Technology provides an endless opportunity for businesses to optimize, grow, and innovate. In the race to remain competitive, businesses have launched their way into cloud adoption. McAfee calculated that companies using the cloud grow 19.3% faster than their competitors. This IT gold rush is very much reflective of the “First Wave” of cloud adoption – focused on lower costs and failsafe information backup. Now, with this “Second Wave” on the rise, companies are focusing on the revenue growth potential and better business outcomes. In order to be successful, this will require a much more optimized cloud strategy.

The First Wave benefits of cloud adoption were obvious, and with the Second Wave businesses are seeing increased potential. With the proper cloud adoption strategy, companies can expect to see improved mobility and collaboration, better disaster recovery, cost efficiency, increased data security, environmental consciousness, and limitless scalability.

Improved Mobility and Collaboration

Public and shared cloud solutions provide the opportunity for people across any organization to access data from anywhere with an internet connection. Simultaneous collaboration helps the flow of ideas, and saves time by cutting out the limbo period between input. This increased productivity also can aid in improving employee satisfaction. In fact, organizations with employee satisfaction listed as a priority are up to 24% more likely to expand cloud usage according to Dell research. Cloud has made remote work possible – and connects people with ideas across the world with one click.

Cloud infrastructure is more reactive than any predecessor solutions. Businesses looking to optimize processes, pick up on trends internally, or capture errors can react instantaneously with cloud computing built into their cloud servers. Within moments of a change, information can be procured, revised, or compared. This can help avoid disaster or grant a competitive edge to any company possessing a fully utilized cloud portfolio. 

Disaster Recovery

No matter how large, successful, private, or prepared an organization is – there is no way to prevent or predict everything that could impact it. One major benefit to cloud application is disaster recovery. In downtime, businesses can lose anything from productivity to revenue to brand reputation. Luckily, cloud backup can recover data quickly and accurately. An article by Salesforce.com has found that 20% of cloud uses can claim disaster recovery in four hours or less, while only 9% of non-cloud users could claim the same.

In a study by Salesforce.com, 94% of businesses who used cloud services claimed they saw an improvement in security after switching to the cloud. 91% said the cloud makes it easier to meet government compliance requirements.

Cost Effective

Using a cloud-based infrastructure is proven to significantly reduce costs across IT, hardware, maintenance, and operations. According to an IDC White Paper for Cisco, companies are realizing $1.6 million in additional revenue and $1.2 million in reduced costs per cloud application. With cloud, businesses are no longer obligated to spend large amounts of money on purchasing and maintaining equipment. In fact, some in-house infrastructure may become obsolete.

Many organizations and businesses rely on IT teams to fix bugs and solve server issues. It can become costly for a team of developers to handle and manage an on-premise system on a daily basis. Not to mention, ensuring internal servers are running properly draws attention and work away from innovation and revenue-focused initiatives. To avoid this internal responsibility, more businesses are beginning to adopt the cloud, resulting in a more optimized workforce, and the lowered cost and liability related to owned hardware and on-site servers. 

Environmentally Friendly

Today’s consumers, as well as businesses, are becoming more environmentally conscious. Cloud computing, because of its intangible nature, results in much less of a carbon footprint than traditional record keeping. Salesforce.com stated that cloud infrastructures support environmental proactivity, powering virtual services rather than physical products and hardware. This cuts down on paper waste, improves energy efficiency, and reduces commuter-related emissions. As more businesses utilize a cloud infrastructure, they use fewer physical servers- meaning less tangible resources and a reduced environmental impact.

Scalability

Prior to cloud applications and technology, enterprises ran on custom-built IT infrastructures. This required a large fraction of IT personnel just to maintain the current system. When growth was unforeseen or systems were overloaded, they simply crashed. With cloud, IT can scale up and down as needed – and in some cases organically. This “self-healing” nature has reduced IT incidents by over 70% according to McKinsey insights.

Cloud also offers several options for customers varying in need. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach like some in-house applications can produce, cloud can be optimized to meet varying needs. Private, public, and hybrid cloud can work together to store, protect, and organize data in many ways. It all depends on the needs of the organization, and their vision for a repeatable and expandable future for themselves.

Cloud is the latest innovation in business transformation and is accessible and beneficial to many businesses. This technology allows companies to streamline their daily operations effectively and efficiently, while also providing peace of mind. Because of these factors, it’s no surprise that the cloud industry is booming – and the need for cloud-experts is meeting an unprecedented high. The ultimate challenge lies in finding this talent.

Blue Signal is an expert in the cloud space, and has the necessary connections to ensure a faster, more secure adoption process. If you are a specialist in this space or a business looking to implement cloud offerings into your own company, contact us to connect to your next great investment.