How Can Cloud Computing Help Organisations Succeed?
With the widespread adoption of cloud services such as Microsoft 365 and Salesforce.com, many businesses have moved to the cloud. But the truth is, transitioning from an established IT infrastructure to a cloud-first business model was not top of the agenda for many businesses—that was before COVID-19.
With the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic, there has been an understandable shift in thinking, placing cloud computing firmly at the centre of the conversation—both from a technology perspective and, more importantly, from a business point of view.
So here we’re going to run through the main advantages of cloud computing driving business success, particularly from the viewpoint of a post-COVID-19 world.
Business Objectives
For a business to gain the maximum advantage from cloud computing, it is first essential to have a roadmap to the identified “business destination”.
By having a clear view of the longer-term business strategy, you can identify the best cloud approach and, from this, more accurately determine the required services, outline a plan of action and associated costs.
In other words, it is important to tie your cloud strategy to your business plan, so it is easier to "sell” the benefits (and justify costs) across the wider business.
Competitive Advantage
The business world is ever-changing, challenging and competitive. Improving efficiency, reducing overheads and utilising new technology has been key for many large Enterprises, from banks to retailers. And those who have failed to keep pace have often been the first to fall. Why? For one, several, or all of the following reasons.
Cost Reduction
While cost is always a key business driver, especially in challenging times, it should not necessarily be the primary focus.
As part of a longer-term strategy, increased utilisation of cloud services will reduce capital and operational costs and improve business resilience and competitiveness through enhanced flexibility, scalability and security.
Primarily, cloud computing moves businesses away from a capital-intensive hardware refresh cycle to a '‘pay as you go " cloud consumption model. While there are several considerations to ensure a cost-efficient cloud strategy - optimising cloud workloads to avoid excess charges or paying for underutilised capacity - the core of the cost evaluation is a comparison of existing infrastructure costs versus anticipated cloud services.
How to Calculate the Cost of Cloud Computing
Flexibility & Scalability
Central to the core benefits of cloud computing is a greatly increased capacity to flex and scale as your business changes. Without fixed hardware assets, the size, scale and capacity of your cloud infrastructure provide the freedom and agility to quickly adapt to changing business demand.
With the advent of COVID-19, many businesses grappled with the requirement for ‘Work From Home’ solutions for their staff. Adding extra capacity or services would be impossible with a complex/expensive infrastructure upgrade. While it is easy to be retrospective, building in the capacity to adapt to change is a wise move for any organisation.
‘Work From Home’
Indeed, the Coronavirus pandemic rapidly pushed many businesses to implement cloud-based ‘Work From Home’ solutions. With employees using many personal devices, solutions such as Cloud Virtual Desktop provided an immediate, scalable and secure solution to provide corporate access to business applications – and ensure business continuity through the challenging times.
Mobility
Accessing cloud services via tablets and smartphones is an everyday occurrence for everyone. Yet many business applications are tied to the office. With the continued growth in smart devices and the delineation between '‘ork’ and '‘ome’, the cloud provides convenience and accessibility for your workforce.
IT Resource Focus
Aside from the added ability to adapt, scale, and pivot in a changing business environment, there is also the subject of priorities for internal IT teams. If resources and capacity are split to deal with hardware and network issues, the ability to implement change can be significantly reduced.
Think Moving to the Cloud Is Just for Big Business?
The cloud enables small businesses to compete globally, minimising operational costs and IT expenses while providing access to some of the world’s most powerful software and infrastructure platforms, regardless of business size.
Like big business, cloud services also help small businesses manage fluctuating demand, ensuring you always have the resources needed to support growth. When business periods of demand subside, you can scale back your services to save unnecessary expense. The agility of the cloud is a real business advantage, untied from the complexities of an existing business model (with associated infrastructure).
Ready to Start Your Cloud Transformation Journey?
At CyberOne, we help develop secure cloud migration plans that deliver a transformational experience and enable you to realise the true benefits of your cloud ambitions—in the short and long term.
Why not book a cloud readiness assessment or talk to one of our cloud specialists to learn how we’ve helped unlock the cloud for some of the UK’s leading mid-enterprise organisations?