cloud computing.

In the social domain, higher expectations, including of efficient use of energy and workplace computing that is as friendly as everyday web tools are changing how companies need to approach information technology.

Research shows that the performance gap between leading organisations and the laggards is increasing. One of the important drivers of this divergence is differing approaches to the use of enabling technologies. Technology alone does not drive company performance. However a potent mix of positive organisational culture and flexible technologies can provide a platform for increasing productivity and capturing ever-more fleeting market opportunities.

Join me to hear the key steps that companies can take to leverage the cloud, contain costs, increase revenue, and be at the top of the performance game.

For the most current insights and trends in the living networks, follow @rossdawson on Twitter!

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Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of four companies: professional services and venture firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy consulting group Future Exploration Network, leading events firm The Insight Exchange, and influence ratings start-up Repyoot.

Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.