In today’s fast-changing digital marketplace, the key to business growth and success includes accelerated innovation and greater agility. More and more companies strategically embrace the cloud to speed up their innovation and achieve their goals. Cloud computing is regarded by many organizations as the answer to their business needs and a catalyst for their digital transformation.
Notably, business growth comes mainly from “hyperdigitization”, which means products and services are mostly, if not all, digital. Many organizations consider going digital as the right strategy to implement because it offers the fastest means to achieve growth. Digitization can quickly transform and diversify product or service offerings, enhance customer satisfaction, and generate greater competency. Interestingly, Gartner estimates that by 2020, about one-quarter of the gross domestic product worldwide will be produced through digital activities.
Benefits of Cloud Computing in Digital Transformation
Many cloud users who have found the right cloud partner and are leveraging cloud strategically are finding that cloud computing offers diverse strategic values:
- Cloud helps companies in transforming into integrated digital enterprises. Cloud enables companies to easily communicate with customers and develop unique products and services that improve customer experience. Virtualized services allow business leaders to quickly respond to the ever-changing economic conditions and customer expectations. This is made possible by having a reliable, flexible, secure solution that caters to their business and industry-specific requirements. Cloud boosts business agility, allowing organizations to proactively and immediately respond to the shifting market conditions or cope better with their customer and business needs.
- Cloud technologies accelerate innovation. Modern cloud applications support companies with their business processes and help improve strategic capabilities. Many companies consider cloud an “enabler” for innovation. For these organizations, cloud computing means faster innovation because it helps them in shaping and implementing their innovative approaches to achieve transformation and ultimately succeed in their industry.
- Cloud computing provides ready access to modern mobile devices, social networks, Big Data and sophisticated analytic resources. These technologies are undoubtedly becoming more popular and indispensable in today’s tech-connected world. Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices enable consumers to engage in digital interactions via social networks at any time they want. Big Data offers a wealth of useful information to many organizations. Sophisticated analytics convert this massive data into actionable insights. In the end, cloud computing is a crucial element to leveraging these technologies.
- Cloud computing enables companies to enter new markets across the globe. By partnering with cloud vendors that are capable of offering international reach, companies can expand their businesses and magnify their global market reach. Cloud enables them to easily develop new distribution channels.
- Cloud makes data sharing and collaboration easier. Since cloud solutions are designed for secure remote access, organizations can have peace of mind when providing third parties (such as suppliers, customers and partners) access to their internal IT resources.
- Cloud offers almost unlimited scalability. Cloud offers a simplified solution that can adjust and evolve with the company’s business growth. With cloud, the IT department does not have to face the challenge of making the systems cope with the business growth or changing demand. Companies using cloud don’t have to go through long procurement process or expensive upgrades against non-cloud platform users who have to deal with limited scalability.
- Cloud reduces business operations cost. Economy of scale is one of cloud’s most popular benefits. Cloud computing offers a significant cost savings to organizations since it is an “as-a-service” solution. Companies pay only for what they use. And because it is scalable, the costs are fully flexible based on the company’s current business demands. Enterprises do not have to over-provision or buy more capacity now to accommodate business growth in the future. With cloud, there is no huge upfront investment or wasted money on maintaining costly, unused extra capacity.
- Cloud computing gives companies the opportunity to purchase technology as services via the Internet. Cloud redefines the delivery of infrastructure, platforms, software applications and business processes. It allows businesses to procure these services using the World Wide Web. As such, organizations are able to acquire, scale and deliver capacity without the limitations on location and resources.
Impacts of Cloud on Digital Transformation
Interestingly, in a recent Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) research that involved over 300 business and IT leaders worldwide, over 80% of the respondents viewed cloud as highly relevant. They said cloud technology is an integrated part of their digital transformation. EMA is an IT analyst and consulting firm.
The survey participants also shared their views on the impact of cloud computing on IT and digital transformation. The research defined digital transformation as an initiative that is focused on maximizing business or organizational effectiveness through digital and IT services.
According to the research, the respondents identified the top four impacts of cloud computing on digital transformation as follows:
- Cloud has been a resource for accelerating the company’s digital transformation initiative.
- Cloud has improved business communication system.
- Cloud has forced companies to reorganize their IT structure (tied with number 2).
- Cloud has forced organizations to gauge their progress in a way that the business understands.
Measuring Success with Cloud
Cloud computing is indeed a catalyst for digital transformation. A crucial game-changer, cloud is a solution that enables companies to accelerate their digital initiatives and accomplish their targets. The EMA research reviewed how companies are measuring their success with cloud and the following items came up on top of the list:
- Service availability
- Cost of delivery
- User experience
- Usage and easy access to relevant services
Clearly, digital transformation relies on first-rate IT service delivery not only in terms of value that it delivers but also its cost flexibility. Cloud computing is the critical catalyst that makes digital transformation happen at an optimum rate.
How to Make Cloud Work for your Business
Cloud computing offers insurmountable benefits to companies as they traverse the path to digital transformation. Cloud-based platforms and software applications provide speed and agility, further accelerating digitization.
Equally important to having the right cloud platform is partnering with a knowledgeable vendor who understands how your business works and how the solution can be tailored to suit your specific needs. Selecting a strong cloud partner that will fully support you in achieving both business agility and cost savings through your cloud journey is crucial.
Make cloud work for your benefit. Revolutionize your business with a partner who has the expertise to help you with your business and digital transformation.
Photo courtesy of Chris Potter.
