Four imperatives to guide your journey to the cloud

When Covid hit, we saw a large increase in global investment in the cloud. Worldwide spending on cloud services reached $34.6 billion in Q2 last year – up 11% on the previous quarter – as organizations rushed to establish solutions for remote work, remote learning and e-commerce.  But closer to home, the picture is different. The German Mittelstand has been slow to move processes to the cloud. This hesitancy puts the global competitiveness of these “Hidden Champions” at risk.

A promising sign is a recent survey by Consultport, showing that 50 percent of Mittelstand CEOs would like to intensify the digitization of their businesses. However, the complexity of migrating processes to the cloud and digitizing business models can be daunting. This puts many firms off from even starting. At T-Systems, we want to help these world-beating SME-manufacturers move their businesses to the cloud and realize the full potential of digitalization. We have identified four imperatives to guide them through this process: 

1.    Build your public cloud strategy.  

Firms need to establish which processes need to stay on premises and which can be moved to the public cloud. This will have implications for firms’ operating models. What is my own value proposition and what can I outsource to the public provider or other cloud partners? A well-defined strategy is essential for setting the course ahead. 

2.    Change your company’s mindset.  

For the digitization of a business to work, a “Public cloud first”-mindset is key. A change in mindset creates real buy-in from employees. This enables firms to look critically at which processes can be migrated to make best use of the public cloud’s potential. 

3.    Plan your transition.  

It’s important to plan the concrete steps of the transition to the cloud and identify which applications it makes sense to move. We support companies in doing that with our Cloud Migration Framework. This is a clearly defined process which our clients can use to coordinate their path to the cloud and then execute in a highly automated way. 

4.    Bolster security and data sovereignty.  

It’s important not to think of security as an add-on. It must be built into your whole IT infrastructure from the start. Sovereign infrastructure, managed within a European regulatory framework, gives control over data. This protects intellectual property and reduces dependencies. What was considered a secure source today may become a risk tomorrow. Data sovereignty protects against this.

The European Commission also recognizes the importance of the cloud for the continent’s future competitiveness. Earlier this month, it presented its vision for Europe’s digital transformation. It has set the target of three out of four companies using cloud computer services and big data by 2030.

We support companies in achieving this within an open ecosystem. Where private and sovereign-cloud solutions complement the possibilities of the public cloud. We offer this in a modular way, flexibly adaptable to our customers’ businesses and needs. We want to be the best partner for our clients to make the most of the possibilities the cloud can offer. 

Accelerating the digital future 

T-Systems will exhibit at Hannover Messe with a series of sessions and on-demand videos covering the biggest topics in industrial transformation. Whatever your industry, T-Systems experts will be there to give you the insights you need. 

You can now register to meet T-Systems at Hannover Messe 2021, taking place virtually from 12th – 16th April: https://www.hannovermesse.de/en/?open=ticketRegistration&code=ozGGs