According to the online version of the Oxford Dictionary, a prophet is “a person who predicts what will happen in the future”. Predicting the future is one of those tasks that have mesmerized the academic and the business community alike throughout history. Mathematics, physics, medicine, engineering, economics all have tried to come up with formulas that would predict the future. Even though the sciences have not yet been able to find the one magic formula that gives the answer to all future predictions, they do manage to predict specific narrowband future outcomes with relative certainty, provided that the parameters given to the formula hold a realistic snapshot of the past and present. Most future prediction algorithms depend on data that either were holding true in another time or are currently holding true in another place. Today, the ability to predict future behaviors is based on the study of past and present behaviors. The more complete and realistic historical data you have, the better the predictions. In fact, there are areas where predictions for the future can be considered “easy”, “safe” and “a sure thing”. One of these areas is the area of Information Technology (IT), its trends and its adoption rates.

In the IT sector, one can play the role of the prophet by observing how businesses in the United States respond to certain IT innovations. After a while, trends that develop in North America travel to mainland Europe. Allow for some more time to go by and eventually those trends reach Cypriot businesses as well. We’ve been observing this phenomenon for a few decades now and there is no reason for it not to continue to hold true in the future. Based on this phenomenon, one can safely make a prediction that Cloud Computing will be adopted by the Cypriot business sector in the very near future.

Simply put, Cloud Computing refers to the offering of software or computing infrastructure over the internet and paid for via a subscription model.

The Cloud Computing model defers greatly from the traditional IT model. Traditional IT can cost time, effort and therefore money to the business. Based on the traditional IT model, businesses have to (a) buy the appropriate server infrastructure (servers, storage, operating systems, database management systems, etc), (b) buy the appropriate software licenses for the business software application, (c) buy services for installation of the hardware and software and (d) pay for the operation, maintenance, support and future upgrades of the solution. Being forced to pay upfront for the solution not only depletes the business from valuable cash reserves, it also locks the business with specific vendors making it difficult to move to other solutions if things don’t work out as planned.

Cloud Computing was built with the promise to eliminate the above shortcomings of traditional IT. Businesses can gain access to IT resources without having the need to buy server infrastructure, server software licenses, business applications licenses, installation services and operation, maintenance and support services. With the Cloud Computing model businesses can “rent” IT resources from a Cloud Service Provider and have them paid for via a subscription model, eliminating any capital expenditure pains. All that is needed is a reliable internet connection and a subscription with a Cloud Service Provider.

The Cloud Computing model is particularly popular during difficult financial times due to the fact that companies find it difficult to gain access to cash and therefore prefer a pay-as-you-use model.

Cyta has created a strong portfolio of Cloud Services that can help today’s businesses survive the difficult economic times. Cyta, as a Cloud Service Provider, offers solutions, in the areas of Unified Communications, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Fleet Management, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Facilities Management, Human Resource Management, Accounting, Stock Control, Web Conferencing and many others.

Besides the obvious definition of “a person who predicts what will happen in the future”, Oxford’s Online Dictionary offers a second definition for the word “prophet”. According to Oxford Dictionary, a prophet is also “a person who advocates or speaks in a visionary way about a new cause or theory”. I might not be able to offer a prophesy predicting when and at what rate Cypriot businesses will eventually adopt the Cloud Computing model, but I would definitely advocate its use, as I believe that Cypriot businesses need to massively embrace the use of IT tools and the only viable method of getting access to those tools is through the adoption of the Cloud Computing model.

Bambos Papacharalambous
Cyta Cloud Services Head
cloud.cyta.com.cy

The Greek version of this article was published in the newspaper Phileleftheros on 5/12/2013
The Greek version of this article was published in the newspaper Alithia on 5/1/2014