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Over time the use of the word cloud will no longer cause confusion but simply just be the norm. Although many individuals would not be able to explain what the cloud is, it is almost guaranteed that they have used the cloud – and are doing so on a daily basis. The cloud is powering Google’s search engine, watching Netflix, shopping on Amazon, and even swiping on Tinder.
Rik Watson, Head of Software Engineering for Kubrick’s Cloud practice, stated, “It is almost impossible to find a business that doesn’t use some form of the cloud.”
Small and medium enterprises are using some level of cloud even if they don’t realize it themselves. Most companies no longer have an on-premises server room, but instead rent servers from the cloud.
Cloud engineering is a rapidly evolving field that is becoming important for businesses of all sizes. At its core, cloud engineering is the process of designing, building, and maintaining cloud-based systems, services, and applications.
Using cloud within a business helps a company in many ways, here are some of the ways cloud computing is changing organizations:
Scalability –
Cloud allows for a quick and easy scaling up or down of a business depending on the needs of the organization. Cloud computing systems will allow you to add more IT resources, or reduce them, depending on the demand. Which will in turn allow a company to deal with seasonal fluctuations and unexpected spikes in the market.
Cost-savings –
As cloud computing systems allows companies to almost immediately scale up or down on the resources they use, they will therefore only have to pay for the resources they use instead of paying extra for equipment that they no longer need. Organizations who use the cloud will no longer need to pay for such expensive hardware and software and significantly reduces the cost of IT infrastructure.
Flexibility –
“The shift to the cloud has only accelerated over the past two years due to COVID-19, as organizations responded to a new business and social dynamic,” Michael Warrilow, research vice president at Gartner.
The reliance on the digital world amplified during COVID and became vital for all types of businesses. Work from home became the new normal and the flexibility that cloud offered increased its popularity.
Improved Collaboration –
Employees needing to work remotely will not have to catch-up but can instead share documents in real time improving overall communication of the organization. This improved level of communication will mean workers are able to be more efficient during work hours, regardless of the current location they are in.
Security –
Many Cloud providers offer advanced security features and comply with strict industry specific regulations such is ISO, SOC etc.
Gartner Says More Than Half of Enterprise IT Spending in Key Market Segments Will Shift to the Cloud by 2025
Gartner researched into which enterprise IT categories can transition to the cloud, the categories were application software, business process services, infrastructure software and system infrastructure markets. They estimated that 51% of enterprise IT spending in those four categories will have moved from traditional systems to the public cloud, compared to 41% in 2022. 65.9% of spending on application software will be directed toward cloud technologies in 2025 compared to 57.7% in 2022. This increase of demand for cloud infrastructure will lead to an increase of demand for cloud engineers in order for the organizations to effectively oversee the cloud solutions.
‘The value of cloud transcends IT and is estimated at more than $1 trillion.’ McKinsey Quarterly
Their research showed how cloud adoption can drive value in three specific dimensions, which were rejuvenate, innovate, and pioneer.
1. Rejuvenate describes the change from traditional solutions to using cloud solutions instead, which will lower cost and risk across IT and core operations.
2. Innovate describes how adopting cloud allows for organizations to encourage new inventions and speeds up the process of these new inventions.
3. Pioneer explains how a company can move to the next level of cloud once its reached a certain level of cloud maturity.
The dimension of rejuvenate is estimated to bring in $430 billion through IT cost optimization, risk reduction and through the implementation of the latest technology. The dimension of innovate is thought to bring $770 billion through innovation-driven growth, accelerated product development and hyper-scalability. The pioneer dimension is difficult to quantify as the benefits of early adaptation and what this may lead to in the future for an organization cannot be quantified.
Importance of cloud teams with increased use of cloud infrastructure
Cloud teams are fundamental to enabling a business to leverage the full potential of cloud computing, improve efficiency and scalability, and keep the costs low. The cloud, although a very secure method of holding sensitive issues, can still have some security risks which require continued monitoring and work to prevent. These risks include data breaches, data loss, hijacking, malware infections, shared technology weaknesses and data and privacy contract breaches. For the businesses making the shift to the cloud, it is critical to have permanent cloud engineering capability in their teams for enhancing security and compliance; cloud migration is not an end-to-end project, but a long-term transformation. The cloud team will be able to keep a close eye on the cloud infrastructure and help the business stay current and competitive in the ever-changing technological landscape.
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