Cloud transformation is undoubtedly one of the pillars of the digital revolution that embraces the whole world; it’s hard to imagine an area of life it doesn’t affect. Cloud computing, cloud services, cloud platforms, cloud migration, cloud journey, cloud infrastructure, cloud technologies, cloud security, and cloud-first transformation are only some of the terms or concepts of growing importance we hear about more and more nowadays.
There are countless world-renowned, immensely successful cloud companies with huge revenues that moved to the cloud or simply used the cloud environment with immense success. Netflix, eBay, Twitter, Pinterest, Coca-Cola, Apple, General Electric are some of the household names but they’re just the tip of the iceberg here.
Also, there are many powerful cloud transformation services providers, such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and IBM Cloud. Salesforce, Cisco Cloud Solutions, and Alibaba Cloud are also on the list of major, and very influential cloud service providers.
But, of course, it’s not only the global giants that go with the cloud computing flow. Actually, it’s rather difficult to find a modern company of any size that wouldn’t use cloud computing to some extent. Undoubtedly, cloud transformation is one of the hottest trends that influence not only the present but also the near and distant future, making it so important in 2022.
Table of contents:
1. Cloud transformation in brief
2. Why is cloud transformation so important now?
3. Cloud business transformation – key takeaways
Cloud transformation in brief
Undoubtedly, the term „cloud transformation” seems to be a very broad one. What does it actually mean? Well, in brief, it can be described as migrating information (e.g. some or virtually all data, apps, software programs, desktops, or whole businesses) from local servers to the cloud environment. This can be a public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud.
Apart from many success stories of businesses that decided to move to the cloud, there are some interesting figures that reflect its importance in today’s world. One of them is that, nowadays, as many as 94% of businesses use cloud solutions one way or another, according to Flexera.
What’s more, cloud computing accounts for 30% of all IT budgets and a staggering 82% of the workload resides in the cloud. On top of that, an average person already uses as many as 36 cloud-based services a day, and as for organizations, this average is close to 5 different platforms.
Why is cloud transformation so important now?
The numbers and figures quoted above prove the huge importance of the digital transformation cloud computing propels. But if we were to summarize the overall benefits of migrating data, applications, and other resources to the cloud for businesses, the list could look like this:
- accelerating IT modernization
- enhancing remote working
- providing a huge competitive edge
- improving the speed of business operations and time to market
- reducing barriers to seamless online collaboration
- improving organizational agility, scalability, and flexibility
- increasing efficiency of providing services
- unlocking new innovation and growth opportunities
- cost and resources optimization
- security improvement
- the limitless amount of data to be stored
All those advantages show how crucial cloud transformation is nowadays, in times of huge uncertainty. In general, it enables greater flexibility, acting faster and remotely – and that is perfectly what companies need to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. For this reason, cloud investments and cloud initiatives in general simply skyrocket.
Undoubtedly, the speed of digital and cloud transformation accelerated during the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, Microsoft had seen rapid growth in clients’ interest in such services and „two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months”, according to its CEO Satya Nadella.
Cloud solutions that have been implemented back then, and the cloud-first strategy in general, are here to stay with us for a long time. And this imposes some serious challenges for 2022 and the coming years.
Social distancing and uncertainty of the pandemic have put cloud solutions in the limelight. Business owners and managers had been deciding to move to the cloud much more often than before. This way, many industries kick-started or intensified their presence in the cloud, transforming many areas of their corporate lives. Elearning, telemedicine, online communication tools, as well as e-commerce, and online entertainment services all experienced a huge boom during the pandemic.
Nevertheless, as of 2022, there are some major challenges cloud transformation is facing. The expected surge in cloud solutions adoption and expenditure is huge but what may get in the way of this impressive growth is the shortage of qualified IT professionals, seen worldwide. The lack of training in cloud services adoption and the newest trends may also be problematic in the long run.
What’s more, many people simply are reluctant to change – even if they work in the high-tech industry – and they put off till later starting the cloud revolution in their companies. Even if they know they will be beneficial at the end of the day. Also, as cloud-based services and solutions get more and more popular, security and compliance issues need to be taken care of more than ever.
Cloud business transformation – key takeaways
Cloud computing digital transformation has taken the world by storm, covering virtually all aspects of life. Its importance goes up year by year, and 2022 may mark another milestone in its history. Other thousands of companies will move to the cloud and cloud operations are likely to become the heart of their businesses.
Definitely, cloud adoption gives both average people and whole organizations huge opportunities they’d better not overlook. What’s more, switching to the cloud is often regarded as a top priority or one of the most critical endeavors for a modern organization, strategy-wise.
Of course, it’s crucial to use cloud technology wisely and think about introducing the right cloud strategy and cloud security measures to avoid huge losses. Some of the cloud security threats that may affect both regular and business users include cyberattacks, hijacking of accounts, unauthorized access and data loss as well as cloud data breaches in general.
And what aspects of cloud transformation are in use in your organization? What challenges regarding cloud and digital transformation do you face? If you need assistance in creating or executing the cloud transformation strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us now.
