1. MARKETING 7546 – TREND ASSESSMENT II
Cloud Computing and
What It Means for Digital
Marketing
Gayatri Seshadri
4/10/2012

2. What is Cloud computing?
Everyone is talking about “the cloud.” But what does it mean?
Business applications are moving to the cloud. It’s not just a fad—the shift from traditional
software models to the Internet has steadily gained momentum over the last 10 years. Looking
ahead, the next decade of cloud computing promises new ways to collaborate everywhere,
through mobile devices.
Life before cloud computing
Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The
amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a
whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.
When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, it’s easy to see why the
biggest companies with the best IT departments aren’t getting the apps they need. Small and
mid-sized businesses don’t stand a chance.
Cloud computing: a better way
With cloud computing, you eliminate those headaches because you’re not managing hardware
and software—that’s the responsibility of an experienced vendor like salesforce.com. The
shared infrastructure means it works like a utility: You only pay for what you need, upgrades
are automatic, and scaling up or down is easy.
Cloud-based apps can be up and running in days or weeks, and they cost less. With a cloud app,
you just open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it.
Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud, like customer relationship management
(CRM), HR, accounting, and much more. Some of the world’s largest companies moved their
applications to the cloud with salesforce.com after rigorously testing the security and reliability
of our infrastructure.
As cloud computing grows in popularity, thousands of companies are simply rebranding their
non-cloud products and services as “cloud computing.” Businesses have to always dig deeper
when evaluating cloud offerings and keep in mind that if they have to buy and manage
hardware and software, they are not really looking at cloud computing but a false cloud.
Mobility and collaboration
The latest innovations in cloud computing are making our business applications even more
mobile and collaborative, similar to popular consumer apps like Facebook and Twitter. As
consumers, we now expect that the information we care about will be pushed to us in real
time, and business applications in the cloud are heading in that direction as well. With Cloud,
keeping up with your work is as easy as keeping up with your personal life on Facebook.

3. Impact to the World of Business:
Cloud Computing may be the greatest gift to digital marketers as they (we) are now able to
market and evangelize every part of the value chain that the customer would interact
with.What’s more, given the nature of an online environment, those same customers will be
sure to make use of their social circles and share their experience of each step of the process –
digital marketers are then urged to listen to what is being said and feed this information back
into the business to further improve the processes and the experience of the user.
Products and services are all
commodities. It is the users
experience that is going to
differentiate business now and in
the future.
Cloud computing allows the user
experience to be traced and tracked
every step of the way for
improvement.
There are numerous areas of the business that are affected by utilizing a cloud computing
solution.
 End-users can self-serve – this means that a process no longer needs to be run manually
by paid for staff; but rather by a client who can complete the process in their own time.
 No Location dependence – the service is on as long as an internet connection is available
meaning that your business can transact at any hour.
 Flexible performance and load – the ability to scale both up and down as and when
needed.
 Flexible pricing and contract terms – the ability of subscribers to buy services as they are
needed and terminate them when they are not.

4. Case 1:Netflix made what looked like a peculiar choice: the DVD-by-mail Company decided that
over the next two years, it would move most of its Web technology — customer movie queues,
search tools and the like — over to the computer servers of one of its chief rivals, Amazon.com.
Kevin McEntee, vice president of engineering at Netflix,
pointing, and Santosh Rau, cloud system manager. Netflix
is using Amazon’s network, freeing it to focus on its movie
business
Amazon, like Netflix, wants to deliver movies to people’s homes over the Internet. But the
online retailer, based in Seattle, has lately gained traction with a considerably more ambitious
effort: the business of renting other companies the remote use of its technology infrastructure
so they can run their computer operations. Kevin McEntee, Netflix’s vice president of
engineering, said Netflix switched in order to “focus our innovation around finding movies,
rather than building larger and larger data centers.”
Case 2: SunTrust Banks uses the Service Cloud from SalesForce.Having sales and service on the
same platform has been really beneficial to SunTrust because it gives then one view of the
clients.
Potential Applications in Other Industries
Case 1: "Governments are increasingly recognizing that the adoption of cloud could
dramatically reduce the cost of delivering services to citizens," noted John Herhalt, KPMG's
Global Chair, Government & Infrastructure. “In this era of government austerity, it seems clear
that cloud will quickly become a key tool for public sector cost reduction."
Only 12 percent of government executives say that more than 10 percent of their agencies'
overall IT expenditures are allocated to cloud in 2011. By the end of 2012, this figure is
anticipated to more than double to 28 percent.(6)
Case 2: While the healthcare sector has long been an IT laggard, the industry appears to be
embracing cloud computing comparably to many other sectors. Nearly one-third of healthcare
sector decision makers said they are using cloud applications, and 73% said they are planning to
move more applications to the cloud, according to a recent report by Accenture.
There are several key reasons why healthcare sector IT leaders are moving applications into the
cloud, said Dadong Wan, a senior research scientist at Accenture studying digital health trends

5. and a co-author of the recent Accenture report examining cloud computing in healthcare. Many
of those reasons boil down to cost advantages and flexibility that cloud computing offers to
healthcare organizations.
Summary of my Interview with Mr.Sai Mattancheril [CTO, Krikle Inc.]
According to Mr. Mattancheril, cloud computing reduces the barriers for small businesses and
startups. His company developed an iPhone application called Krikle. Krikle is a virtual graffiti
application which allows users to post messages which then get tagged to their location. Other
users of Krikle can then view all messages in the context of that particular location using an
augmented reality layer on the iPhone camera.
He believes that cloud computing services made it possible for his company to build this social
media mobile application. Google’s application development cloud platform, Google App
Engine (GAE), was used to deploy the server and database components for Krikle. GAE has no
cost upfront and users get billed based on various factors such as bandwidth used storage etc.
Mr. Mattancheril discussed how Cloud computing services will help more small and mid-sized
businesses take off by providing them with reliable and scalable solutions. It has become a
‘start-up’ friendly model. Amazon actually calls itself an elastic cloud since its services can be
used on an ‘as needed’ basis. Its cloud service solution can contract and expand as per
customer demand. He thinks that any business model that can accommodate a variable based
pricing structure based on usage – example health care and Ecommerce, will benefit from this
model. Other industry examples would be companies that build technology games, movie
rental companies, music companies and social media technology providers. SLAs provided by
such Cloud Computing companies include convenient activity based pricing models and this will
promote the growth of small and mid-size companies from both the technology and the
business standpoint.
Doubts still exist with this solution when it comes to risk and security. Now companies such as
SalesForce have established a brand for themselves in the corporate world. So its just a matter
of time for Cloud Computing to become a norm in the business world. Mr. Mattancheril states
that like any new technology this will take time. Broadly, companies using cloud computing will
increase in the near future. He specifically points out to health care industry that will move to
this model to get their data standardized and regulated.
Companies have to improve and address concerns related to security and demonstrate high
uptime to gain consumer confidence. In closing, he believes that ‘the one view of the data’ that
this solution provides will help businesses provide the best customer experience that they
strive for in today’s business world. Technology, sales and marketing arms in any given
company independent of size will be working out of the same knowledge base to make the best
business decision for their respective companies. Response to market demand will be
increased, customized offerings will be made possible and finally delivery of marketing

6. campaigns will be done at a fast and reliable pace.
Conclusion:
Cloud computing has transformed the computing and technology age in its totality, and the
platforms it has provided effect the ways in which business is conducted. Subsequently, there
has been a dramatic impact on the marketplace and consumer buying behavior. By providing
Web-based software solutions, cloud computing solutions have not only decentralized the
business model, but these solutions have revolutionized customer relationship management
(CRM) and internal communications, which has improved the effectiveness of sales and
marketing initiatives.All users view the same data, which means there are no hurdles in vertical
business communication, and there is definitely a cut-back in the manual labor of data-entry.
New advances in cloud computing applications have made it possible for all users to interact
with real-time data and one another, further enhancing the decentralized business model, and
nearly trivializing the relevance of geographic location.
Having precise, real-time data has greatly improved customer relationship management.
Amazon has exemplified how cloud computing resources can effect customer relationship
management, and eventually more of these technological advances will widely available and
accessible to all businesses. This means that the marketplace will be that much automated and
competitive. Amazon customers create their own accounts, log in, and all of the customer’s
information and activity is stored elsewhere. It is on the “cloud,” readily accessible to the
customer, with only a Web browser and an Internet connection, but also readily accessible to
sales and marketing executives and employees. With each individual customer’s data being
automatically input, the overall sales data for the business is instantly reflected and available
on-demand. Sales and marketing initiatives can develop more quickly, since the data can be
compiled and compartmentalized into reports that segment sales information, customer
market segmentation, and any other data category relevant to the business. The data can be
quickly analyzed and used to identify strengths and weaknesses. New business opportunities
arise when sales and marketing strategies are tailored to individual customer demands and
interests. They may be used to attract and retain customers, which is an illustration of the
mutually beneficial advantage of effective CRM. The accurate and readily available data
streamlines sales and marketing operations overall, and therefore the implementation of these
sales and marketing strategies can occur more quickly, resulting in rapid responsiveness to the
market. Rapid responsiveness creates more competition in the marketplace. As a result,
businesses must compete with cloud computing solutions in order to stay afloat with
technological advances in the marketplace, and therefore, survive. This is also true because of
the advantages on the customer side of cloud computing, which greatly improves the retention
of customers. New customers are then added, since word of mouth in this new wave of social
media and social networking is increasingly important and successful.
All of the aforementioned illustrates what cloud computing has done for businesses, and what
its potential implies about the future business climate. There is another implication, though.
Only in their infancy, cloud computing developments once indicated large scalability; but new

7. developments seems to underscore global, and even infinite scalability. With improved
communications, global scalability, more rapid responsiveness in the marketplace, and
remarkable improvements in developing sales and marketing strategies, cloud computing
solutions also imply that expansion into global markets will be much more feasible, fast, and
easy for small to mid-sized businesses.
Bio of Mr.Sairam Mattancheril
Mr. Mattancheril is a seasoned, successful leader with over 14 years at FedEx. After being a consultant
working on FedEx Insight and Virtual Order, he joined FedEx as a Technical Advisor in 2000 working on
FedEx.com. He has a history of being assigned to special projects given his general technical subject
matter expertise and aptitude. He worked on and led many initiatives at FedEx.com including MyFedEx,
Online Account Management, Custom Rate Guide, FedEx Locator, and Ship Manager. His contributions
have earned him numerous BZs, Hall of Fame and other awards, as well as recognition from executive
management.
Mr. Mattancheril also has an entrepreneurial streak with stints as the CTO of Krikle, Inc. a Memphis-
based startup and helped start Umonitor (now HarlandFinancials). Prior to joining FedEx, he worked for
other major corporations including International Paper and Tata Consultancy Services. He has a Masters
in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Mr. Mattancheril lives with his family in Memphis and enjoys spending time with his family. He recently
got promoted as a manager within FedEx and is looking forward to starting his new position on April 16.
References:
1. http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf
2. http://www.convergedinfrastructure.com/Path-to-the-Cloud/
3. http://jonathanhouston.co.za/cloud-computing-and-what-it-means-for-digital-
marketing/
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/technology/19cloud.html
5. http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/
6. http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Press-
releases/Pages/public-Sector-adoption-of-cloud-happening-slowly.aspx
7. http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/interoperability/225700843
8. http://www.cloudcomputingworld.org/cloud-computing/how-cloud-computing-will-
affect-your-business-in-the-next-five-years.html
9. Apple- iCloud Harmony