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Sponsored Report: Cloud Computing some of these companies are also leverag- ing their cloud expertise and selling cloud capabilities and cloud platforms in their own right. Any number of businesses, for instance, buy cloud computing from Amazon and Google." Moreover, he adds, just as Facebook, Twitter and eBay have become 'must have' apps for consumers, huge numbers of busi- nesses have their own 'must have' cloud applications. In short, opting for the cloud is not a leap into the unknown. Yet indisputably, utilities remain for the large part very much outside the fold of busi- nesses exploiting cloud computing. Why? The reasons are complicated, says Mills, starting to tick them off on his fingers. Cor- porate culture, for one. Concerns over cus- tomer perceptions of data held on third-party cloud sites, for another. Security and uptime considerations. And, of course, a regulatory regime that acts as a brake on moves towards an asset-light enterprise IT model. All of which, he adds, is interesting, but largely history. Because a slew of develop- ments – some very recent, others less so – are set to upset the apple cart. Cloud com- puting may not have proved hugely attrac- tive to the sector in the past, but that may be about to change. "The key is competition," he stresses. "If you look at sectors and industries where cloud computing has been widely adopted, they're all characterised by intense com- petition. Fast moving consumer goods, for instance. And media. And life sciences. When businesses find themselves in very competitive environments, they don't want to be constrained by their IT infrastructure when wanting to adopt best-in-class tech- nologies and applications." Put another way, when you look at the benefits that cloud computing has provided to early adopter industries, you see a list of characteristics that are on the wishlists of many utility chief information officers. Sooner or later, they're going to realise that remaining firmly wedded to their in-house, on-premise servers and data centres sim- ply isn't the fastest way to achieve those objectives. "Agility and scalability. Access to mobile technologies. Best-in-class applications. A lower cost of computing. And the ability to demonstrate a rapid return – early adapters can point to all these and more," says Mills. So how, exactly, is this greater competi- tiveness going to play out in the utility sec- tor? And how will cloud computing help? Three broad trends are already apparent, says Mills. "First, the regulator continues to make markets more competitive, forcing utilities to better understand their customers in order to compete effectively. Second, smart meter- ing: that's a game-changer, giving utilities much more data with which to shape cus- tomer offers. And third, competition is going to focus management attention on the higher costs of on-premise computing. Maybe utili- ties won't rush to put billing systems in the cloud, but they're surely going to look at the cloud for new applications." And chief among those new applications will be CRM, deployed as a direct conse- quence of the tougher competitive paradigm that utilities will be facing. "If you look at where we at Salesforce have been most successful, it's where com- petition has been toughest," says Mills. "And as competition intensifies, we expect more utilities to look at CRM, and to look at the cloud as the best way to deploy CRM." Indeed, he adds, look at utilities such as Business Stream and First Utility (see accompanying article), where just such a competitive paradigm prompted far-seeing management to make the jump to cloud- based CRM. "The point about both these businesses is this: that by being early adopters, and lever- aging CRM in their marketplaces, they have put themselves in the perfect position to ben- efit as those markets become more and more competitive," sums up Mills. "And for the sector's major players – the very largest utili- ties – the message is that they too can also achieve equivalent ideal positioning." But will they? Time will tell, of course. But in the meantime, remember that predic- tion from Gartner Group. You can bet against Gartner Group and win, but it's more usual to lose. "If you look at where we at Salesforce have been most successful, it's where competition has been toughest" salesforce positioned in Gartner's 'leaders' quadrant for Gartner Group's maGic quardant for enterprise application platform as a service As of April 2014 Salesforce Completeness of vision Ability to execute docker CenturyLink-Tier 3 WS02 indra gnubila MiOsoft iBM SAP Software Ag Progress CloudBees cloudControl Mendix nTT Communications google Engine yard Microsoft AppPoint Software Solutions ChALLEngERS LEAdERS niChE PLAyERS ViSiOnARiES Red hat UtILItY WeeK | 5th - 11th December 2014 | 15 The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or ser- vice depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Copyright: Gartner Brought to you in association with