Success Stories: How Businesses Use the Cloud

Let’s be honest. There are still a lot of companies out there that aren’t sold on cloud computing. Some are wary of technologies that are still relatively new and unfamiliar in the IT world, while others think that the cloud isn’t a good fit for their industry.

Cloud Fence-Sitters

Maybe these all these cloud fence-sitters need is to see how cloud computing is working for a range of industries and companies of all sizes. Here are a few success cloud success stories. Student Transportation Inc. (STI) is a student and special-services bus transportation company, providing school buses for districts across 130 locations in North America.

“STI was in a unique position when the company was much smaller and younger to be an early adopter of cloud technology (now going on 10 years),” said Keith Engelbert, chief technology officer, explaining what led STI to migrate data to the cloud. “It’s not ‘how much money we save’ for STI due to the early adoption. It’s ‘what we don’t’ spend’ that has benefitted us over the years.”

Geographically speaking, Engelbert added, the cloud gives the company the tools necessary to seamlessly centralize all data and applications without having to build out infrastructure at the local level.“Everyone should be already evaluating cloud providers,” he advised.

Making Smart Decisions

“Choosing the right provider is the most important decision. I would also recommend a ‘step-program’ into the cloud. For example, moving storage into the cloud, see how it goes, then move email into the cloud, see how it goes, then move everything into the cloud over time.”

Pabst Blue Ribbon is a familiar name to beer drinkers across the country. The company recently turned to the cloud to improve its marketing campaign. The company was looking to improve on its time-consuming delivery of marketing assets and more effectively manage marketing collateral. Using the Media Management product from OpenText Cloud, Pabst Blue Ribbon’s marketing team can now share marketing files in any variety of formats with the clients who need them when they need them. 

As a case study stated: “This universal access to the marketing assets helps the marketing organization save money. Previously, they were burning files onto CDs and sending about 5,400 CDs to over 900 addresses a year.”

Why the Cloud Works

But the cloud works just as well for smaller companies. Lori Mankin, marketing assistant with MyITpros, said her business “moved to the cloud because we saw the shift away from hardware and knew as an IT services company we needed to provide cloud services.”

Mankin admitted that migrating the business to the cloud worried her a bit. With the new-found ability to access her files anywhere, anytime, she was concerned about being able to find a successful work-life balance. Instead, the cloud made her life a little easier. “But it just makes situations more convenient,” she said. “If I need to take my cat to the vet I don’t feel the pressure to go all the way back to work for an hour, I can work from my laptop anywhere to finish up the day. I can work while I’m at the car dealer from any device.”

The cloud isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, as these stories show. Instead, it is and can be the solution in finding the one area of your business that can be improved.

Sue Poremba blogs for Rackspace Hosting. Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing.