Author: Howard M. Cohen
In earlier days, computer salespeople talked to their customers about which server, which storage, which network, and from which manufacturers. Customers didn’t really have a foundation for using what they were being told to make a decision.The conversation is all about the better business outcomes you’re seeking and how to assure that you get them. Here’s how to stop talking tech and start talking business results!
In earlier times, computer salespeople would describe the power of a computer’s processor and the speed. They’d emphasize the ‘huge’ memory and storage provided, and the sharpness of the display, the clarity of the sound, and other features.
Many customers didn’t totally follow all the speeds and feeds, the specifications, or why one was better for them than another. This led many to make their decisions based on brand names, things that sounded bigger, better, and faster, or the advice of their friends.
More Relevant Decisions
Today, when you decide to use computers to solve problems, your decision making is based more on the actual business outcomes you’re seeking. Better performance of specific processes. Targeted increases in revenue and reductions in cost to yield far superior profits.
Doesn’t that just sound better?
That’s because it is. As a business leader, your focus should always be on how to improve the performance of your business. Greater efficiency. Cost-reduction. Increased revenue. Happier customers, employees, and stakeholders. Not speeds and feeds.
The Cloud Clobbered Computer Confusion
The computing industry changed dramatically as cloud computing became more prevalent and continues to do so today.
For one thing, the conversations between computer salespeople and customers about technical specifications and capacities ended as the need for customers to purchase their own servers and storage receded and all but disappeared. No need to discuss the specifics of servers when you don’t need to buy a server.
Cloud computing service providers didn’t discuss what servers they were using because most customers didn’t care. They wanted to consume computing, not computers.
Today, even the technical experts who serve corporate executives are no longer concerned with which servers, storage, and other infrastructure components are in use. They are far more focused on cost per byte of storage, cost per second of compute. Variability of cost based on targeted consumption.
They are also concerned about the complement of services available from a given cloud computing service and making sure they are configured properly and performing well.
It’s a completely different conversation.
The Growing Divide and How to Manage It
As cloud computing continues to mature and grow, an important divide is emerging that benefits customers who recognize it.
That divide is between foundation services, and structural services. Similar to building a building, we must first provide a firm foundation, and then build a structure upon it.
In cloud computing, the cloud service itself provides the foundation. When the foundation remains firm, customers have the opportunity to focus on building out the structure that best delivers the business outcomes they seek.
Keeping the foundation firm, however, is not as simple as it is in the construction industry. In cloud computing, that foundation requires vigilant observation and proper management to continue to adapt to the ever-increasing requirements imposed upon it.
So, the less you have to pay attention to the components and how they work, the more you can focus on your business. In the cloud, the less you have to pay attention to the foundation, the more you can focus on the applications and workloads that actually drive the business.
How Do I Forget About the Foundation?
Facing facts truthfully, we never really forget about anything. But you do want to find someone else to worry about the proper functioning of the cloud services foundation so you can concentrate on that which yields the best results.
When companies maintained their own data centers or network closets, they routinely engaged computer service companies to monitor, manage, and maintain them.
Cloud computing moved all that responsibility to the cloud service provider, with the exception of that space where the applications and workload structured upon the foundation met the foundation.
Today, you need someone to focus on those applications, protect them from internal and external attack, and assure full-time performance. That someone is Idenxt.
Application Protection
Idenxt combines the expertise of a team of Azure veterans with the best of platform AI automation tools in the industry to carefully watch and assure the ongoing high performance of every application you run to run your business.
Narrow your focus. When you trust your computing to Azure, trust the application and workload protection of everything you run on Azure to Idenxt.
To learn more, contact us here.