Personal cloud usage influencing business decisions on the technology

When the iPhone launched in 2007, you would have been hard pressed to meet someone that had it and didn't sing the praises of the device. This was especially seen in the corporate world as employees who had fallen in love with the smartphone in their personal lives started seeking to use them in the office. This was the beginning of the bring-your-own-device trend that many organizations are now using.

It's an easy phenomenon to understand. If a worker uses a product or service in their normal, everyday life that makes it easier, why would they not want to bring it into the office and get the same result. Especially if it is something that decision-makers are already debating.

This series of events is currently happening again as company executives try to decide if or which cloud service to incorporate into the office environment. With Apple's iCloud, Google's Drive and several other personal cloud offerings available, employees are more well versed in the technology, what it can do and how it works.

According to CDW's "2013 State of the Cloud" survey, the use of personal cloud services is helping to push how the enterprise is thinking. Of the 1,242 tech professionals that responded, 73 percent said that employee's using the cloud in their personal life was a "significant" factor in the company's decision making process.

Of course, there is a big difference between an employee using iCloud to sync their music library and an enterprise moving critical business operations into a new format. This is where a trusted IT consulting firm that is well versed in the cloud can become a valuable resource.

From our offices in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, PRO OnCall is your single-source technology consulting service, offering managed IT support, unified communications solutions and on-call IT support.