competition for Accenture's cloud intermediary service offer
Accenture's Cloud Platform (ACP) serves as a strategic cloud brokerage and management tool, designed to facilitate the adoption of multiple cloud services. This platform offers a unified, automated, and governed interface for managing diverse cloud environments, accelerating cloud transformation for businesses.
Streamlining Cloud Adoption
ACP enables seamless consumption, management, and orchestration of services from multiple cloud providers through a single platform. This feature helps organizations avoid vendor lock-in and leverage best-of-breed services for different workloads.
The platform leverages automation and reusable templates to accelerate cloud migration and deployment efforts, reducing manual work and errors. ACP also incorporates governance mechanisms to ensure compliance and secure cloud usage, maintaining the security posture as cloud complexity grows.
Key Features of Accenture Cloud Platform
The ACP offers a centralized marketplace to discover, procure, and manage cloud services from various providers. It includes deployment automation, governance and compliance controls, analytics and reporting, and integration with AI and intelligent tools for accelerated cloud transformation and efficient service delivery.
Benefits for Businesses
Businesses can expect faster and smoother cloud migration and adoption with reduced delivery time and errors. The platform provides flexibility and scalability to evolve the digital core as business needs change and to integrate multiple cloud platforms for optimal innovation and resilience.
ACP improves operational efficiency through streamlined processes and reduced legacy system maintenance. It enhances security and compliance with centralized governance frameworks. Continuous innovation is possible by accessing the latest cloud capabilities through simplified management without disruptive upgrades.
Finally, the platform accelerates decision-making and time to market through consolidated analytics and integration of advanced data and AI capabilities across cloud environments.
The Future of Cloud Integration
Despite the growth of cloud computing, Accenture expects a long path ahead in integrating legacy systems with cloud environments. The ACP allows customers to procure pre-configured services from Accenture, such as testing tools on a pay-per-use basis.
Accenture has not yet announced which suppliers make up its cloud service provider ecosystem, but Amazon Web Services is expected to be included in the future. The platform consists of a mix of software and services, including a procurement portal that can be deployed internally or hosted in the cloud.
The platform allows customers to spin up cloud infrastructure as a testing environment in one fell swoop. Accenture plans to sell human labor, such as software testers, through the cloud portal on a pay-per-use basis.
Accenture recently announced a $400 million investment in its cloud computing capabilities. The ACP will be a part of this investment, and the company also plans to grow its 6,700-strong cadre of cloud experts.
Cloud computing is already a $1 billion-a-year business for Accenture, accounting for around 3.5% of its 2012 revenues. All services on the ACP are billed with a single monthly bill.
Pre-built integrations, such as from Salesforce.com to NetSuite, are available on the ACP and are hosted on Accenture's infrastructure. The platform can be likened to an app store with pre-integrated apps.
Infosys, an Indian IT outsourcer, was one of the first to market with its Cloud Ecosystem Hub service in an attempt to fill this role. The procurement portal allows IT administrators or business users to buy services from Accenture's ecosystem of approved cloud providers.
The platform aims to make it easier for businesses to govern cloud usage across their organization. IDC estimates that the global cloud computing market will grow 245% from $40 billion in 2012 to $98 billion in 2016, and Accenture expects its cloud business to match or exceed this growth.
Data-and-cloud-computing technology is integral to Accenture Cloud Platform (ACP), which streamlines the process of consuming, managing, and orchestrating services from multiple cloud providers. This technology-driven platform aids organizations in avoiding vendor lock-in and leveraging the best-of-breed services for various workloads.
The key features of the ACP include a centralized marketplace for discovering and managing cloud services, deployment automation, governance and compliance controls, analytics and reporting, and integration with AI and intelligent tools, all aimed at accelerating cloud transformation and efficient service delivery.
