Top 10 Reasons Why Utility Computing Would Work In Your Business

This is a post that I currently have on the Hoolipot website. I wanted to repost it here for a couple of reasons … firstly, with the help of a wonderful web designer (more on that later) I’m planning to replace the old version of the Hoolipot site with a vastly improved one … and secondly, because I figured that this list could come in useful to people who visit the blog but not the website!

So, in reverse Letterman style, here are the top 10 reasons that you should consider Utility Computing in your business today:

1. These are tough economic times – and you need to be sure that you are focusing on growing your business and reducing costs. You don’t waste customer-facing time worrying about electricity, gas, water or the telephone … don’t do it for your business applications either. Grow your business instead!
2. You want to save money – and you can do that by increasing the productivity of your key resources. Don’t under-utilize your staff having them do things they’re not trained to do. Instead, let them focus on the ways they add real value to your business. You wouldn’t cancel courier services and ask your assistant to deliver all your packages …
3. You want flexibility – and you thought that having your own IT equipment would provide that. But you soon find that the highest IT costs aren’t component costs but labor costs, maintenance costs, electricity costs, and other secondary expenses – and that owning your own equipment ends up reducing your flexibility rather than increasing it
4. You want to focus on your core business – and not spend time away from your customers fixing IT problems. How much time do you currently spend working on your computer equipment/applications/backups? Wouldn’t that time be better spent with your customers?
5. Your business data is critical to your business – and you need to know its safe and secure. How often do you backup your data? Where are those backups kept? When was the last time you tried to “restart” your business using those backups? If your business premises were destroyed in a fire, how long would it take you to recover?
6. Your business data is critical to your business – and you want it in the hands of a professional. Just like you wouldn’t ask your receptionist to fix the brakes on your car (unless he/she was also a licensed mechanic), your business data/applications should be maintained by an expert. It’s just that important!
7. You want to be able to access your applications from anywhere – how convenient it would be to be able to connect to your business applications from the office, from home, from a customer site or from on the road. Just like Gmail or Hotmail, your applications and data are available anywhere at anytime
8. Your business isn’t IT – so why are you doing it? When you get your tax prepared; your car repaired; your dry-cleaning done; your documents couriered; your office cleaned; or your dinner delivered, you are outsourcing. Spend more time focusing on your core business – and less time worrying about the tools
9. You want to reduce capital spending – there’s no need for you to spend money on expensive servers. “Back-end” computer hardware is an investment that no longer needs to burden your business. And if you don’t need it, now is not the time to sink capital into it
10. You run one of California’s small businesses – and like the other 637,737 business owners in the same boat, you know that there are real financial benefits (cost reductions between 12% – 17% annually according to Forrester Research) to IT outsourcing, but its only been available to big corporations … until now

What do you think? Is this something that you have done … are considering … or would never do?

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