Discover how integrating cloud technologies can drive business growth. We share key benefits, strategic implementation, and real-world success stories to help you unlock innovation and efficiency with cloud computing in this blog.
The cloud has become an integral part of many people’s lives, especially since 2020. From storing your recorded Zoom calls to being able to spin up a new virtual server so you can gain more storage for your organization, it would have been practically impossible to become remote or hybrid companies without it.
But if you haven’t gotten the chance to explore cloud computing or you’re interested in learning more than simply adopting the latest software-as-a-service (SaaS) product, then you might be lost in some of the technical jargon. In this article, we’ll explore cloud technologies, how they drive business growth and innovation, and everything else you need to know to navigate both today and tomorrow’s workplace.
Embracing Cloud Technologies: The Gateway to Business Innovation
As mentioned in the introduction, cloud computing has drastically changed the way businesses work. Without it, we would never have been able to adopt remote or hybrid work strategies, collaborate via Teams, or work within the same document on two separate computers.
So, what is cloud computing? It’s the delivery of on-demand IT resources, such as storage, applications, networking, software, databases, and more, over the internet. As a result, organizations and consumers alike now have access to more flexibility, efficiency and scalability than ever before.
If you’ve ever heard the adage, “Every company is a technology company,” or “Every company is a data company,” it’s in part a result of the cloud. More and more businesses are born in the cloud, unburdened by legacy on-premises systems that are prone to breakdown or need specialized expertise to run them. This shift has enabled small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to move faster and grow more easily at a much lower cost than their predecessors.
Growth and innovation come more easily with cloud technologies thanks to additional benefits, such as the ability to collaborate more easily without being in the same room with a colleague, to test in virtual environments, and to create entire platforms and products via the cloud.
The Evolution of Cloud Computing in Business
Cloud computing has been around since the internet’s inception in the late 1960s, but the public wasn’t introduced to it until about the 1980s. Since then, it’s grown to include infrastructure, microservices, and containers to make cloud services widely available for organizations to use in building their businesses.
After COVID-19, however, cloud adoption jumped. According to Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, the company witnessed about two years of digital transformation take place in just two months. In 2020, Gartner saw worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services to equal $257.5 billion. In 2023, it predicted the total spending to be $597.3 billion, more than double in only three years.
According to Google Cloud, 41.4 percent of business leaders worldwide are increasing their cloud investments based on the current economic climate. Today, managed service providers (MSPs) offer cloud-based services, usually referred to as “as-a-service” (XaaS) models, for almost every computing need, so more organizations are adopting cloud technologies.
As a result, some organizations are adopting a multicloud (using multiple cloud providers rather than just one) or hybrid environment (where they use both on-premises and cloud technologies) to maintain their security needs while still making the most of the cloud. Others are using more low-code or no-code cloud technologies to further speed up their innovation capabilities. And as XaaS grows, so too will machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).
But before we dive into more of these trends, let’s talk about XaaS and the different types of “as a service” models.
Key Cloud Technologies Powering Business Growth
Cloud computing can be broken down into infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a service essentially refers to providing servers or hardware in a virtual or cloud environment. Instead of having to build your own server room, you can use IaaS to access servers located across multiple data centers that are offsite and maintained by a separate company. You would, instead, pay another organization, such as Microsoft or AWS, a monthly fee to maintain the hardware and virtual servers.
Several legacy systems require organizations to purchase, install and integrate new hardware internally, and these don’t usually come at the most affordable cost. IaaS allows you to establish an internal network of private clouds and virtual local networks so you can easily expand your data centers, host websites and intranets, and protect your organization’s data.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a service gives your organization a place to create, deploy and manage applications to your customers. Developers can build, test and ship out applications in a PaaS environment thanks to its services and tools, such as frameworks, databases, programming languages, and more, without worrying about servers, storage or networking.
PaaS helps developers quickly and affordably develop and deploy applications without the need of software and hardware. Companies can purchase as much space as they need from the PaaS, so they can add scale up or down depending on their current needs rather than purchasing unnecessary infrastructure that may collect dust if they don’t accurately predict their needs.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a service allows you to use applications over the internet instead of, for example, installing software on your computer via a disc or flash drive. With this model, software is purchased on a subscription basis and typically deployed via a web browser, which removes the need for installations on every individual computer. The SaaS providers will handle updates, security, and continued maintenance, so internal IT teams can focus on hardware needs, such as deploying laptops.
There are SaaS products for just about every company’s needs, from enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools to HR and project management. Like both IaaS and PaaS, the ability to scale up or down as needed gives you more flexibility and cost efficiency. Many larger software solutions that were previously difficult to access for SMBs have included subscription tiers for any company of any size, fostering innovation across organizations.
Additional Cloud Technologies
As technology has advanced, more companies have started building and integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into their organizations. Without cloud computing, neither of these advancements would exist. Both rely on vast amounts of data that we would not be able to access or store without the cloud. And as more organizations adopt cloud computing, you’ll likely see more ML and AI products on the market.
Datasets within the cloud have enabled AI and ML to see patterns and trends, create predictions, and help businesses gain actionable insights.
Each of these cloud technologies has its own set of benefits, but it’s clear there are a few patterns that have popped up.
Benefits of Integrating Cloud Technologies Into Your Business
There are four main benefits to integrating the cloud into your organization:
1. Scalability and Flexibility
The cloud gives your organization the opportunity to scale up or down as needed based on your needs at any given time. For example, if your organization is doing well and you’re seeing an influx of new customers, you can easily expand your business operations by purchasing more space on your PaaS tool.
This is also what makes it flexible. You can also adjust your needs if you’ve experienced a layoff, so you no longer have to pay for seats you don’t currently use.
2. Cost Efficiency and Reduced IT Expenses
You no longer need to spend a lot to build a lot. You don’t need to pay for expensive hardware or hire a massive IT team to maintain it. Cloud computing provides your organization with an effective and affordable “pay-as-you-go” model, and it comes with its own IT team to maintain the hardware for you. And because you won’t have to worry about what happens when that expensive on-premise server breaks, your company’s financial planning is more predictable.
3. Enhanced Collaboration and Remote-Work Capabilities
Most SaaS products include real-time collaboration so that your team members can work within one document or project simultaneously regardless of their physical location. This is the seamless connection that fueled the shift to remote work in 2019, and it’s something many organizations still enjoy today. Teams can easily pass files and other data back and forth from any location, so they can collaborate more easily no matter what time zone they live in.
4. Improved Data Analysis and Decision-Making
Because cloud computing provides, first and foremost, a ton of data storage, it can also give organizations better opportunities for data analysis. It can give you the ability to handle increased data during data spikes, and you can increase your analytics capabilities when needed. While you may not be able to process and analyze data immediately (yet), cloud computing can help you manage your data quickly.
How to Strategically Implement Cloud Technologies in Your Business
Now that you know why you need the cloud, it’s time to get ready to implement it. But before you can do anything, you need to take a few crucial steps:
Assess Your Business Needs
Consider the five Ws as you determine your organization’s needs when it comes to the cloud:
- Why are we moving to the cloud?
- What are you moving into the cloud?
- Who will be involved in the migration? Who will own the software, platform or infrastructure you’re purchasing? Who will use it and needs to be informed?
- Where will the cloud technology be located? Will you need to house it a specific country due to regulations? And where should employees go to access it?
- When can the migration take place?
Determine Your Organization’s Cloud Readiness
Now that you know your organization’s needs, you need to know if you’re able to migrate to the cloud, which a cloud readiness assessment can help with. This assessment will also help ensure the migration runs smoothly. Here are a few steps to keep in mind:
- Using your earlier assessment, identify your business case for migrating.
- Determine what in-house team members will be involved.
- Evaluate your infrastructure and security needs.
- Create a timeline and budget.
After going through this process, you should know if your organization can handle the migration process now as well as if you will need a third party to help. Once you’ve done that, you’ll also need to know which cloud service provider is best for your organization.
Choose the Right Cloud Service Provider
The process for choosing the right cloud service provider (CSP), such as Microsoft Azure or AWS will depend primarily on your organization and what fits your needs. Here are a few things to consider:
- Contractual Terms, Pricing, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Each CSP will have different pricing and contract language you’ll need to make sure fits with your organization.
- Certifications, Industry Standards, and Operational Dependencies: Make sure the CSP you choose follows your industry’s requirements. For example, if your organization or industry has strict requirements around sensitive information sharing, you’ll need to know whether your CSP uses any third parties themselves.
- Integrations and Future Roadmaps: Your CSP should be able to integrate with the services you’re already using, or they will have a roadmap indicating if that integration is coming soon. They can also provide you with an idea of their strategic direction so you can determine if it aligns with your needs.
- Data Security, Privacy and Protection: Given the amount of data within the cloud and how easily cyberattacks can occur, it’s essential to ensure your CSPs take data governance seriously.
- Disaster Recovery and Reliability: What kind of disaster recovery, backup and recovery plan does your CSP have? You’ll need to know their contingency plan in the case of any outage or potential disaster. Similarly, how can your CSP prove its infrastructure is reliable so you or your customers don’t experience a disruption in service?
- Flexibility: What happens if you need to change providers? Or if your CSP goes out of business? You’ll need to know not only how easy it is to switch providers but also whether your current provider has any threats to its viability to could impact your organization.
- Culture Fit: How seamlessly can your two companies to do business together?
Ensure Data Security and Compliance in the Cloud
With how much data you store in the cloud and how easy it is to experience a data breach these days, it’s important to strengthen your data privacy and security policies as you migrate to the cloud. More CSPs provide in-depth security administration and stronger password protection. Encryption and securing connectivity also become essential to keeping your cloud secure.
Train Staff and Foster a Culture of Innovation
Before you can get your teams to embrace the new cloud technology you implemented, you need to make sure they know it’s coming. Create an awareness campaign that generates buzz around the office (virtual or not) and helps you find the champions for the adoption. Then, provide feedback channels so those who want to ask questions have a way to learn more.
Once you have a network of champions and your teams are knowledgeable about the shift, you need to tailor your training to your company’s specific environment. Then, you can develop a training strategy and team focused on creating more education and adoption, which will in turn, foster a culture of innovation. As more team members embrace the new way of working, more will get excited about experimenting with the new technology.
Real-World Success Stories: Businesses Thriving With Cloud Technologies
OMNOVA Solutions, a global innovator of performance-enhancing chemistries and surfaces, needed to transform its workplace to meet its evolving global workforce and business needs. As a large enterprise, it was used to working with legacy on-premises tools and third-party applications, but as an innovative organization, its leaders knew it needed to transform to improve employee engagement and overall productivity and collaboration.
After the organization determined that Microsoft 365 would be the best CSP, its leaders reached out to our Modern Workplace team to provide the strategy, support, and platform configuration that the organization would need during their journey.
During this process, the team implemented best practices for implementing cloud solutions, including:
- Conducting assessments.
- Creating a roadmap for implementation.
- Providing training and support.
- Establishing a governance plan.
- Implementing a change strategy.
Since migrating to the cloud in February of 2019, the organization has seen cost savings of $79,000 from decommissioning on-premises servers and another $15,000 saved by cutting redundant collaboration tools. They expect to save over $200,000 as they continue cutting duplicative tools and reducing on-prem hardware.
Navigating Challenges and Mitigating Risks With Cloud Technologies
Here are a few common challenges you’ll likely face when adopting cloud technologies:
Budget
While budget is more flexible and scalable with the cloud, you’ll still need to watch for usage as the cost can add up quickly. Because it can fluctuate, you have less control over how much you spend, so you need a cloud governance process in place to watch for overspend.
Security
While the cloud offers plenty of options for security, it can also be a major area of concern in your migration. For example, much of your company’s data now rests in the hands of a third-party organization rather than safely in the hardware in your office. That does not mean, however, that you’re not in safe hands. Several cloud companies have invested significantly in security and have become certified in SOC2 to ensure your data is safe.
Compliance
This also goes for your compliance needs. Whether you’re located in the EU and need to ensure you’re compliant with the GDPR or you work in a highly regulated industry like finance, utilities or insurance, compliance will be a big challenge for your organization. Most CSPs, however, are well-versed in industry-specific needs and several have robust reporting tools so you can ensure they’re up to par with your compliance needs. This is also why you should always make sure to review any CSPs industry experience during your evaluation process.
Adoption
Because there isn’t someone physically installing a new piece of software on your computer, it can be pretty easy to forget about your company’s latest cloud implementation. This is especially true if the migration is done in silos across multiple platforms, practically ensuring one team will use the technology less than another. You need a cloud adoption strategy so that everyone in the team knows about the shift, can ask questions, and can receive proper training.
To mitigate these risks and ensure more adoption, establishing a cloud center of excellence or a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) framework could help. This framework allows you to know when your cloud technology is becoming a risk.
- Cloud Center of Excellence (CoE): A cloud center of excellence will help you define any skill gaps and help your team members shift from a current state that doesn’t enable cloud innovation and collaboration to a future state that focuses on establishing a culture that embraces cloud collaboration and innovation. Your CoE should include team members in risk management, finance, HR, IT and other stakeholders who can help empower leaders and define new processes.
- Governance, Risk and Compliance Framework: A GRC Framework for the cloud should help you maintain your risk levels and help ensure you comply with the relevant laws and regulations for your industry. Your organization will likely already have a GRC function but will need to fully understand how the cloud could impact their existing practices.
Future of Cloud Technologies in Business Growth
Beyond AI, there are several cloud technologies that could impact the future of business:
- Serverless Computing: Serverless computing allows organizations to run code without the need to run servers, which would lead to massive savings.
- Secure Access Service Edge: Secure access service edge is a model in computing that reduces complexity and allows companies to run multi-cloud environments. Instead of connecting via data centers, this model allows users and technology to connect on the edge and via peripheral devices.
- Edge-to-Cloud: Similar to serverless computing, edge-to-cloud is a computing architecture that removes the need to confine processes to data centers. Like secure access service edge, it collects, stores and processes data on peripheral devices.
- Green Cloud: Data centers and servers can have detrimental effects on the planet, so green cloud computing is quickly becoming a way for companies to reduce energy consumption by reducing future carbon emissions and moving more processing away from data centers.
As cloud computing continues to evolve, more people will have the chance to streamline operations and open the door to innovation. And with that, the future of business will be stronger for everyone involved.
FAQs: Addressing Common Questions on Cloud Technologies for Business
How can cloud technologies improve business efficiency and productivity?
The cloud in and of itself is an elastic resource, so it helps to reduce the amount of time it takes to bring something from a vision to actually being a full system. You no longer have to spec a bunch of hardware and order it, rack and stack it, and then wait for another specialist to provision it. Most cloud providers give you access to services like databases and storage as well greatly reducing the cost.
What are the initial steps a business should take to integrate cloud technologies?
The first step is to create a well-architected framework (WAF) to determine how you want to implement cloud technology and how that vision aligns with the other parts of your current systems. Most companies don’t move everything at once to the cloud, instead opting for a migration. This requires understanding all the best practices and thinking about potential issues up front, making for a successful integration.
How does cloud computing enhance data security for businesses?
We would be mistaken to claim that it improves data security, as a significant portion of the security implementation is the responsibility of the customer. For instance, you can choose to encrypt Amazon EBS volumes or not. You can encrypt traffic in transit just like the traditional data center. The key to how it can enhance your security is by using those services that add the security layer upfront. Also, in the case of financial technology where tokenization and other standards come into play, it can help reduce the complexity because AWS and other cloud service providers take care of obtaining SOC2, HIPPA, or other certifications, and they can document what pieces you are responsible for, making it easier to implement.
What are the cost implications of adopting cloud technologies for small to medium enterprises (SMEs)?
Costing is one of the biggest problems I see for companies. A lot of companies rush to the cloud and then get a bill. This is also where a WAF study comes into play, as the agent that AWS provides gathers metrics for CPU and Memory, giving an estimate as to what the size of an instance should be. To get the most out of the cloud, any company — even large ones — needs to understand the cost of the various services, the right reason to use one service over another, and if using compute purchasing credits can greatly reduce the cost, or investigate if spot instances could save money (for example, you can typically get a spot instance sometimes up to 50 to 75 percent of the cost).
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