"Our customers are very knowledgeable, but cloud computing is new," Paul Garner, CGX executive VP and technology chief, explained in an interview with PrintWeek. "Our goal is to drive us ahead as it relates to technology and one way we're doing that is to bring some of the advances in the technology industry in general to the print industry in particular.

Garner conceded the print industry has not traditionally embraced leading edge technology, instead preferring to be more of a mid to late adopter. "We at Consolidated are working to become early adopters with this technology," he continued. "But we realize there is a bit of education to do, not so much in terms what cloud computing is, but rather in how it's going to have a positive impact on the industry in general as well as our customers' specific business needs."

One of those positive impacts could be reduced costs, Garner said, adding cloud computing will help CGX drive down its own costs, and those savings in turn can be passed on to its customers. But Garner added the real benefit of CGX's commitment to cloud computing solutions will be in helping customers on their terms by enabling them to conduct their business without IT limits.

One key component of the company's cloud computing initiative comes online next week with the opening of a new data center in Houston. Designed in collaboration with HP, the center features advanced high-density HP servers as well as storage and networking systems. CGX also noted the new facility will be Level 4 compliant, meaning it's been built to the highest security levels to both secure data and ensure uninterrupted service even in the event of power outages, hurricanes or floods.

"We now have the ability to become as elastic as needed when it comes to storage or when it comes to computing power, whether we're doing peak productions for Apple and photo-books or just normal monthly runs of a prospectus," Garner said. "We have the ability to scale up or scale down to meet those needs, which is something that can sometimes can be difficult for traditional IT to do."

Garner also stressed the new data center and its hardware investment is only one part of the cloud computing equation, adding "We're also investing heavily in Microsoft Windows Azure, their platform for building cloud-based applications."

Among those applications are CGX's new WorkSmart Suite, including Streamline, an advanced web2print solution that represents the next generation of the company's StoreFront tool. Streamline features a completely redesigned system architecture based on industry-standard variable data printing and e-commerce engines.

In addition to providing 24/7 access to users through the data center, the company said Streamline will also simplify the process of on-demand print purchasing, management and the distribution of marketing material, to help customers not only increase sales, but also eliminate waste and cut their total cost of ownership."

"Streamline is a great example of software as a service, based on cloud computing technology and running on an on-premise cloud-based data center," Garner said, noting that in addition to offering software such as Streamline as a service, CGX will also offer other platforms as a service.

"We're building right now and will be announcing later this summer a healthcare platform that allows us the meet the demands of all of our healthcare customers when it comes to things like open enrolment, Medicare Part D, geo-coding of pharmacy data and on and on," he added. "There are so many needs in healthcare that are similar across multiple customers, but we will also be able to provide custom components that will allow them to differentiate themselves in the marketplace."

Garner stressed the company's new cloud computing solutions will be accessible to clients of all sizes. "In the past we would have to build custom solutions for all of our customers, be they large or small, and that meant a much larger cost for our smaller customers," he said. "That's because we would have to put just as much effort into building an application because of the unique features and functions they needed. By approaching it from a cloud computing and building platform based applications, our smaller customers can take full advantage of the features and functions of the platform as our larger customers - they just won't have the need for the elasticity to scale up."

One of the early concerns about cloud computing in general is the fear that sensitive data may somehow be vulnerable. But Garner noted CGX has dealt with this issue before, adding, "We have lots of customers that have regulatory and statutory requirements such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) for health care," he said. "We also work with educational institutions that deal with student records so FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) comes into play, and also deal with credit card information so meet the PCI (Payment Card Industry) requirements as well."

"We have an overarching security policy and program, under which each one of the regulatory and statutory requirements are met," he concluded.