In the past, big companies used to have a significant advantage by investing in expensive technologies and being able to collect masses of data to analyse. That helped large enterprises to automate processes and make better decisions.
The cloud has been a real game changer because today anyone can access world-class technologies in limited scale and, most important, without the need for a significant capital investment upfront. In other words, everyone with little more than a broadband connection can develop an idea and leverage the world’s best technology. That’s simply amazing!
But what about larger organisations? How do they have to adapt to the cloud disruption? What are the challenges to move your business to the cloud?
Cloud adoption has been and continues to be driven by costs. But the cloud today is more about going faster, enabling new capabilities and functionalities like artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. It’s all about how you how you expect it to change your business.
Moving a company to the cloud is more than a just a technology decision, it is a business decision and for many companies can also be a significant challenge.
The best way to approach a cloud transformation program is to answer a few business-related questions: “How could technology serve better my customers?” or again “Can artificial intelligence fill the lack of knowledge to support my business decisions?”. Only by understanding business goal companies can support technology decisions.
Moving to the cloud can make existing operations more efficient, faster or simpler but there is much more potential in leveraging the cloud to develop new business models and open up new opportunities.
A cloud journey is not a one-way direction, a myriad of technologies and capabilities can be combined in different ways to achieve a positive business outcome. Also, every organisation is unique so every company must find its approach to the cloud. A best practice is to undergo proper due diligence to evaluate strengths from different providers and choose the best option for you. Remember cloud services can be integrated seamlessly, trying to do everything with a single provider could be limiting for your goals.
Cloud, like every technology innovation, not only creates value, it also shifts value from one place to another. It’s important to understand how the cloud initiative will impact people in the organisation. Redesign for the cloud means repurposing people from doing regular tasks, like maintaining infrastructure, to a much more exciting work like solving business problems for your customers.
The cloud is not about how you manage your data, the cloud is about how you operate your business: that’s why the cloud is one of the most disruptive innovations ever.
