Andrew McAfee

In 2010 an IBM survey of more than 1,500 CEOs worldwide revealed a troubling gap: Close to 80% of them believed their environment would grow much more complex in the coming years, but fewer than half thought their companies were well equipped to deal with this shift. The survey team called it “the largest leadership challenge identified in eight years of research.”

zL4PxWyoHgc47th2Ul3Xwy9h0+yI3m5gWozCy8nh75Qn9ELnVnck8SyQ7MH/ks/crAi9OjZcHhEN/B0tNqlxPzFzr4JtPxl4Zlwp0NSSxOlwiDCbc9ucHFVIl5E7XUoeBjpc/VReolReUpL47r6YMw==

Reprint: R1111J 
Cloud computing is a sea change in the way companies use technology; it&#8217;s as inevitable and significant as the shift from steam power to electricity on the factory floor. Because criticisms of the cloud have gotten a lot of hype, however, many companies are hesitant to explore it. In this article McAfee, a principal research scientist at MIT&#8217;s Center for Digital Business, debunks commonly cited concerns about the cloud. When it comes to cost, reliability, and security, he says, the cloud promises to equal or better on-premise computing. Moreover, as the experiences of companies like 3M, the global contractor Balfour Beatty, and the consulting firm CSC show, cloud computing offers sizable benefits, such as improved productivity, easier collaboration, the ability to mine data for insights, and higher capacity without major capital investment. 
Here, McAfee walks readers through the three basic categories of cloud computing: infrastructure-as-a-service (the leasing of raw computing capacity), platform-as-a-service (the leasing of computers ready for software development), and software-as-a service (the hosting of applications for users). Arguing that CEOs and senior managers need to take the lead on the shift to the cloud, he then outlines how companies can get started.

What Every CEO Needs to Know About the Cloud

Reprint: R1111J Cloud computing is a sea change in the way companies use technology; it’s as inevitable and significant as the shift from steam power to electricity on the factory floor. Because criticisms of the cloud have gotten a lot of hype, however, many companies are hesitant to explore it. In this article McAfee, a principal research scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business, debunks commonly cited concerns about the cloud. When it comes to cost, reliability, and security, he says, the cloud promises to equal or better on-premise computing. Moreover, as the experiences of companies like 3M, the global contractor Balfour Beatty, and the consulting firm CSC show, cloud computing offers sizable benefits, such as improved productivity, easier collaboration, the ability to mine data for insights, and higher capacity without major capital investment. Here, McAfee walks readers through the three basic categories of cloud computing: infrastructure-as-a-service (the leasing of raw computing capacity), platform-as-a-service (the leasing of computers ready for software development), and software-as-a service (the hosting of applications for users). Arguing that CEOs and senior managers need to take the lead on the shift to the cloud, he then outlines how companies can get started.

What Every CEO Needs to Know About the Cloud

Summary.

Partner Center