The worldwide market for cloud-based SaaS offerings is expected to expand by about 20 percent per year through 2018, when it could exceed the $100 billion mark.

- International Data Corporation (IDC)

In the world of softwares, cloud is becoming the next big thing. Companies are now switching to cloud based delivery models. But that is not an easy task. For this a number of factors need to be considered like:

• The process by which new products are developed and old products are reconfigured for the cloud
• The ways companies should manage customer relationships
• The pace at which product-development teams should operate
• Companies’ tolerance of failure
• The degree to which companies are willing to invest in new technologies and capabilities

Keeping these factors in mind, Santiago Comella-Dorda, Chandra Gnanasambandam and Bhavik Shah, have listed out six principles that will help companies to make an easy shift towards cloud. They are:

1. Emphasize minimum viable products rather than ‘big bang’ releases
2. Treat users as part of the day-to-day development team
3. Expect and tolerate failure
4. Adopt agile approaches to software development
5. Give developers quality-assurance and testing responsibility
6. Invest in cutting-edge capabilities

To know more, please read the following article at McKinsey Insights:

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/from_box_to_cloud