When businesses begin to outgrow their current IT set-up, they start their search for an alternative that from the outset meets the demands of the organisation. It’s no surprise that cloud computing is the first IT setup to be considered when scalability is a necessity – with this being said, it is thought that 70% of organisations have optimised their business processes and workflows through SaaS.
It is no longer efficient to attempt to update old kit every so often. This limits the business’ growth, negatively impacts the budget and also prevents workers from optimising productivity. Businesses now need to innovate if they’re going to survive at all.
A key starting position of innovation is the migration of business processes, data and applications into a secure, always-on cloud environment. Why? Cloud technology enables organisations to demand more from their source of IT. Instead of being restricted to limited hardware and individual application licenses, with the right technology in place these resources can flourish with business growth at an affordable rate.
With the advantages of cloud computing tried and proven, it’s no surprise that 50% of large enterprises will have cloud deployments by the end of 2017.
With cost savings, improved performance, happier employees and more potential for opportunities it leaves the question “why aren’t all organisations moving to the cloud right this second?”. For those who have considered the cloud and then backed away, it is likely down to the idea of having to transform the current set-up from swimming in stacks of paper to sleek digital data storage. It is almost as if businesses critical data is disappearing right in front of them. Of course, this isn’t the case but from a non-technical point of view, it can be hard to come to terms with the process of cloud migration and the adoption of advanced technology – especially if employees swear by paper documentation.
The top-down pressure on CIOs is only set to rise over the coming year due to the combination of a lack of resources to innovate and the impact potential failure could have on IT budget. This leads to the requirement of re-evaluation of the conventional tried-and-tested methods – which have proven to be not sufficient for innovation.
These CIOs need to truly consider whether the in-house IT team have the capability to create, execute, deploy and manage a full IT system that is accessible exclusively through internet connectivity. The initial reaction to this situation for the technical team within an organisation is that it is close to impossible. Organisations need to re-evaluate the resources they currently have in terms of money, skills and facilities. Afterwards, it is down to the organisation whether to attempt cloud migration in-house or seek external help (the most popular option is usually the latter).
72% of leading companies are only able to collaborate across the organisation and ecosystem with the use of cloud computing. This alone provides the relevant evidence to prove that for effective project work and availability, cloud technology must be part of the mix. Collaboration is not exclusive to the process of emailing files to colleagues – it refers to the communications between each department.
Something that needs to be considered when driving innovation is how to keep the business up and running with minimal disruption and no effect on productivity.
Today, 51% of CIOs struggle to respond to digital opportunities in a timely way as Gartner has cited in its recent report. This struggle can be interlinked with the issue previously stated with 32% of organisations believing they lack internal skills to carry out a cloud migration.
In a business environment where CIOs are constantly asked to reduce the budget and drive innovation, it’s essential to introduce an approach to IT modernisation that rationally assesses core IT, understands what’s essential to keeping the lights on and allows for innovation according to strategy.
For innovation behaviours to become commonplace, the right elements are needed; the right organisational culture; strong business leadership; creativity and willingness to adapt with the ability to capture ideas.
With this being said, it is clear that a key player of successful innovation is the involvement of the employees that will be affected by the introduction of new technology (which will most likely be each individual). By educating staff of cloud implementation, this will allow them to strategically carry out work as they usually would with all limitations, updates, and downtime took into consideration.
When kick-starting their journey to the cloud, it’s possible that IT professionals may not be capable of doing it on their own. We’re hoping this 5-part journey to the cloud will aid you and your organisation into digital transformation with confidence.
Disclaimer: Please note that some statistics referenced are taken from the Ovum/BT/Cisco research paper
“Realising possibilities in the cloud: The need for a trusted broker”
