Cloud computing at a tipping point Cloud delivered computing is a reality . It has been around in one form or another for a decade but only recently has it been considered viable for a complete IT environment . The tipping point has been reached largely due to the availability of a broad range of IT services at a price point that cannot be ignored by business managers . Cloud offers business organizations a high degree of flexibility in determining how they enable their business , providing time or usage defined services which can be extended or contracted to meet the timely requirements of the business . Equally services can be acquired without large investment in software , hardware and the expertise required to run it . Specific services such as IOT based processes or big data management capabilities can be acquired for a fraction of the cost of a few years ago . This means that firms of all sizes can now afford what once were considered sophisticated IT services to support new business models . For example , customer engagement processes supported by SaaS apps in combination with chat bots , adaptive learning , information capture and management on Hadoop , NO-Sql or conventional RDBMS is paid via operating expenses . Subscriptionbased services provide scale flexibility , lowering up-front investments and lead times to realise business support . The security offered by large IT suppliers is typically far superior to that provided by internal services . Cloud services providers are a viable alternative corporate IT . However , the cloud service provider is no substitute for in house IT which ensures the tactical and strategic support of the business via various suppliers . Adopting cloud computing The benefits of public / private cloud are apparent for most companies the transition to cloud is in some ways fraught with challenges

• Need for a governance model to manage cloud service providers

• Understanding how to integrate on premise and cloud systems

• Local / national restrictions on data provenance

• Adapting internal compliance policies and systems for security in a heterogeneous environment

• Determining the cost of services . Little experience with subscription models

Enterprises in regulated industries maybe constrained but it is not always abundantly clear where the limits are to be drawn . Before the adoption of cloud services risk , reward assessments are often a prerequisite .

Oracle ’ s cloud offering Oracle has addressed obstacles to the adoption of public cloud services in 2 ways . 1 . With introducing the “ Cloud at Customer ” cloud service delivery model 2 . The launch of a Managed Service Provider programme