Cloud Computing a Boon to Mobile Telecom Industry

Cloud computing, which offers many business benefits – including reducing the cost of IT – is also helping mobile telecom companies boost their bottom lines, according to the results of a new study conducted by Rackspace and the Manchester Business School in the U.K.

In fact, 56 percent of mobile telecom companies said the cloud helped them increase profits, and over half (55 percent) said the resulting increase in profits was from 10 to 50 percent by using the cloud. The survey of 1,300 U.S. and U.K. companies across industries also found that the majority of mobile telecom companies said the cloud reduced their IT costs, with 69 percent saying the reduction was in the 10 to 50 percent range. 

Here’s the breakdown of how many mobile telecom companies said their IT costs were reduced when compared to other industries:

• 73 percent             Retail
• 69 percent             Mobile Telecom
• 67 percent             Financial Services
• 66 percent             Manufacturing
• 62 percent             Business and Professional Services
• 61 percent             Logistics
• 61 percent             Media

Other notable survey results include the following:

One of the most obvious benefits of the cloud was the ability of employees to access information anytime, anywhere. This way, employees could work while they travel, or remotely from home.

IT teams said cloud use saved them time, leaving them more time for strategy and innovation. 

Customer support and security were top considerations when a mobile telecom executive looked for a cloud service provider. 

Most said they’re using open source cloud technology, and even more said open cloud use is increasing. A majority 64 percent of mobile telecom companies said they liked open cloud, because the costs are lower, and business agility – as well as the pace of innovation – increases with open standards. 

The metrics used to measure ROI affect how an organization derives a hard dollar amount of cost savings – but there are other areas that cloud benefits, which can’t be measured based on metrics alone, MobilityTechzone recently reported.

Typically, ROI is a measure of hard monetary return on the use of products or services. But with cloud computing, believing that hard-money ROI will be achieved in the form of savings is not necessarily realistic.