What Does Your Business Look Like in a Cloud-Based Business Apps Environment?

What would your business look like if most important and frequently-used business applications were a one-click app on a PC, tablet or smartphone? What if key technology assumptions most businesses have to make boil down to convenient access to reasonably-fast broadband, and devices with Web browsing capability?

What if most businesses didn’t have to supply much more than broadband and Web-browsing devices to immediately download and use key business apps?

What becomes of much of today’s premises network business? What happens to distributors of business software? How many more sales personnel in a range of industries might find they now can sell such products because installation, configuration and support now are a “mobile app” process?

What products would be “natural” parts of a communications and information technology bundle? Which products would sales forces “lead with”?

As the hassles associated with buying and supporting all manner of premises networking gear drop away, how might information technology spending change?

Once all fundamental apps are in the cloud, what need is there for a distinct “premises network”?

We aren’t there yet, but we’re getting closer.

Amazon’s AWS Marketplace, for example, could have huge ramifications for sales forces in the communications and information technology marketplace. As AWS Marketplace and other similar industries develop, the “cloud” becomes the way everyone gets access to business apps and data.

Each device will connect directly to the cloud. In some cases, no premises network intermediaries are required, with the exception of WiFi (News - Alert).

Non-technical sales forces will find there are new opportunities to sell products that might have been “too technical” in the past. Firms outside “IT” might find they can create bundles on the fly, customized for vertical markets or businesses of various sizes and types.

There could be losers as well. Traditional IT, and the ecosystem that supports it, would seem the most likely example.