Cloud Platform: What You’re Missing Out

What You’re Missing Out from Adopting Cloud Platform

If you haven’t been tapping the cloud platform for your organization’s digital development, then you have been missing a lot.

As more and more B2B and B2C transactions are conducted on the cloud, to build a cloud-ready operating model must be companies’ main focus for their investments. Not only does it bring new business capabilities but hugely reduces technology risk as well.

According to an article from McKinsey Digital, companies that adopt well and work with external cloud platforms market more quickly, innovate easily, and scale more efficiently than companies that remain to be indifferent with the cloud. Indeed, cloud platforms are key pillars of digital transformation.

As information and technology officers, it is important to define the cloud as more than just a next-generation application hosting or data platforms because a narrow definition of it guarantees failure.

My observation about many CIOs and CTOs is that they tend to remain into doing traditional implementation models by default because these were successful and safe strategies in the past but that only makes it almost impossible to capture the real value from the cloud. As information and technology officers, it is important to define the cloud as more than just a next-generation application hosting or data platforms because a narrow definition of it guarantees failure. Why you ask? It’s because it is majorly significant to take into consideration the design of how the organization will need to operate holistically in cloud, or else, it will increase the vulnerability of your organization from attackers and will prevent you to maximize a modern technology that enables business agility and innovation. 

Here are some of cloud’s role in organizational digital transformation according to the International Data Corporation (IDC): 

  • Cloud as a platform enables agile application development;
  • Cloud-based infrastructure is key to delivering flexible, on-demand access to the resources underpinning new digital business offerings;
  • Cloud allows organizations to scale infrastructure as needed to support changing business priorities, while reducing the risks of wasted IT resources.
  • Cloud reflects an approach to application design, deployment, and delivery that allows organizations to get more effective use out of their compute and data assets.

Truly the need for CIOs and CTOs  to drive cloud adoption is at its all-time high. So, here’s three things you can do to maximize this opportunity fully: 

Focus your investments on domains for business where cloud can thrive and enable increased revenues.

The value that the cloud generates comes from heightened agility, innovation, and resilience provided to the business with sustained velocity. According to McKinsey, this approach helps in focusing towards programs where the benefits matter most instead of scrutinizing individual applications for potential cost savings.

Select a technology and implementation sourcing model that is aligned with your business strategies and risk constraints.

Wrong technology and sourcing decisions will definitely raise concerns about execution success, cybersecurity risks, and compliance. However, the right technology and sourcing decisions can “bend the curve” on cloud-adoption costs, which can encourage the management team be excited and support the shift.

Engage and join forces with the leadership team to succeed

Joining forces with your organization leaders is significant in the areas of a) Technology funding – encourage company leaders into investing to critical infrastructure investments that will allow companies to add functionality more quickly and easily in the future; b) Business-technology collaboration – CEOs and relevant business heads must have decision-making authority over technical functionality and sequencing to attain the real value of the cloud. However, they cannot do this without knowledge on technologies and you should be there to help them understand; c) Engineering talent – encourage leaders to change hiring and location policies to recruit and retain the talent needed for success in the cloud, especially that  adopting the cloud requires specialized and hard-to-find technical talent.

With the COVID pandemic, companies are more forced to adopt modern and digital business models. You as business officers can accelerate your company’s progress by adopting the cloud since it is the only platform that can provide the required agility, scalability, and innovative capabilities required for this sudden transition.

Conclusion

On an important note, the transition towards the cloud can be tricky. Enterprises need a partner that has a wide range of capabilities and skills around cloud consulting to help drive this. Feel free to check out Croyten for our IT services and we can work together to get your organization’s digital transformation through the cloud platform going.