Benefits of Cloud Computing in Digital Transformation For Your Business Growth
Team Branex
Welcome to the era of digital transformation, where 95% of businesses are leveraging technology to stay ahead in cloud computing.
Imagine a business landscape where scalability knows no bounds, innovation is instantaneous, and growth is limitless. But, there's a catalyst that's propelling this exponential growth – and it might just be the missing piece in your company's puzzle.
Meet Emma McGuigan, a forward-thinking CEO who transformed her mid-sized enterprise into a market leader by embracing the power of cloud computing.
With cloud adoption, her company reduced operational costs by 30% and increased productivity by 45%. But, what if you could replicate – or even surpass – Emma's success?
As we navigate the digital landscape, it's clear that cloud computing is the backbone of successful transformations, with 77% of enterprises expected to adopt cloud-first strategies by 2025.
To maximize this potential, understanding the various cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and hybrid) is crucial, allowing you to choose the best fit for your organization’s unique requirements.
In this blog, we'll delve into the symbiotic relationship between cloud computing and digital transformation. Exploring actionable strategies to unlock exponential business growth.
Let's dive in and uncover the cloud's transformative potential for your organization.
It is not a novel approach but a blend of locally hosted hardware and remote locations to maintain your data. With cloud computing, users gain virtually limitless storage and advanced computational capabilities through online portals and application programming interfaces (APIs).
The best part? With cloud computing, you only pay a fixed price for infrastructure costs. This elasticity and utility-based computing give enterprises and individuals an edge over the competition.
It allows individuals and businesses to shift their focus to core operations, rather than IT maintenance. The advantages of cloud computing go beyond economic benefits.
Its innovative nature provides remarkable perks for businesses. One of the greatest values that cloud computing adds to your organization is cost-effectiveness. Beyond cost savings, it helps IT engineers resolve complex internal system tasks and adds dynamic flexibility.
It allows organizations to align their technical infrastructure with shifting market demands.
But the question remains: How does cloud computing benefit an organization undergoing digital transformation, and does it truly promote business growth?
Here are a few benefits that you need to address especially when it comes to cloud computing.
One of the biggest benefits of cloud technology is how it makes everything accessible. Netflix, for instance, leverages cloud infrastructure to manage massive data processing for content streaming across continents. Engineers collaborate in real-time from different locations, making sure the viewing experience for global users becomes more streamlined and effective.
Cloud offers greater flexibility especially when it comes to computing power, storage, and other additional services. With cloud infrastructure management, you won’t require any hefty investment in physical infrastructure. Remote access to cloud environments can further allow employees to access data and run applications from just about anywhere. It gives them the flexibility to work remotely in multiple locations easily.
With cloud environments, you can personalize your IT infrastructure to meet just about any specific business need, may it be storage options, computing capacities, and service levels.
Another interesting benefit of setting up a cloud environment is how it reduces internal IT dependency. While traditional IT infrastructure often demands a workforce to manage and maintain servers, databases & other useful network equipment, cloud computing on the other hand replaces the responsibility from internal teams to third-party providers to fully manage solutions, freeing up in-house IT teams from routine maintenance tasks.
A great example is General Electric (GE), which shifted to the cloud to reduce the burden on its IT teams. By migrating critical operations to cloud services, GE freed its IT personnel from the monotonous tasks of server management and hardware upkeep, allowing them to focus on innovation & strategic planning.
Instead of spending time in troubleshooting and performing system upkeep, it allows them to focus on other internal matters such as redirecting their energy towards taking up strategic initiatives. Cloud environments equipped with automatic updates, regular security patches, and ongoing technical support & minimizing downtime ensuring operational efficiency.
Cloud computing allows organizations to quickly scale without putting any further stress on expanding any internal IT resources. In fact, it leads to better innovation within the specific organization.
With traditional deployment options, you are often limited to a specific bandwidth of your server’s infrastructure.
The cloud being all infinite, brings a myriad of customizability options especially when it comes to small and medium-sized businesses.
It’s great for growing businesses and can handle the growing bandwidth of the company meeting market demands.
Pinterest, for example, adopted cloud services early on, allowing them to scale their storage and bandwidth as their user numbers increased from thousands to millions.
With cloud scalability, they didn’t need to overhaul their physical infrastructure; instead, they expanded the whole of it with a few clicks.
Ask digital transformation companies and they will tell you how cloud infrastructure can change the game entirely, bringing near-instant scalability and allowing businesses to effortlessly expand or reduce IT resources based on the customer’s particular requirements.
May it be storage, processing power, or network bandwidth, cloud solution brings flexibility to scale with a few or a handful of clicks.
Cloud infrastructure is great, especially for organizations which are aiming to achieve optimal performance. You don’t have to use it without going through the need for over-provisioning resources.
One more leading benefit of investing in cloud computing is how it contributes to overall cost-effectiveness. With cloud computing, you won’t ever have to worry about spending a lot of money on hardware or software purchases. In fact, you can set up a data center to help you manage your resources effectively. Dropbox, for instance, moved to a cloud infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly physical servers. By adopting a cloud-based model, they drastically reduced operational costs, only paying for the storage they actually use and freeing up capital to focus on growth initiatives.
There are several products and services which are available from where you can purchase monthly subscriptions, may it be a yearly or monthly model. It will reduce your overhead cost & in return, you receive a space which is safe & secure. The best part? You don’t even have to hire any security analysts to ensure whether your platform is secure or not. A separate cloud entity ensures that costs are kept well managed and your hardware remains well maintained, no matter the situation.
An integral part of any digital transformation process is how you perform cloud migration. The cloud is a massive space and an important part of it is how it helps you meet your technological goals.
When you aim to build over an existing infrastructure, what you’re basically looking for is something who can help you maintain, and manage your organization’s existing legacy infrastructure.
In fact, what you’re actually looking for is a cost-effective solution.
You need a platform that’s scalable, that’s adjustable and whenever you want to make changes, you can implement those changes in real-time and effectively. When you invest in a cloud infrastructure, it provides you an edge in ensuring that everything is running smoothly within your digital ecosystem. As a matter of fact, you want to connect your organization to a system that meets growing demands.
Cloud technology gives you an edge by adding more flexibility, scalability, and on-demand access to computing power, especially when you’re seeking rapid innovation and experimentation.
It's a formatted document that will be distributed within the organization and ensures that everyone is on the same track, especially when it comes to cloud infrastructure management and deployment.
If you’re a startup, your main focus should likely be on building a product or enhancing the value you offer to your customers. To achieve this, you need a strategy that helps you move quickly while reducing significant upfront investments. It should also allow you to save on costs effectively.
For example, instead of managing physical servers yourself, you can choose a serverless option. You could invest in Kubernetes, which offers customizable and manageable solutions for cloud infrastructure.
Tools like RDS Aurora from AWS or the Snowflake data warehouse are excellent choices for enhancing your cloud environment. Deciding what type of resources you need, all such steps can carve the path to an effective cloud strategy, one that not only speeds up your digital process but adds value to it.
However, if managing your systems is becoming burdensome due to the need for continuous innovation or competitive pressure, cloud migration could be beneficial.
Keep in mind that initial cloud costs may be higher before cost efficiencies improve over time.
The three-step process mentioned below applies to businesses transitioning to the cloud.
Understanding the Concept of Cloud Computing
The inner workings of cloud computing have unveiled a wealth of resources, ranging from data warehouses to processing power. Cloud computing creates an elegant network where servers are pre-existing and actively collaborating to handle vast amounts of information.
It is not a novel approach but a blend of locally hosted hardware and remote locations to maintain your data. With cloud computing, users gain virtually limitless storage and advanced computational capabilities through online portals and application programming interfaces (APIs).
The best part? With cloud computing, you only pay a fixed price for infrastructure costs. This elasticity and utility-based computing give enterprises and individuals an edge over the competition.
It allows individuals and businesses to shift their focus to core operations, rather than IT maintenance. The advantages of cloud computing go beyond economic benefits.
Its innovative nature provides remarkable perks for businesses. One of the greatest values that cloud computing adds to your organization is cost-effectiveness. Beyond cost savings, it helps IT engineers resolve complex internal system tasks and adds dynamic flexibility.
It allows organizations to align their technical infrastructure with shifting market demands.
But the question remains: How does cloud computing benefit an organization undergoing digital transformation, and does it truly promote business growth?
Here are a few benefits that you need to address especially when it comes to cloud computing.
Benefit # 1 - Cloud Offers Flexibility & Accessibility
One of the biggest benefits of cloud technology is how it makes everything accessible. Netflix, for instance, leverages cloud infrastructure to manage massive data processing for content streaming across continents. Engineers collaborate in real-time from different locations, making sure the viewing experience for global users becomes more streamlined and effective.
Cloud offers greater flexibility especially when it comes to computing power, storage, and other additional services. With cloud infrastructure management, you won’t require any hefty investment in physical infrastructure. Remote access to cloud environments can further allow employees to access data and run applications from just about anywhere. It gives them the flexibility to work remotely in multiple locations easily.
With cloud environments, you can personalize your IT infrastructure to meet just about any specific business need, may it be storage options, computing capacities, and service levels.
Benefit # 2 - Reduces Internal IT Dependency
Another interesting benefit of setting up a cloud environment is how it reduces internal IT dependency. While traditional IT infrastructure often demands a workforce to manage and maintain servers, databases & other useful network equipment, cloud computing on the other hand replaces the responsibility from internal teams to third-party providers to fully manage solutions, freeing up in-house IT teams from routine maintenance tasks.
A great example is General Electric (GE), which shifted to the cloud to reduce the burden on its IT teams. By migrating critical operations to cloud services, GE freed its IT personnel from the monotonous tasks of server management and hardware upkeep, allowing them to focus on innovation & strategic planning.
Instead of spending time in troubleshooting and performing system upkeep, it allows them to focus on other internal matters such as redirecting their energy towards taking up strategic initiatives. Cloud environments equipped with automatic updates, regular security patches, and ongoing technical support & minimizing downtime ensuring operational efficiency.
Cloud computing allows organizations to quickly scale without putting any further stress on expanding any internal IT resources. In fact, it leads to better innovation within the specific organization.
Benefit # 3 - Cloud Infrastructures Offer Better Scalability
With traditional deployment options, you are often limited to a specific bandwidth of your server’s infrastructure.
The cloud being all infinite, brings a myriad of customizability options especially when it comes to small and medium-sized businesses.
It’s great for growing businesses and can handle the growing bandwidth of the company meeting market demands.
Pinterest, for example, adopted cloud services early on, allowing them to scale their storage and bandwidth as their user numbers increased from thousands to millions.
With cloud scalability, they didn’t need to overhaul their physical infrastructure; instead, they expanded the whole of it with a few clicks.
Ask digital transformation companies and they will tell you how cloud infrastructure can change the game entirely, bringing near-instant scalability and allowing businesses to effortlessly expand or reduce IT resources based on the customer’s particular requirements.
May it be storage, processing power, or network bandwidth, cloud solution brings flexibility to scale with a few or a handful of clicks.
Cloud infrastructure is great, especially for organizations which are aiming to achieve optimal performance. You don’t have to use it without going through the need for over-provisioning resources.
Benefit # 4 - Cost Cuts with Cloud Computing
One more leading benefit of investing in cloud computing is how it contributes to overall cost-effectiveness. With cloud computing, you won’t ever have to worry about spending a lot of money on hardware or software purchases. In fact, you can set up a data center to help you manage your resources effectively. Dropbox, for instance, moved to a cloud infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly physical servers. By adopting a cloud-based model, they drastically reduced operational costs, only paying for the storage they actually use and freeing up capital to focus on growth initiatives.
There are several products and services which are available from where you can purchase monthly subscriptions, may it be a yearly or monthly model. It will reduce your overhead cost & in return, you receive a space which is safe & secure. The best part? You don’t even have to hire any security analysts to ensure whether your platform is secure or not. A separate cloud entity ensures that costs are kept well managed and your hardware remains well maintained, no matter the situation.
How Cloud Computing Becomes the Driving Force Behind Digital Transformation
An integral part of any digital transformation process is how you perform cloud migration. The cloud is a massive space and an important part of it is how it helps you meet your technological goals.
When you aim to build over an existing infrastructure, what you’re basically looking for is something who can help you maintain, and manage your organization’s existing legacy infrastructure.
In fact, what you’re actually looking for is a cost-effective solution.
You need a platform that’s scalable, that’s adjustable and whenever you want to make changes, you can implement those changes in real-time and effectively. When you invest in a cloud infrastructure, it provides you an edge in ensuring that everything is running smoothly within your digital ecosystem. As a matter of fact, you want to connect your organization to a system that meets growing demands.
Cloud technology gives you an edge by adding more flexibility, scalability, and on-demand access to computing power, especially when you’re seeking rapid innovation and experimentation.
How to Put Together an Effective Cloud Strategy?
Having a cloud strategy is like having an action plan that helps you achieve success in the cloud space.
It's a formatted document that will be distributed within the organization and ensures that everyone is on the same track, especially when it comes to cloud infrastructure management and deployment.
If you’re a startup, your main focus should likely be on building a product or enhancing the value you offer to your customers. To achieve this, you need a strategy that helps you move quickly while reducing significant upfront investments. It should also allow you to save on costs effectively.
For example, instead of managing physical servers yourself, you can choose a serverless option. You could invest in Kubernetes, which offers customizable and manageable solutions for cloud infrastructure.
Tools like RDS Aurora from AWS or the Snowflake data warehouse are excellent choices for enhancing your cloud environment. Deciding what type of resources you need, all such steps can carve the path to an effective cloud strategy, one that not only speeds up your digital process but adds value to it.
Developing A Cloud Strategy For Your On-Premise Business Growth
If you're part of a traditional on-premise company, first assess whether your product is profitable, stable, and low-maintenance. If so, it might make sense to keep things as they are and only consider cloud migration for a handful of new initiatives.
However, if managing your systems is becoming burdensome due to the need for continuous innovation or competitive pressure, cloud migration could be beneficial.
Keep in mind that initial cloud costs may be higher before cost efficiencies improve over time.
The three-step process mentioned below applies to businesses transitioning to the cloud.
Step 1: Lift and Shift/Rehost
Most traditional businesses begin their cloud journey by lifting and rehosting their existing data center assets in the cloud. Although it's one of the fastest methods, it can also be the most expensive. Avoid maintaining operations both on-premise and in the cloud to prevent instability—choose a cloud service provider and commit fully.Step 2: Iterate Rapidly
After moving to the cloud, focus on identifying and optimizing costly features or products. What was affordable in a data center might be more expensive in the cloud. Use tools like CloudZero to map cloud costs to product features and quickly calculate your margins to determine your most profitable areas.Step 3: Adopt Elasticity and Flexibility
As you become cloud-native, leverage managed services to innovate quickly. Adopt a philosophy of elasticity and flexibility, ensuring your systems scale up or down dynamically based on customer demand. Align your customer activity with system activity & associated costs to achieve operational efficiency.Important Things To Keep in Mind When Developing a Cloud Strategy
1. Goals for Moving to the Cloud
Only move to the cloud if your business requires rapid product changes or scalable systems. If your current setup works well and doesn’t need constant updates, cloud migration might not be necessary.2. Keeping Cost of Implementation in Mind
Track cloud costs per feature or product instead of the total bill. This helps you align expenses with customer growth and improve profitability through unit cost tracking.3. Plan Migration & Implementation
Create a detailed strategy for cloud migration to avoid disruptions, data loss, and misallocation of resources. Proper planning ensures a smooth transition.4. Consider Security Measures
Make sure that you take robust security measures; ensure that they are all in place. Regularly review and update policies; in this way, you will be more well-equipped to address emerging threats and protect any of your sensitive data before it’s too late.5. Constantly Improve Strategy
A cloud strategy isn’t something you set and forget. It’s all about testing, tweaking, and staying flexible as your business and technology evolve. Keep an eye on performance & costs, and don't hesitate to explore our cloud consulting services and innovations.6. Choose the Right Cloud Service and Model
There are multiple cloud services and deployment models that fit best your business requirements. Here are a few basic models each with their own benefits:- IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): Provides virtual computing resources, ideal for businesses needing infrastructure control without hardware management.
- PaaS (Platform as a Service): Offers a platform for developers to build and run apps without managing infrastructure.
- SaaS (Software as a Service): Delivers ready-to-use software over the Internet, perfect for businesses avoiding infrastructure management.
- Public cloud: Services provided over the internet by third-party providers like AWS, GCP, Azure, and Oracle Cloud, offering scalability and cost-efficiency.
- Private cloud: Services hosted on a private network for enhanced security and control, with options like IBM Cloud Private, OCI, and OpenStack.
- Hybrid cloud: Combines public and private clouds to balance workloads, with examples like VMware Cloud on AWS, AWS Outposts, and Google Anthos.
- Multi-cloud: Utilizes services from multiple providers to prevent vendor lock-in.
7. Training Your Team
Investing in the right staff is important especially when it comes to implementing a robust cloud strategy. Upscaling your team’s skills is what makes them well-versed in the cloud environment. And that’s not all, it also helps them stay up to date with the latest trends in the developing cloud industry and gain the best knowledge in cloud management.What Are the Challenges Associated with Developing a Cloud Strategy?
Here are a few common challenges and here are the essential steps you can take to mitigate them.
Azure DevOps is a set of tools and services powered by Microsoft. The suite is officially designed to facilitate collaboration, implement automation, and provide continuous delivery within a software development lifecycle. It comes with a wide set of features that take care of many aspects of software development. Some of these feature sets include version control, agile planning, build automation, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), and software release management.
When you opt-in for Azure DevOps services, it offers a centralized platform, a place where teams can easily plan, develop, test, and deploy software applications more effectively. With so many Microsoft products & services, such as Azure, Visual Studio IDE, and Microsoft Teams. It allows businesses to seamlessly work together and create solutions which are tested and ready for deployment.
Even though AWS takes center stage when it comes to DevOps services, Azure DevOps stands at a significant growth rate capturing a great many leads and cultivating a strong user base.
Just like Azure DevOps, AWS DevOps also offers a robust ecosystem of cloud consulting services powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also has a comprehensive suite of services which are flexible and particularly designed to meet the organization’s software development goals & objectives. AWS DevOps pretty much includes all the significant features that Azure DevOps includes but is labeled differently. They are designed to streamline and automate software product development & delivery processes.
As far as AWS DevOps services go, it offers a comprehensive suite full of unique features. These tools allow DevOps engineers to set up infrastructure, and closely monitor and efficiently manage services.
Just so you know, I've spent years working in the field of DevOps, and the classic debate of AWS vs Azure extends to their 
