Suraj Raghunath
Global Portfolio Partner
In this article:
Cloud computing has been adopted by countless businesses across a broad spectrum of industries. In fact, it’s been estimated that 94% of enterprises already use a cloud service in some form and the worldwide cloud market is worth approximately $445.3 billion. Nevertheless, not every business is using the cloud – and even those that are may only be doing so in a limited way.
Although the benefits of cloud solutions are well understood, such as scalability, reliability, and affordability, some businesses remain reluctant to fully embrace the cloud, while other businesses aren’t entirely sure how the cloud would make a difference to their operations. Unfortunately, this means turning their backs on the kinds of advantages that could transform the lives of their employees, customers, and clients.
What is preventing cloud adoption?
There are several barriers preventing organisations from adopting cloud solutions, many of which will vary by industry and business. Some of the most common include:
- Unknowns and ambiguities
A lack of awareness is one of the biggest hurdles preventing businesses from embracing the cloud. Worries around unknown costs, unknown complexities, and unknown security risks can all leave companies hesitant to overhaul their technology stack. Unfortunately, a lack of clarity is leading to a situation where firms feel as though they will be taking a leap of faith by deciding to adopt cloud solutions.
- Complexity
Cloud solutions come in many forms. For example, there are public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. Plus, in addition to IaaS solutions, there are Platform-as-a-Service offerings, Software-as-a-Service and more besides. Therefore, it is perhaps unsurprising that 62% of senior IT decision-makers cite complexity and abundance of choice as barriers when planning their cloud transformation.
- Insufficient skills
Some businesses are struggling to find personnel with the skills to successfully manage cloud adoption. In fact, between 2020 and 2022, a lack of cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) skills is expected to delay migration to the cloud for half of all enterprise IT organisations by two years or more.
- Budget constraints
Moving your existing technologies to the cloud often comes up against corporate inertia – most commonly around cost. Gartner states that a key challenge for IT leaders is shifting their budget from being 80% “keeping the lights on” to just 60% – freeing up resources for cloud adoption. The cost of transferring legacy applications, in particular, can lead to some businesses wanting to stick with the status quo.
- Perceived security risk
There remains a perception among some businesses that hosting data in the cloud leaves it more susceptible to data breaches than if it is stored using on-premise solutions. This is even though safeguards around cloud computing are more robust than ever. As a matter of fact, cloud computing now represents the number one preferred method for deploying security technology.
How to boost your cloud readiness
It’s understandable if businesses find embracing the cloud daunting. It may mean overhauling existing IT infrastructure, revamping long-established technologies and, generally, stepping into the unknown. However, if your organisation crafts its cloud strategy carefully, the business outcomes could be revolutionary.
Fortunately, cloud consultancy services are available to help organisations create a business strategy for their cloud journey that puts their fears to rest. Through a step-by-step process, they help align cloud adoption with a company’s existing business goals. This approach often looks something like this:
- Analysis of your current technology portfolio
- Completion of a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) assessment
- Use of KPIs and other metrics to determine the feasibility of realising the benefits of the cloud once adopted
- Coming up with a cloud adoption strategy
The cloud adoption strategy should give companies extra visibility, highlighting the dos and don’ts of the journey, listing security considerations, and providing a realistic roadmap. Ultimately, cloud consultancies partner with businesses to demonstrate that the journey to the cloud doesn’t have to be made alone.
Our GetConsult service
At Getronics, we understand that not every business may feel ready to embrace the cloud, or if they are already using the cloud, may not be receiving the benefits they expected. That’s why we’ve launched our cloud advisory service, GetConsult. We aim to simplify the cloud journey through our 4×4 framework consisting of four phases and four focus areas. The four phases, Discover, Analyse, Visualise, and Recommend, provide structure to your decision-making process, while the four focus areas deliver detailed insights for further support.
The cloud can boost overall ROI, speed up a business’s ability to go to market, and enable faster delivery of new offerings. It isn’t right that some businesses want to access these benefits but are being prevented from doing so by a lack of skills, knowledge, or awareness around cloud computing. By utilising our experience, knowledge, and alliances, we enable our clients to gain access to all these advantages and more.
GetConsult provides a full lifecycle experience and enables businesses to visualise their entire cloud journey. Coming up with a fully-fledged cloud strategy is not about facilitating a one-time migration, nor is it about throwing more technology at the challenges faced by companies – it’s about creating a cloud strategy that meets all business objectives. This includes migration, cloud development, managed services, security and compliance solutions, and even automation through AI and machine learning tools.
If you want to gain a better understanding of the many ways you could benefit from adopting cloud, get in touch with us today to know more about our cloud framework led by our new GetConsult service.
