Cloud Computing

What happens when employees go around IT and use their own Dropbox-like services, webmail or USB drives to send company information?

The latest Aberdeen research survey on the Big Data dilemma conducted in May 2012 indicates that only 16% of companies are confident in their ability to manage the size, speed and complexity of their active business data.

With the cloud, every handoff is automatically recorded, and everyone involved can see it—the manufacturers and suppliers, the freight companies, the truck dispatchers, and the buyer.

GT Nexus and TradeCard today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement. The companies are leaders and pioneers in cloud-based technology platforms that link companies together in commerce networks.

An organization’s decision to move IT to the cloud is daunting because it is a wholesale change in sourcing and delivery of solutions. This report is based on the views of 1,242 IT professionals surveyed by CDW. It explores what drives the shift to the cloud, what types of applications organizations are taking to the cloud and what benefits (beyond cost savings) they are achieving.

CDW’s first Cloud Computing Tracking Poll surveyed 1,200 IT professionals in U.S. organizations* to determine: Where organizations are with cloud adoption, What benefits are driving adoption, What challenges still hinder progress, Recommendations for how organizations can successfully implement cloud computing.

The public cloud services market is forecast to grow 19.6 percent in 2012 to total $109 billion worldwide, according to Gartner, Inc. Business process services (also known as business process as a service, or BPaaS) represent the largest segment, accounting for about 77 percent of the total market, while infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the fastest-growing segment of the public cloud services market and is expected to grow 45.4 percent in 2012.

Aberdeen benchmarked the supply chain software investment and roadmap strategies of over 130 Consumer Industry companies to identify the abilities of supply chain applications in managing risk and ability to change and adapt business processes over time.

Building on a long tradition of supply chain innovation, HP in 2010 saw opportunities to further leverage its scale and launched a company-wide transformation program targeting substantial supply chain improvements in procurement, processes and IT, warranty and services, and network and logistics.

With the meshing of these companies, GT Nexus and TradeCard said they expect to cumulatively manage more than $100 billion in direct supply chain trade.

Analysts report that cloud-based adoption increased 40 percent this year in the supply chain software sector. Our technology correspondent shares the upsides/downsides of this deployment model—and how vendors are gearing up to meet growing shipper demand.

Earlier this week, BT, formerly known as British Telecom, introduced a cloud-based offering for its portfolio of supply chain solutions known as BT Trace, which is geared towards helping shippers navigate the myriad challenges related to managing complex supply chains.

Cloud supply chain technology services provider GT Nexus and Capgemini recently announced they inked a joint go-to market BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) initiative to enable what it described as “Supply Chain Orchestration.”

Entitled RedPrairie On-Demand Supply Chain, company officials said this new unit will support advanced technology for warehouse management (WMS) and transportation management (TMS) in a single- and multi-tenant model.

The emergence of cloud computing is having a direct and positive impact on manufacturers’ IT performance and subsequently supply chain operations, according to a report from IDC Manufacturing Insights.