This is an excerpt from our e-guide, GET SET & GET SMART – 5 powerful tools you need for business, produced in partnership with IBM
If there’s one thing that can almost instantly make your business faster, better and smarter, it is Cloud technology. You probably use cloud computing of some kind already, whether you’ve made the switch at work or access cloud-based services at home.
Yet some of you still might be wondering what ‘the Cloud’ actually is. Don’t worry, you are not alone.
In a nutshell, Cloud is software as a service, on demand. It’s a more efficient and much more flexible way to work, with services available as and when you need them, from data centres to communication platforms.
For faster turnaround, better results, lower costs and smarter business practices, join the hundreds of businesses who have already jumped into the Cloud.
SUITS YOU
There is a Cloud to suit any business, no matter what size or what objective. IBM is able to deliver secure private, public or hybrid cloud solutions. That means that you can combine ‘virtual’ servers (housed at IBM data centres) and ‘physical’ servers (kept at your own premises) to create a Cloud solution tailored to you. Providing the flexibility, control and security that’s right for your business.
IT’S ELASTIC
Flexibility is possibly the greatest advantage of Cloud solutions. Cloud can stretch and shrink according to your business needs, at any time. Seasonal lull? You won’t be paying for services you don’t need. Explosion in activity? Cloud can meet the demand, providing any additional functionality or data storage required on a pay-as-you-go basis. In today’s changing times, speed and agility are key to keeping up with customer demand.
INNOVATE
As customer expectations soar, the ability to innovate constantly is vital. Bringing a whole host of cloud services to the palm of your hand, IBM’s Bluemix cloud platform lets you innovate at speed. It helps developers to build, run, deploy and manage apps on the cloud easily and quickly. The apps you need can be transformed from idea to actuality in a matter of hours. It’s built on open technology, too, so you won’t be locked in.
GET ENGAGED
There are more ways than ever before to engage with your client base. Yet as more marketing avenues open, managing the way your business connects to customers can get tricky. With communication outlets spread across web, email, social and mobile, consistency is key to keeping your marketing master plan on track in the digital age.
That’s where IBM Marketing Cloud comes in, corralling everything into one accessible space and allowing you to manage myriad touch points from one easy-to-use platform. It’ll save you time and help you to delve deeper into your data (thanks to embedded analytics), increasing engagement and raising conversion rates.
SAFE AS HOUSES
So far, so fantastic. Yet all that innovation, functionality and flexibility is nothing without a security system to match. Thanks to IBM’s integrated approach to security, you can have confidence in your Cloud, with systems designed to prevent, detect and respond to threats in real time. IBM Security can help you detect security breaches, remedy incidents, and harden defences, even against cyber threats that are advancing and evolving constantly.
CASE STUDY:
HOW COMIC RELIEF STREAMLINED ITS BUSINESS PROCESSES
Comic Relief, with help from software consultancy firm Armakuni Ltd, managed to refocus its energy on fundraising rather than IT issues by upgrading their outdated donations platform thanks to IBM Bluemix.
Comic Relief streamlined expenses and overhauled their complicated donation platform with a service-oriented architecture. Donations from Comic Relief’s hugely successful fundraisers, such as Red Nose Day, represent a significant amount of Comic Relief’s annual income, but the aging platform had been built for the technical landscape of the previous decade.
Armakuni decided to implement a Cloud based service-oriented architecture (SOA) for the charity, using IBM Bluemix to fully automate the build and deployment of approximately 20 micro-SOAs.
These mini cloud platforms brought the scalability and flexibility that Comic Relief’s donation platform needed to move forward and adapt to its current needs, allowing Comic Relief to get on with what it does best; delivering world-class fundraising events and ultimately changing and saving lives.
Having driven immense waves of donors to its platform, Comic Relief now knows that its fundraising efforts will no longer be limited by its technology.
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This e-guide has been produced in partnership with IBM
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