From increased flexibility and scalability, to cost savings, businesses making the most of cloud computing are to help the sector grow to US$1.5tn by 2030 (Source: Link)
Additional statistics demonstrating the adoption and business impact of cloud technology. 55 Cloud Computing Statistics for 2024 (spacelift.io)
- Nearly 80% of companies incorporate multiple public clouds, and 60% report using more than one private cloud.
- Of companies with more than $500 million in revenue, 56% use a hybrid cloud approach.
- 70% of IT leaders believe it is difficult to achieve a successful digital transformation without a robust hybrid cloud strategy.
- By 2027, 70%-plus enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives (from less than 15% in 2023).
- 94% of businesses report that their security improved after switching to the cloud.
- 91% of organizations claim using the cloud makes it easier to fulfill government compliance requirements.
Let’s delve into how cloud adoption benefits businesses after reviewing the cloud adoption statistics. Cloud adoption offers several benefits for businesses, enabling them to stay competitive and agile in today’s digital landscape (Sources: Cloud adoption to accelerate IT modernization | McKinsey, $3 trillion is up for grabs in the cloud | McKinsey).
- Flexibility: Improve the overall flexibility of IT in meeting business needs such as more frequent releases of business features (Scaling up or down based on demand); cloud providers are increasingly offering much more sophisticated solutions than basic computing and storage, such as big-data and machine-learning services.
- Reduced Costs: Cloud computing eliminates the need for high upfront hardware costs. Reduce IT overhead costs by 30 to 40 percent.
- Disaster Recovery: Cloud services offer robust disaster recovery capabilities. Data Redundancy on Multiple Regions, Automated Backups and Failover mechanisms enhance business continuity.
- Accessibility: Cloud enables remote access to applications and data from anywhere, fostering collaboration and productivity among distributed teams.
- Greater Collaboration: Cloud-based collaboration tools facilitate seamless communication, document sharing, and teamwork across geographies.
- Strategic Value: By adopting cloud solutions, businesses gain a competitive edge. They can innovate faster, incorporate AI and machine learning, and respond swiftly to market changes.
Role of Cloud in 2023 (Source : Gartner Says Cloud Will Become a Business Necessity by 2028): In 2023, organizations are using cloud computing either as a technology disruptor or capability enabler.
- Organizations that are utilizing the cloud as a technology disruptor are harnessing its transformative potential to revolutionize non-cloud, data-center oriented computing styles and technologies. “As businesses navigate through digital transformation journeys, movement to the cloud becomes a key decision point,
- Companies that are adopting cloud technology as a capability enabler are using its potential to enable new capabilities such as elasticity, rapid continuous integration/cloud delivery (CI/CD), serverless functions and AI-infused APIs and processes that were difficult to achieve pre-cloud. To exploit these new capabilities, organizations must carefully evaluate factors such as their investment in skills development, breaking down operational silos, and promoting collaboration among teams to seamlessly adopt automation.
Role of Cloud in 2028 (Source : Gartner Says Cloud Will Become a Business Necessity by 2028): Over the next few years, cloud computing will continue to evolve from being an innovation facilitator to a business disruptor and, ultimately, a business necessity.
- With cloud computing as an innovation facilitator, organizations can distribute platform business concepts widely by using its underlying platform technology to provide interconnections, scale, aggregation and analysis capabilities, which allows the use of technology as a fundamental component of a business model.
- By leveraging the ecosystem of cloud providers, organizations can introduce innovative products and services, such as fraud prevention solutions for second-hand cars from tire manufacturers, or rapid vaccine development through cloud-based machine learning by pharmaceutical companies.
Per the Gartner reports (Source : Gartner Says Cloud Will Become a Business Necessity by 2028) over 50% of enterprises will use industry-specific cloud platforms by 2028.
Adoption of Cloud Technology as a major part of Digital Transformation strategy needs involves answering few important questions:
- Where the real business value is?
- How do I create a real foundational set of capabilities that allows a lot of automation or a lot of scale?
- What should be the operating model so when you enable the business use cases and when you allow your application developers, your engineers, to work a lot faster?
- What kind of cloud talent is needed?
Understand the important point "The investments are in technology, but the benefits are in the business."
After understanding the above questions, we can move with Adoption using the below:
Assess and Plan:
- Understand the need for cloud adoption within your organization.
- Identify motivations, goals, and business drivers.
- Conduct an IT infrastructure assessment to evaluate your current digital environment.
Choose a Cloud Service Model:
Decide on the cloud service model that aligns with your requirements (e.g., Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, or Software as a Service).
Vendor Evaluation and Cloud Migration Strategy:
- Evaluate different cloud providers based on factors like security, scalability, and pricing.
- Develop a migration strategy that outlines how you’ll move workloads to the cloud.
Design and Development of Applications for the Cloud:
- Modify existing applications to be cloud-compatible.
- Consider refactoring or re-platforming to take advantage of cloud-native services.
- Develop new applications with cloud principles in mind.
Cloud Implementation and Hybrid Architecture Development:
- Begin migrating workloads to the cloud.
- Establish hybrid architectures if needed (combining on-premises and cloud resources).
- Ensure effective communication between business and technology teams.
Optimization and Ongoing Management of the Cloud:
- Continuously optimize your cloud resources for cost, performance, and security.
- Implement governance practices to manage cloud usage effectively.
- Stay informed about cloud innovations and best practices.
Apart from the above Major idea of moving forward there are multiple frameworks which can help the businesses in implementations of the Cloud:
Embracing the cloud isn’t just about technology; it’s about reimagining possibilities, empowering teams, and creating a future where innovation knows no bounds.
