How entrepreneurs harness the power of cloud computing

The cloud offers game-changing opportunities for start-ups to large enterprises, if entrepreneurs and enterprise leaders know how best to harness its power. A panel of cloud computing experts shared their wealth of experience to a full house at the special event on Innovation in the Cloud: How Cloud Computing is Changing the Landscape of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, organized by the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) in partnership with China America Innovation Network (CHAIN).

In this featured panel discussion at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for Stanford's Entrepreneurship Week 2012, the panel shared insights on cloud computing technology changes, enterprise transformation, business model innovation, investor strategies, and market opportunities, with more than 200 Stanford students, faculty, entrepreneurs and Valley professionals.

The panel was composed of serial entrepreneur Jim Dai, CEO of CalmSea, IT expert Sam Ghods, vice president of technology at Box.com, marketing expert Ken Oestreich, senior director of cloud and virtualization marketing at EMC, and investor Cindy Padnos, founder and managing director of Illuminate Ventures. Robert Scoble, startup liaison officer at Rackspace and a technical evangelist, moderated the discussion.

The panelists acknowledged that users had grown to accept everything could be virtual, and cloud is radically changing the face of enterprise strategy, processes, and outcomes. Cloud computing can dramatically decrease timelines and investment costs which encourages flexible growth and experimentation by rapid iteration. This shift, together with cloud computing’s cost effectiveness, strongly favors the way start-ups work.

For entrepreneurs, one piece of good news is that cloud allows smaller firms to compete with big players in new ways. This trend has also prompted the rise of micro VCs, with typical investments of $100,000 to $500,000. While SMEs continue to embrace cloud-based services, how large enterprises adapt and evolve the cloud market will remain interesting.

Stanford Entrepreneurship Week 2012 takes place February 27 through March 7. This collection of over 30 events is hosted by the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN), a federation of programs, student groups and organizations supporting entrepreneurship in the Stanford community.