Should my business move to the cloud? Will going cloud-first really make a difference? These are some burning hot questions every tech lead out there must be making as you read.
Many organizations spend big chunks of funds on building their own tech stack - servers, software, storage & more. But all that isn’t as necessary anymore. Why? The emergence of cloud computing has changed the way a business needs to build its tech stack.
It allows building tech systems in virtual environments without needing to own hardware. Cloud grants the ability to build servers, databases, software, and more with remote access. It allows companies to achieve greater tech efficiency, agility & flexibility at a fraction of previous costs.
With the rise & move of organizations towards cloud, it led to the start of the cloud-first strategy. It is an organizational mindset to look first towards cloud solutions when developing new systems or updating existing ones. Moving to cloud can benefit companies with slashed IT costs, increased efficiency, flexibility, improved security, performance, and the faster time to market for innovation
Why a Cloud-First strategy is popular?
A report by a global research agency showed 93% of global enterprises are using at least some cloud services.
Due to its numerous advantages over the traditional self-owned servers or local data centers, Cloud computing has been on-trend in the past few years. And it will continue to take the market share. A Gartner report showed that 85% of enterprises will have a cloud-first principle by 2025.
Why adopt cloud?
For some companies, the scalability of cloud is the most crucial, while cost-benefits & faster time-to-market appeal to others. Cloud computing is one of the crucial technologies
Scalability
Auto-scaling without a doubt is the first idea that flashes across one’s mind when we think of cloud computing. It allows a cloud provider to automatically scale the resources dedicated to an application on a need basis. Along with improving performance, it also helps reduce costs as server costs would diminish during low use periods. 80 % of companies that adopt the cloud see improvements in their IT departments within six months Under a Cloud of Suspicions, IS Decisions 2019
Faster Time-to-Market
The industry is always upgrading, changing & creating new requirements. To adapt in the VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous) businesses always need to be constantly improving. And constant improvement requires innovation & experimentation. Cloud solutions enable businesses to achieve faster time to market as experimentation environments are just clicked away in the cloud & getting new services online only requires approval for the capital spent.
With cloud, businesses can build & experiment easily with multiple cloud environments running at the same time & enable needed functions faster gaining an advantage over businesses.
Cost
Moving to the cloud reduces the cost of managing and maintaining IT systems. Going cloud-first the CAPEX needed for new developments will reduce which businesses can utilize for other areas. An Accenture report shows Migrations to public cloud result in upto 30-40% reduction in total cost of ownership with reduced CapEx & OpEX. No upfront cost for huge hardwares, no management costs needed, no power costs for servers & pay-as-you-go only for solutions you use.
Business continuity
Protecting business data and systems is an important part of business continuity planning. Whether it’s a natural disaster, power failure or other crisis, having data stored in the cloud ensures it is backed up and protected in a secure and safe location. Being able to access your data again quickly allows you to conduct business as usual, minimizing any downtime and loss of productivity.
Security
The security in the cloud is a concern for many but the cloud provides one of the best security to businesses. Cloud works on a shared-security model where the platform security falls under the cloud provider & the application level security falls under the business.
Cloud platforms are unbreachable from the infrastructure side, there are also various solutions for security & monitoring which provide a high level of control. Enterprises can reduce IT incidents by upto 70% by using cloud computing & migration.
There are many more reasons we can go on about why cloud is better & why cloud-first should be a priority for all organizations & businesses next but these were some key ones.