Unlocking the Value of the Cloud (Guest blog from Wipro)

Author: Gavin Williams, Senior Consulting Partner and Global Cloud Consulting Lead, Wipro

Since the COVID pandemic, cloud migration has seen an extensive uptick in global adoption. The recent uptake in hybrid working has also caused businesses to rely on cloud services and technology much more to meet employee and customer expectations.

Today, business leaders have no choice but to look at adopting the cloud to transform their technology platforms to innovate faster, accelerate business growth and, most importantly – stay ahead of the competition.

The cloud opportunity

The cloud in 2022 is no longer the emerging technology of risk-taking entrepreneurs it was in 2014. It is fully enterprise-ready and ubiquitous - 82% of IT leaders are now adopting cloud. As such, companies have high expectations of the cloud because it has the potential to transform operations, helping to overcome some of today's biggest business challenges, including supply chain issues, skills shortages, and digital transformations.

Cloud also works as an enabler to unlock innovation and transform businesses in a way they never thought possible. Transitioning to the cloud provides businesses with new opportunities and operational muscles to unlock innovation across an organisation, including fundamentally reinventing business models. Additionally, companies can create a multi-region technology ecosystem of infrastructure and platforms accessible from any location and beyond geographical limitations by using cloud technology. As a result, businesses that use cloud technology can communicate information faster, reduce the likelihood of human error, and make quicker decisions.

As the cloud continues to evolve, grow, and adapt, businesses will have even more access to technology, better services, and faster innovation. However, success is not a given. Fully unlocking the power of the cloud requires a mindset open to innovation.

Deciding the right strategy for you

Our global survey of 1,300 executives at organizations with annual revenue from $500 million to over $20 billion showed that the best practices of cloud leaders can be a roadmap to success for others. Businesses of all sizes can learn from the experience of cloud leaders who are already embracing all that the cloud has to offer and apply these lessons to build out their cloud capability, using it to launch applications that boost their bottom line.

However, moving to the cloud should be a strategic business decision, and CIOs should be mindful that the cloud must complement the existing business strategy. Companies shouldn’t just ‘do cloud’ because everyone else is. The first step is understanding what elements of the cloud will generate the most ROI.

Many opportunities include, for example, using one-click data backup and recovery services to develop a business continuity plan already based on best practices. Or to leverage integrated data and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to drive much tighter customer and revenue intimacy. Whereas other businesses may see more value in using the cloud to align international operations better - it’s not a one size fits all solution. Cloud services are relatively easy to scale up or down based on user needs; even as business priorities change, so can the cloud strategy.

Time to evolve

The cloud is the single greatest conglomeration of technology investment in the last 50 years, possibly more. As the cloud continues to evolve, grow, and adapt, businesses will have even more access to technology, better services, and faster innovation. However, success is not a given. Fully unlocking the power of the cloud requires a mindset open to innovation. In addition, cloud transformations can require a lot of investment, not just in terms of money but also time – so any strategy must be well thought out and contingencies put in place. The good news is that businesses don’t have to bear this burden alone.

The right partnership with a cloud services provider (CSP) can help businesses access these capabilities, and the right partnership with a cloud transformation provider will bring the necessary expertise to better implement cloud and benefit from previous experiences. Look for partners that can help you across the whole spectrum, from consulting & strategy development to cloud engineering innovation and transformation. In this way you can truly take technology potential and unite it with your business ambitions to create that unified platform seamlessly integrated with the most sought-after solutions in the marketplace to help you transform and realise your ambitions

Wipro’s FullStride Cloud report demonstrates that the cloud drives high-impact transformation and benefits at every business level. To learn more about making the cloud work for you, please download the report here.