What is Cloud Computing?
According to Wikipedia, Cloud Computing is: “A style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them.”
Huh? And, what does this have to do with me?
In plain terms, Cloud Computing refers to working with a variety of software applications that are available online (for free or fee) to fit your specific business need. In the case of marketing, this means using a combination of online software (SaaS or Software as a Service) designed to help communicate with customers. This allows marketers to leverage the latest communication techniques that currently exists without having to rely on IT knowledge or investing to bring software in house.
By using free or low cost web-based software to build web sites, blogs, emails, etc., business owners and marketers have access to their own virtual workbench to design, build, deploy and measure their own communications and campaigns.
New social media, personalization technologies coupled with marketing automation, all available online, provide marketers with the power tools to cost-effectively create, manage and deploy communications that can adapt to new information, interactions and data. Especially in light of the recession, forward thinking organizations are seeing the large cost savings that can be realized from the cloud model.
Some of the self-serve technology available today include:
- Web sites and Blogs
- Social Networking
- Printing
- Direct Mail
- Collaborative Workspace
- eTraining, Podcasts, Webinars
This self serve-model is so exciting for Marketers because it allows us to:
- Rely less on external factors outside our control – IT, budget process, etc.
- Spend less time upfront designing to get it “right”, but rather “build and evolve”
- Use the technology as our own “virtual sandbox” to create a blue print for communications and campaigns
- Explore new ideas and options with minimal risk as we create, see what works, adapt and learn as you go
- Customize to our requirements and those of our customer
- Frequently update of our content, which increases the value to our customers
- Maintain ongoing conversation to increase customer engagement
Who can benefit from Cloud Computing, more specifically Cloud Marketing?
Individuals and Professionals – whether for personal use or for those “Me Inc” individuals, the new Cloud Computing provides a great opportunity to creatively express themselves and explore new avenues.
Small and Medium Sized Businesses – Cloud Computing provides small business with the tools that have traditionally been the sole domain of large businesses, reducing barriers to entry in a lot of industries and sectors.
Large Organizations and Government – Cloud Computing offers larger organizations robust and secure technology outsourcing options to more cost-effectively generate awareness, attract members, communicate to customers or raise funds.
Posted by: Lianne Bridges
Lianne is President, CEO and a founding partner of Bridges Horizon, which provides transformation consulting services, specialized in helping
marketers and organizational leaders leverage the latest technologies
and techniques to realize their business, professional and personal
goals.
Lianne has spent the past 20+ years managing and consulting across an array of sectors from B2B to Not-for-Profit, including such world-class organizations as: Aeroplan, Bombardier, Pfizer, Nabisco, Southam News, United Technologies, the YMCA, Plan Canada and Alcan, to name a few.
great article, sure i’ll be back.
good day
As there is no firm definition you can call anything cloud computing. One that has been fairly popular is explicit websites that focus on human intercourse (to avoid triggering the spam filters). Those have been linking and hyperlinking their services for ages so that visitors get the best of everything … so I have heard as I obviously would never visit such places …
Anyway, Cloud Computing fits to the theme of your blog as I would call it Marketing Hype. Now everyone has to figure what it is and consultants and analysts can write new pieces and we two are busy posting and blogging and commenting … are times not wonderful?
How did we ever make it before the internet?
If you run into a solid definition of cloud computing please let me know, because I will not waste another minute on it. Thanks in advance, Max Pucher, Chief Architect ISIS Papyrus Software – http://isismjpucher.wordpress.com
Thank you for your comment Max and for pointing out that this is not a new phenomenon.
While a lot of the software and surrounding services, including marketing automation software, have been around for some time, it has remained largely unknown to marketers and inaccessible to many smaller and medium sized companies.
It was only 3 years ago that our firm, Bridges Horizon, implemented a multi-million dollar marketing resource management software for one of Canada’s leading marketing organizations. Today, most of the functionality implemented, and more, is available through secure, robust SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms at a fraction of the price…bringing this collaborative marketing technology to a much wider audience.
Lianne
My understanding is that Cloud Computing is the next generation of scalable web hosting, which evolved from the need to accomodate the ever-growing content on the web. Now that everyone’s got blogs, posting videos and adding all types of ‘heavier’ web content, the traditional “server box” methods were slowing down – so now the ‘cloud’ is providing a more scalable web model.
Does the regular web user need to be aware of it? Probably not. Personally, I leave my web scalability issues in the capable hands of my web hoster.
Hi Suzannah,
Thanks for your comment. Not sure I understand your point, but Cloud Computing is much more than scalability. Cloud Computing is more about bringing a range of technology that is web-based. This includes much more than web sites or blogs or even social media. This includes marketing automation, CRM capabilities, all the tools a marketer needs to do his or her job, from planning to campaign development, deployment and measurement. And, as a marketing and communication expert, I can’t imagine not wanting to know and understand the range of tools available to me to best serve my clients…wouldn’t you?
Lianne
One of the potential benifits that I see to Cloud Computing is that it frees the individual (or a corporation) from the need to to have thier own server and an IT group to back you up, especially when there is a glitch in the system. all you need to do is let “the cloud people” know of the issue and it’s their problem to resolve.
It may also give us the time and ability to turn the overwhelming amount of information we receive, which is worthless to us, until we can turn it into useable knowledge. Our children are now exposed to more information by early grade school than their grandparents received in a lifetime.
Robin Parkinson
Thanks Linda and Robin for your comment. You are absolutely right…Cloud Computing makes life easier for us less technical folks. It has a place in almost all industries and for marketers and business owners, it allows them to focus on what they do best…engaging customers!