Why now is the time to go Cloud First

Let me tell you a story. Almost two years ago, I took my leadership team to the West coast and met with all the big hyperscalers about cloud. I had personally already been on the journey – but it was truly interesting to watch my team as their knowledge grew. They started off thinking about moving servers and storage, then progressed to understanding the power of democratizing data, then they overcame the fears of resilience and security - and finally the light bulb went off – that cloud is not really about a new wave of infrastructure – it’s about transformation of businesses.

Fast forward two years and if anything has shown me the value of a cloud-first strategy, it’s been the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was a jolt for all of us. But from a technology perspective, we were ready. Accenture’s infrastructure is already 95 percent in the public cloud – we know how to connect our team and collaborate with clients virtually. I could set the leadership agenda to help us outmaneuver uncertainty, and cloud-based services provided us the platform for us to find creative ways to stay engaged and inspired.

What about companies without a strong cloud strategy?

Another revelation from the COVID-19 experience is that it exposed many organizations who are lagging behind on their cloud journeys and have struggled to adapt. This has created an inflection point that could make or break a company’s success.

Accenture’s research found that, before COVID-19 hit, most companies had no more than 20 percent of their workloads in the cloud. Now, in the midst of COVID-19, organizations are faced with a whole new set of customer expectations, which can translate to growth opportunities. This realization has created a new level of urgency for improving digital performance. In fact, it’s driving organizations to quickly advance from their 20 percent position in cloud to become 80 percent in the cloud within the next three years. Until a company reaches that level of critical mass it cannot drive the business transformation agenda that it enables.

Enter Accenture Cloud First

That’s why I’m so excited about the recent formation of Accenture Cloud First. This represents a US$3 billion investment in new capabilities, solutions, and partnerships to build the resources that can help our clients innovate even faster and emerge as leaders within their industries. The Accenture Cloud First organization brings together more than 70,000 cloud professionals, with all the knowledge and insights they’ve gained working with more than 950 clients across 34,000 cloud projects in 68 countries. This organization has experience in the full stack of integrated cloud capabilities like data, integrated infrastructure and applications, and pre-configured industry solutions, along with deep ecosystem skills and a culture of change which we can combined with industry skills and business strategy to help our clients transform.

Bringing Cloud to the Midwest

With this major initiative, we are in a great position to help our clients develop their own cloud-first strategies. Our research has shown that the best route to maximize cloud value follows these key steps:

• Migrate and scale up – move workloads to the cloud rapidly and securely by selecting the right infrastructure based on business needs. Aim for 12-18 months vs the 3 years pre-COVID norm.
• Get the most from the hyperscalers – apply the innovations and investments from the big cloud providers to create business value
• Modernize and accelerate – ramp up organizational speed and agility to take advantage of restructured architectures, applications, and data for cloud. This is as much about talent transformation as technology
• Innovate and grow – use cloud as a digital transformation lever, creating a foundation for rapid experimentation, innovation, and new business models

I believe it’s clear that the winners of tomorrow will be those organizations that navigate the route to a cloud-first strategy rapidly. However, to realize the full value of cloud, it is critical that they make the right choices and engage with the appropriate partners to augment their own capabilities to move at the speed required along the journey.

Now, who’s ready to take that next step?