While putting together lessons learned from our Cloud-related Enterprise Strategy engagements, we consolidated a set of recurring IT drivers.

The improvement of IT services and operations can deliver benefits such as improved service levels and cost savings. The Cloud offers numerous routes to IT optimization.

10 IT Drivers for the Cloud
Some of the key IT drivers for the Cloud include:

1. A lack of internal skills, leading to increased external resource costs.
2. Existing outsource refresh cycle points can generate the opportunity to consider alternative approaches.
3. IT refreshes falling behind accelerating business-cycle demands.
4. Joint collaboration, outsourcing and provisioning discussions that need more than transactional outsourcing models.
5. The desire not to rely on specialists for commodity capabilities such as email.
6. The desire to focus investments in core business areas and not IT – given IT is not what the business is about.
7. The desire to move away from in-house development in order to lower cost.
8. The desire to reduce the growing levels of external and internal resources needed to support day-to-day operations.
9. The need to accelerate the improvement of infrastructure maturity to drive cost savings and to deliver new IT and business capabilities.
10. The need to scale up and down IT to meet increased demands and changing markets, together with the introduction of new business organizations for example caused by mergers and acquisitions.

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