# Cloud Drivers*

There are many drivers that may move a company to consider cloud computing. These may include the costs associated with the ownership of their current IT infrastructure solutions as well as projected costs to continue to maintain these solutions year in and year out.

  • Reduction in Capital Expenditure (CapEx)
  • Reduction in IT Complexity
  • Consumption-Based Pricing
  • Business Agility

# Reduction in Capital Expenditure (CapEx)

# Capital Expenditure (CapEx)

  • Buildings
  • Computer Equipment

# Operational Expenditure (OpEx)

  • Utility Costs
  • Maintenance

# Reduction in IT Complexity

  • Risk Reduction. Users can use the cloud to test ideas and concepts before making major investments in technology.
  • Scalability. Users have access to a large number of resources that scale based on user demand.
  • Elasticity. The environment transparently manages a user's resource utilization based on dynamically changing needs.

# Consumption-Based Pricing

  • Virtualization. Each user has a single view of the available resources, independent of their arrangement in terms of physical devices.
  • Cost. The pay-per-usage model allows an organization to pay only for the resources it needs with basically no investment in the physical resources available in the cloud. There are no infrastructure maintenance or upgrade costs.

# Business Agility

  • Mobility. Users can access data and applications from around the globe.
  • Collaboration and Innovation. Users are starting to see the cloud as a way to work simultaneously on common data and information.