Traditionally, businesses implementing digital transformation were looking for solutions to efficiate their daily operations. Most of them would invest in the digitalization of their Supply Chain Management system or SCMs, Enterprise Resource Planning or ERPs, and Customer Relationship Management or CRMs.
Now when the internet has become more ubiquitous and big data analytics reigns most if not all crucial business decisions, companies require more skillsets and resources to complete their digital transformation. Now they need staff for a continual development process that aims at the improvement in customer experience. They also need solutions that are scalable, reliable, and more secure than ever, thanks to the concurrent advancements in all the fields of technology. As such cloud has become the foundation of business digitalization.
No wonder, so many research papers are establishing accelerating growth in the cloud computing market. Gartner, Inc. forecasted that the total public cloud services segment will have grown from $270 billion in 2020 to $332.3 billion in 2021, which eventually did happen. And now a more recent survey says that by 2022 global spending on public cloud services will reach $482 billion! As such, it is clear that if you want to make the digital transformation of your business more disruption-proof, investing in cloud services is a non-negotiable step of the journey.
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How Enterprise Digital Transformation via Cloud is More Efficient?
So far, we’ve seen how stats and basic applications of the cloud have made it appear indispensable for a modern business’s digitalization. In this section of the blog, we’ll dive deep to understand how cloud services are conducive to a truly efficient digital transformation.
Accessibility
Two factors have led to an unprecedented need for absolute accessibility for businesses’ digital solutions- unhindered growth of global businesses, and the recent developments leading to the demand for more remote access to company systems and resources. Now more companies are investing in cloud solutions like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, AWS, Google Workspace, etc., than in their respective on-premise counterparts. Such cloud solutions have now become synonymous with an increase in efficiency, productivity, and collaboration, all thanks to the increased accessibility of business resources.
Easy Integration
As more and more businesses are converting their bulky legacy monoliths into microservices, seamless integration is becoming the most important aspect of operational digitalization. It’s important that all the related applications in a business are able to communicate with each other. This is only possible in a highly connected environment which is most easily achieved through cloud integration services. The limitless storage and processing power of the cloud not only enables businesses to connect as many APIs and programs together as required, but the easy accessibility of the Cloud also ensures they remain connected seamlessly.
Enhanced Security
With the ability to utilize data for driving meaningful insights, organizations are now storing tons of data. Now with the huge amount of data comes the responsibility of securing that data. The recent development in data privacy laws makes security even more important. As such the robust security paradigms of cloud technology can play a crucial role. It is notable that the servers of cloud storage are located in warehouses with limited access and no central authority to hack. Moreover, all files on the cloud are stored in their encrypted form, making it way too difficult even for tech-savvy cybercriminals to even read the data. With such strong security configurations, the cloud definitely offers a more reliable form of security than its traditional on-premise counterpart.
Elasticity
With the cloud comes elasticity, meaning the ability to scale down the processing and storage units as per the business requirements. Cloud offers limitless storage and processing power to businesses. However, none of this comes without a cost attached to it. In fact, if you invest in the cloud without monitoring its usage it can quickly go over your budget. At the same time, when you monitor your cloud usage with highly efficient resources you can quickly see your expenses going down. The elasticity of the cloud allows you to expand your processes when required. For example, if you’re in retail dealing with certain seasonal products you can scale up your cloud resources to match the demand, and later, when the season dies out, you can do a quick roll-back, making the most of the opportune times and wasting none of the resources. This can never be easily achieved without cloud computing.
Cost-Efficient
As mentioned above, the elasticity of the cloud allows you to save resources and make the most of profitable times. But this is not the only contributor to making the cloud a cost-efficient solution for businesses looking for digital transformation services. To offer an ideal customer experience and have the utmost productivity in the teams, companies usually operate with several technologies and applications. This when done in siloed environments can quickly raise the IT expenses for any company.
However, with the integrated cloud environment and containerization, businesses can easily accelerate the time-to-market for their applications, and Gartner’s prediction about worldwide IT spending is projected to be $4.5 trillion in 2022, nearly an increase of 5.5% from 2021. The Pay-as-you-Go model of cloud computing services brings an unprecedented ability to innovate with new applications that can easily be integrated with the existing operational ecosystem with no downtime. This limits the spending of businesses associated with growth and scaling. Now they can easily expand their operations without any significant increase in their IT spending. On average, cloud migration saves around 15% on all IT spending. SMBs derive the most benefit out of the cloud by spending 36% less money on IT.
Read More: Cloud Transition Services: A Comprehensive Guide!
Automation Possibilities
With the cloud comes automation opportunities to implement automation. Earlier when all the servers had to be tangibly on-premises, establishing a recurrent back-up, integrating systems, and thus versioning workflows was difficult. Since now, the cloud servers come with elasticity and ubiquitous accessibility, it’s easier to set up workflows that manage and upgrade themselves as per the business requirements. That being said, the cloud makes automation easier for businesses that start with a ‘digital-first’ approach, than the ones that are transforming to become more digital. This is where a reliable cloud computing services provider can help. With their experience in cloud migration and cloud-based workflow automation, they can redesign the entire business model to be more adaptable to digital disruptions, data-oriented, and highly accessible for a complete digital makeover.
Digital Cloud Transformation Strategy
To transform a business to be more digitally oriented is a completely disruptive process, which when done without proper planning can result in heavy costs, misaligned processes, and multiple bottlenecks. While the cloud does resolve most of the issues associated with digitalization, simply adopting a new model isn’t going to solve everything. A strategy is a must if the transformation is expected to bring any remarkable ROI.
Now, if you’re looking to create a strategy for a cloud-based digital transformation, you can divide the entire process into four stages- requirement analysis, data normalization, process transformation, and complete implementation.
Also Read: Cloud Migration Strategy: Driving Your Business Growth
Requirement Analysis
The first stage of the process would comprise an evaluation of the current technologies and workflows, the problems associated with them, and the results expected of the transformation. The key here is to keep an eye on the objective and align it with the organizational goals. This is why it is important to work closely with the IT partner to ensure that in the long run, the transformation assists in achieving the company’s goals and does not become counterproductive. After that, identification of the legacy technology is required to see which of them can be carried along for future integration and which needs to be replaced completely.
Data Normalization
Once the requirements and objectives are clear, it’s time for the company’s data to get analyzed. While some of the companies looking to digitally transform their businesses already have some extent of their data stored on the cloud, most have them stored on a variety of servers creating what is called data siloes. So, the first step in this stage is to gather all the data in a central repository. Once that’s done, you can easily normalize your databases and better organize the cloud storage for optimal cost-effectiveness.
Process Transformation
Next is the stage for process transformation, which is arguably the most difficult of all the stages; not because it requires some high-end technologies, but rather because it involves people. Processes are the result of an organization’s personnel, and more often than not, they are not set as per standard procedures in absence of a digitalized platform. This is why in this stage it is crucial to get all the departments and members involved. It will ensure that moving forward there will be minimal bottlenecks when finally implementing the workflow changes.
Also Read: What is Cloud Business Intelligence and How It Helps Businesses Grow?
Different Types of Cloud Services
When it comes to using cloud services for business’ digital transformation, the model most companies adopt is based on their specific requirements, the skillset they have onboard, and the extent to which they require to control things. As such, we can categorize the cloud computing service into major three categories explained below-
IaaS Cloud Computing Services
IaaS, also known as Infrastructure as a Service, is the most comprehensive cloud computing service offered to users. It offers a complete infrastructure to develop, execute, and integrate any number of applications on the cloud. The infrastructure thus offered includes- computing capabilities, cloud storage, security tools, and networking infrastructure. All these components provide users with complete freedom around the usage of the resource, giving them more freedom to make use of them as and when required. However, with the freedom comes the need for skillsets required to maintain and configure these resources for their optimal and seamless application. Since this means the resources and skillset required to operate and make use of IaaS is extensive, it is ideal for bigger companies with the required team size and skills. For startups, the other models of Cloud computing services are better suited. Some of the more popular IaaS examples that offer complete control to the cloud users are – Google Compute Engine (GCE), Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), etc.
PaaS Cloud Computing Services
Platform as a Service, or PaaS, offers a stage or working framework to develop and execute programs or custom-built software. It involves a similar head foundation as IaaS, yet additionally incorporates development tools, middleware, frameworks, and DBMS systems required for the smooth functioning of a development project. In contrast to IaaS, PaaS is more beneficial for organizations that have the necessary skillset and forte for programming and development but not the ones that require configuration of infrastructure. As compared to IaaS, PaaS can prove to be more expensive or cost-effective as per the required usage. In simpler terms, if you’re looking for a simple solution to build a small application(s), PaaS is the ideal cloud model for you. However, if the application you’re building is considerably huge and has custom infrastructure requirements, then IaaS is what you require. Some of the more popular PaaS examples are Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and Google App Engine.
SaaS Software Solutions
Software as a Service, commonly known as SaaS, is an advanced software solution that takes legacy software and takes them online. These web-based software applications allow users to do the needful tasks without having to worry about the maintenance and support of operating systems or infrastructure. They can simply upload the data and then use the SaaS-provided toolkit to operate on the same and get the desired output in the format required without any additional efforts, making these kinds of cloud solutions the most convenient kind. Some of the most popular examples of SaaS software widely used globally include web-based email platforms like Outlook, Gmail, Workspaces like Google Docs and Sheets, Adobe creative studio, WebX, Salesforce, etc. Since these solutions don’t require any additional investments and can be used without too many installation or integration processes, they are considered ideal for new businesses since they can start working on these SaaS software sans hassle or delay.
Also Read- Cloud Software Development: Use Cases and Development Process
Conclusion
Enterprise digital transformation can prove to be a really daunting task. From the implementation of legacy systems to their integration, and then when the business grows, the migration from on-premise solutions to the cloud, this all can become overwhelming without the needed expertise.
That is where Matellio enters the picture, as a leading service provider for enterprise digital transformation, we have all the expertise required to make your digitalization journey a cakewalk. We understand the unique challenges and opportunities every business has when it comes to digitalization, and possess all the skillsets to use them both to bring operational efficiency.
When it comes to cloud technologies, Matellio stands at the forefront there too. From developing bespoke SaaS solutions for business automation to integrating APIs and maintaining data repositories, we are both skilled and experienced in offering every digital transformation service that includes the cloud. All you need to do to make use of this expertise is book a free no-obligation consultation call with our experts. They will understand your requirement, create a digitalization roadmap, and send a free quote to you, to begin your business’s transformation journey right away.
