Need Business Growth Strategies? Aim for the Clouds!

According to MarketsAndMarkets, the Cloud Computing market will grow from $37.8 billion in 2010 to $121.1 billion in 2015 (some color here).

Want one of the best current business growth strategies? Aim for the clouds! Figure out how your company can work toward creating competitive advantage by drafting off of this trend!

Regardless of your current position (installed software/appliance/SAAS, infrastructure technology/development tools/application technology) there is a play for you to draft off the enormous technology spend and position your product to gain more sales!

Some ideas (off the top of my head):

1. Move to the cloud from a fundamental delivery point of view
2. Create/Improve your API so that cloud services can easily connect and utilize your platform
3. Develop your ecosystem of partners who interact with your product so you can make your product easier to integrate and part of a broader platform
4. Wake up and figure out that the cloud is freeing up enormous amounts of data and information that can be integrated into your platform…figure out how to use it in a way that adds value to your customers!
5. Wake up and figure out that you have a lot of trapped data and information in your system…figure out how to free it to allow others to create value for your customers.
6. Identify the ongoing pain points of cloud deployment and remedy one or more of them
7. Use cloud in your messaging…it might make you sound fresher and newer
8. Develop a vision for the future of the cloud as it relates to your sector and figure out what position you want to own…then work toward that end in an iterative manner
9. The list goes on…

You can exploit the cloud for business growth strategies in many ways…spend some time thinking about it as it relates to the context of your company!

Note: You may need to refine some of your company development strategies to support this business growth strategy. For example, you may need to adjust those people in your technical staff who are more familiar with the cloud technologies. You may also need a business development person to help develop your ecosystem while you also rework your licensing agreements to support the new platform. All of these issues are easily addressable. The key is that you need to get your market strategy right and then figure out how to implement it, which also includes adjusting your whole product strategies, your customer development strategies, and your company development strategies!

If you work at it, you can be on the road to some great business growth strategies and, even better, you could be creating competitive advantage!