IBM expands industry-specific cloud consulting services

ARMONK, USA: IBM announced the expansion of its Cloud Consulting Services portfolio with a customizable cloud strategy offering for industry and line of business buyers, extending IBM's high value portfolio of cloud software and services. The company is also developing a catalog of fast-start industry solutions delivered as a service for cloud-based applications.

"Delivering more personalized services to customers with greater speed is a significant priority for businesses today," said Sanjay Rishi, managing partner, IBM Cloud Consulting Services. "In the era of cloud, the agenda of front office decision makers places a premium on flexibility and the ability to experiment. With these new cloud offerings, IBM will help front office leaders rapidly deploy business content for business value."

To date, the IT industry has primarily focused on "one size fits all" approaches to migrating workloads and applications to the cloud - scalable computing purchased on a usage model. This shift extends the value of cloud to line of business leaders as an engine for growth that can accelerate business outcomes.

In fact, a recent IBM survey reports that during the next three years, the cloud's strategic importance to top decision makers, from CEOs and CMOs to HR, finance and procurement executives, is poised to double from 34 percent to 72 percent - surpassing their IT counterparts at 58 percent.

In order to fully realize the benefits of converting to a cloud environment, enterprises need to build a solid business-based cloud strategy and clear implementation roadmap. IBM utilizes a proven methodology and assessment tools tailored to each client's desired business outcomes.

For instance, IBM offers a unique cloud adoption framework and the IBM Cloud Workload Analysis Tool to analyze an existing environment and determine the cloud computing model best suited for the business model. Using the tool, IBM consultants help the client identify and prioritize the business areas and workloads that, when migrated to a cloud computing model, deliver the most benefit by reducing costs and improving service delivery.

To further jump-start a client's deployment to the cloud, IBM is developing a catalog of pre-integrated solutions that address priority business needs industry by industry, while making cloud easier to adopt and consume for line of business leaders.