Brazilian retailer leverages cloud to grow

Monday, April 11, 2011

While many businesses have turned to the cloud to prevent overspending on IT solutions, one Brazilian department store is utilizing the technology not just to keep from sinking, but to expand its business.

According to a recent Network World report, Lojas Renner, Brazil's second-largest department store chain, plans to double in size in the next five years, and will leverage the cloud to do so.

The company currently uses a number of cloud services, including SaaS for retail and e-business applications, according to the report. Lojas Renner's CIO Leandro Balbinot told the news provider that the cloud has afforded his company flexibility and scalability not found by traditional, on-premise IT solutions.

Now that the economic recession has passed and the company has room to grow once again, Balbinot said he plans to implement more cloud services to help the process.

"We're growing faster than ever, and I could not afford to have the same lead times I had before to grow the infrastructure, expertise and teams," Balbinot said.

As in other regions of the world, cloud computing is growing in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, 65 percent of Brazilian and Mexican companies plan to adopt or extend cloud use in the near future.