Information Technology (IT) has no doubt enabled organizations to develop a competitive edge. Despite the benefits that Cloud Computing so obviously provides, there are several organizations that haven’t got their strategies for Cloud Computing right. Today’s strategy for the cloud includes more than just reduced costs or ability to scale. This is what your cloud strategy should include:
Improved Security
In 2015, Symantec said that the demand for cybersecurity talent would rise to 6 million globally by 2019, with a projected shortfall of 1.5 million.
A skills gap analysis from ISACA estimated a global shortage of 2 million cyber security professionals by 2019 (a half-million more than Symantec’s prior estimate) would hit the global industry.
This essentially means that while you are scouting for your Chief of Security Officer, you still need to find the appropriate firmware, have regular upgrades of infrastructure, etc., and all this can be time consuming and expensive. By embracing Cloud, all your requirements are taken care of by the service providers while you are assured of top quality security measures at all times.
The Annual Cloud Computing Security Survey 2017 points out that nearly 70% of U.S. businesses using the Cloud feel more comfortable storing data in the Cloud than on a legacy systemt. In the same survey more than half of all respondents say their organization currently transfers sensitive or confidential data to the cloud.
Another benefit here is that the Cloud paves the way for a company to back up and archive their data at a rate much lower than investing in a data replication site. With Cloud Computing, not only can you back up your company’s data, but can also have a better access to it. The main advantage in this is that business continuity remains unaffected.
Seamless Sharing of Data
Statistics by Sky High show that the average enterprise uses 1,427 distinct cloud services, 76 distinct file sharing cloud services, and 210 distinct collaboration cloud services.
Business data can be shared and accessed on the Cloud seamlessly across the entire organization, as required. Having a single place to access as well as edit a file makes it easier to have the latest version of the document readily available to all those who may need it. It saves time and resources than when multiple copies of the documents need to be made and shared among various people who may need it. In fact, an article in the Forbes says that Business/data analytics and data storage/data management (both 43%) are projected to lead cloud adoption from 2017 and beyond.
An additional benefit is an increase in agility and this is directly related to the rapid utilization of computing resources. What essentially takes an IT team months – in terms of creation of storage and using it – can be done in a matter of minutes. This shortening of data sharing timeframe makes for a seamless work environment. This makes your company flexible to change and upscaling.
Read: Cloud Computing Will Enable New Business Models in 3 years
Encouraging Mobile Working
Personal technologies are now being increasingly used at work to access various business applications such as ERP, CRM and large databases. The processing power of gadgets is never going to be enough to work seamlessly with all business apps. Having Cloud Computing enables quicker gadget-to-cloud connectivity, thus rendering the business processes more streamlined.
The Internet of Things (IoT) acts as the connectivity point for things that connect to the Cloud – in this case – it connects mobile devices with data in the Cloud. Projections show that while the number of devices connected to the Cloud and IoT for 2018 will stand at 23.14 billion, this is poised to grown to 30.73 billion in 2020 and 75.44 billion in 2025.
Summary
So what happens to companies that do not adopt Cloud technology? Such businesses will be exposed to security failures while paying huge amounts to manage their data across data points that increasingly include personal gadgets and apps.
