IBM expands industry-specific cloud consulting services

• Cloud’s strategic importance to non-IT decision makers to double from 34% to 72%
• IBM aims to help front office leaders rapidly deploy business content for business value

IBM has expanded its Cloud Consulting Services portfolio with a customisable cloud strategy offering for industry and line of business buyers, and is also developing a catalogue of fast-start industry solutions delivered as a service for cloud-based applications.

“Delivering more personalised services to customers with greater speed is a significant priority for businesses today,” said Sanjay Rishi, managing partner, IBM Cloud Consulting Services.
 
“In the era of cloud, the agenda of front office decision makers places a premium on flexibility and the ability to experiment. With these new cloud offerings, IBM will help front office leaders rapidly deploy business content for business value,” he claimed.

To date, the IT industry has primarily focused on ‘one size fits all’ approaches to migrating workloads and applications to the cloud – scalable computing purchased on a usage model, IBM said in a statement.
 
This shift extends the value of cloud to line of business leaders as an engine for growth that can accelerate business outcomes.
 
In fact, a recent IBM survey reports that during the next three years, the cloud’s strategic importance to top decision makers, from CEOs and CMOs (chief executive and marketing officers) to HR (human resource), finance and procurement executives, is poised to double from 34% to 72% – surpassing their IT counterparts at 58%.

In order to fully realise the benefits of converting to a cloud environment, enterprises need to build a solid business-based cloud strategy and clear implementation roadmap.
 
IBM said it utilises a proven methodology and assessment tools tailored to each client’s desired business outcomes.
 
For instance, the company offers a unique cloud adoption framework and the IBM Cloud Workload Analysis Tool to analyse an existing environment and determine the cloud computing model best suited for the business model.
 
Using the tool, IBM consultants help the client identify and prioritise the business areas and workloads that, when migrated to a cloud computing model, deliver the most benefit by reducing costs and improving service delivery.

To further jump-start a client’s deployment to the cloud, IBM is developing a catalogue of pre-integrated solutions that address priority business needs industry by industry, while making cloud easier to adopt and consume for line of business leaders, the company said.

Fast-start industry solutions

The IBM fast-start industry solutions, which are hosted on a private cloud using SoftLayer and offered as a managed service through IBM Global Business Services, are designed to meet the growing demand from clients for rapid deployment, implementation and experimentation.

This as-a-service model enables clients in vertical industries – such as banking, insurance, retail, telecom and energy and utilities – to have key business applications up and running very quickly without the need to provision additional infrastructure and compute power, IB< said.
 
This advantage significantly reduces the time it takes to deploy new applications from weeks or months to a matter of hours or days, and accelerates time-to-value for their business, the company claimed.
 
Related stories:
 
Better together: Bridging the CMO-CIO divide
 
CMOs: The CIO may be your best friend, says IDC
 
The CIO: The cloud changes the game even more

 
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