Cloud computing, it has been suggested, could bring an end to local IT departments some warned. The truth, however, is much more exciting and it turns out that rather than going the way of the dinosaurs, it's the IT department that's helping to change how companies conduct their businesses and become more agile and modern.

If anything, says Neil Sholay, head of Oracle Digital, the cloud has provided IT departments with tools to become more innovative and creative. IT teams and strategies are becoming even more crucial to businesses, which probably won't surprise the people who work within those teams as computing becomes more important to making money with each passing day.

The "IT [department] has gained much more time to add new value to the business," Sholay adds in his post.

Put simply, now those teams don't have to fuss about with backing up databases and adding in new patches as improvements are made and bugs squashed. IT is now freed from the worry of selecting and configuring new hardware too, as much of that is handled by their cloud provider.

Sholay says that this means "the IT team can focus more time and energy on developing tools that directly improve the way businesses operate and the services that are delivered to customers. IT now has a hand in everything from building innovative mobile apps, to harnessing data to improve operations, and working with business units to improve operations".

Because cloud platforms allow very fast development of apps, and for them to be tested in a safe environment it gives IT a way to demonstrate how something might improve things for users, clients and even customers. The nature of PaaS means that once approved, these apps can be deployed into a live service quicker than ever before too. And of course, if during development the IT team discover something isn't working, it can be abandoned without enormous material cost. Again, we're back to the whole "fail fast" motto.

The cloud is changing how everyone works, automating and reducing the cost of many of the more tedious aspects of computing, and giving your IT department a chance to discover their potential, and ultimately unlock their value to the business.

Oracle has a PaaS guide for download which helps you understand all of the advantages PaaS can bring to your business. You can grab a free copy on their website.

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