| | April 20188CIOReviewIn retail environments, IT became a critical business enabler no later than the moment when companies started to migrate from traditional brick and mortar business models to e-commerce and online solutions. In addition, increasing globalization including global procurement, fulfillment, go-to-market and customer acquisition strategies also affect all aspects of retail businesses that IT needs to address. Today, many businesses have responded to the new opportunities and challenges by transforming themselves into fully digital enterprises with profound implications for the IT function.Naturally, IT spend has also increased during the initial wave of enterprise-wide digital transformations. New infrastructure provisioning and cloud hosting models like AWS and Azure have dramatically changed existing technology environments in retail businesses, and provide new levels of infrastructure flexibility and on-demand scalability to enable seamless global reach. Cloud hosting models also provide economies of scale that help offset some of the increased IT costs and enable new pay-as-you-go approaches. For example, IT infrastructure and support services can now be "rented" by the hour to accommodate cyclical periods of peak loads. A business that does not leverage cloud environments today might find it difficult to respond rapidly and flexibly to changing marketplace demands and thus could find itself at a competitive disadvantage.If IT is the business, the website is the new retail store front. Requirements regarding site performance, reliability, scalability, and flexibility, etc., provide new challenges for IT organizations. Often, the element of "speed" or a first-to-market requirement is overlaid as a master requirement to help ensure promotions, marketing strategies, product and service offerings can be adjusted quickly to reflect changes in a fluid marketplace. Again, a cloud hosting environment can be a critical enabler to accommodate these demands.Over the years, identifying the "right" cloud solution, including hosting providers, delivery models (e.g., private, public, hybrid) and supporting third-party technology providers has become easier and more manageable as toolsets matured and service offerings became standardized. When I started working on leveraging cloud technologies many years ago, I opted for a "cloud broker" model for my first full cloud implementation. The cloud broker provided migration assistance, virtualized applications where feasible, and managed all third-party relationships. The advantage at the time was, that the cloud broker was prepared to customize the private cloud hosting environment I required, and accommodated the specific security, connectivity and other IT AS AN ENABLER FOR RETAIL INDUSTRY By Armin Roeseler, CIO, Swanson Health ProductsArmin Roeseler
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