Determining the value of cloud for your enterprise? Just spell C-A-T

February 19, 2019

A blog post by David Linthicum, managing director, chief cloud strategy officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Back in my college professor days, I often used gimmicks to make it easier for my students to remember IT processes. While they seemed a bit hokey, they actually work.

Those who are tasked with determining the value of cloud computing have a complex job in front of them. There is much to remember, and most enterprises that get off track often forget to ask specific questions.

To make things easier, there is a simple way to remember what areas to focus on. Just remember to spell out C-A-T, cat.

C is for cost efficiency. While this was the primary focus of cloud computing in the past, it’s only part of the value equation now. However, you do need to determine how much money cloud computing could save you by reducing the amount of money spent on "as is" IT, meaning, traditional systems versus cloud-based systems.

A is for agility. While it’s often an afterthought and actually very difficult to measure, the true value of cloud computing is the ability to quickly change. Indeed, what cloud brings to most enterprises, and what provides the most value, is the ability to quickly adapt to business needs, such as building a new product line or acquiring a company.

Traditional IT has been very bad at this for years and can even hinder a business’s ability to grow. Faced with IT being the department of "no," for years many C-levels have demanded more IT agility. Cloud can bring that. You just need to determine how much in dollars that means to your business, and thus how much value cloud computing will bring.

Finally, T is for time-to-market. While directly related to agility, it’s a bit different. Time-to-market value of cloud computing means your ability to move fast versus change fast. This means that cloud computing can provide you with the ability to provision servers as quickly as they are needed, for any business purpose, such as expanding a product line, automating a mobile application that focuses on customers, or moving faster to increase product production.

While this acronym may seem like a gimmick, CAT could come in handy at your next meeting when you explain the value of cloud computing to less cloud-literate decision makers and business people. It works for me.