Recent investments in cloud technologies are showing marked improvement in sales and revenue. This points to an overarching demand for cloud-based services and technologies and increased interest in the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).
An example of a company exemplifying the benefits of investing in cloud technology is software giant, SAP. They took advantage of cloud-computing, mobile technology, and its HANA in-memory database and are reaping the benefits. For its fourth quarter and 2012 fiscal year, SAP has reported double digit growth. During 2012, SAP has reported total revenue at $21.6 billion dollars, up from its 2011 sales of $18.9 billion by 14%.
SAP is one of the numerous companies looking to invest in cloud computing for increased success in the government market. Many are looking to FedRAMP to ensure secure cloud computing for the Federal government. FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. The goal of this program is to increase confidence in security of cloud solutions while benefitting companies by saving them time, money, and resources. It also provides a uniform approach to risk-based management, and improves the trustworthiness, reliability, consistency, and quality of the Federal security authorization process.
It is worthwhile to invest in cloud computing technology to reduce cost of IT infrastructure, enhance competitive advantage, increase flexibility of current infrastructure, and increase support of additional users and services.
Is the future in cloud? It might be for many other companies.