Oddbins IT head sees merry future for IaaS

Richard Surman heads up IT for wine retailer Oddbins. He recently attended a CIO roundtable discussion on Dynamic Infrastructure and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Following the roundtable, CIO sent the attendees a questionnaire to gauge on the record their attitudes towards IaaS, below are his thoughts.

CIO: Your name and job title? Richard Surman – Head of IT

Your organisation? Oddbins Ltd

Where is your organisation currently in terms of IaaS adoption? We are currently enhancing our network infrastructure in order to allow for us to migrate to an IaaS platform.

Do you see great benefits for your organisation in adopting IaaS? Indeed, the cost benefits alone are a great advantage. Also, less in house resources will be required allowing us to focus on delivering better systems and information.

What concerns about Iaas do you have? None

For IaaS to work in your organisation what is the primary business issue you will need to address? Network enhancement is a necessity at this time.

Do you view IaaS as similar in CIO managerial requirements as outsourcing? Yes

Is a problem with IaaS that as a cloud service, there are too many names for cloud services? No.

Is there too much hype around cloud and Iaas? No. The cloud and IaaS are a positive move towards reducing an organisations capital outlay and providing a more structured and stable infrastructure.

IaaS offers CIOs another choice for delivering certain services, is choice always positive? In most circumstances choice is certainly positive. The more options available, the better equipped an organisation will be to find a solution that will meet any requirement. All organisations have different needs and not all solutions are the right fit for the business.

What lessons from your career & previous “new” technology will you use in implementing Iaas? Ensure that all options are investigated and recommend the most suitable solution for the organisation. This involves having an understanding of how IaaS works in comparison to other offerings.

Response Summary

CIO Debate on IaaS – Belgacom ICT leader explains how he delivers IaaS to CIOs

Full Response

Get involved

Express your views on what the future is for email.

To get involved, contact the CIO UK LinkedIn community