3 February 2023
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Cloud migration and digital transformation are often thought of as synonymous terms. However, they have different implications for businesses that want to upgrade their systems.
Cloud migration strategy refers to the process in which IT infrastructure is moved from on-premise servers to an off-site Cloud data warehouse.
In contrast, digital transformation refers to a company’s broader strategy for updating its digital assets, services, and IT resources. In essence, digital transformation describes the process of a business examining why and how they need to change to keep up with the demands of the modern workplace.
Both digital transformation and Cloud migration strategies have become more prevalent in recent years. To illustrate, a recent survey found that 60% of senior executives believe that digital transformation is crucial to business growth.
In addition, investment in Cloud tools is steadily increasing worldwide, reaching $474 Billion in 2022, up from $408 billion in 2021.
Cloud computing carries a number of distinct advantages for enhancing employee productivity, improving customer retention, and optimising IT investment.
This article will explore how deploying a successful Cloud migration strategy will help you achieve your digital transformation goals and future-proof operations.
Why Cloud migration is the future across industries
Before the rise of digitisation, IT budgets were typically planned three to five years in advance, as it was easier for companies to predict what technological advancements could be on the horizon.
However, within the last few years, business consulting experts from McKinsey have identified a seven-year increase in the rate at which companies worldwide are innovating their goods and services through digitisation. Technological advancements have accelerated the pace at which companies can innovate new value propositions and improve operational efficiency.
To that end, Cloud migration plays a fundamental role in facilitating faster IT development in four distinct ways:
Infrastructure
Cloud service providers offer potentially unlimited data storage capacity, servers, and security, all stored off-premises, and available on-demand.
In some cases, accessing Cloud resources is free (such as Public Cloud services offered through the Google Cloud platform). Private Cloud, in contrast, provides Cloud environment access for a monthly/annual fee (e.g. IBM Cloud). This is often referred to as Infrastructure-as-a-service (or IaaS).
Platform
Developers can maintain and alter network architecture in the Cloud (or multiple Clouds) to suit their changing business needs.
Moreover, many Cloud-based platform providers offer No/Low-code tools, allowing brands to configure ideal-fit software with no coding experience required.
Applications
Companies can access third-party software via API (Application Programming Interface) and deploy new tools across their entire network while incurring zero system downtime.
Furthermore, Cloud resource systems will automatically update as programme functionalities improve.
Analytics
Data from many sources can be gathered and analysed with the aid of Cloud analytics. Tools like Qlik Sense + Vizlib Live!, for instance, combine In-Memory BI with live query to Cloud data. This helps businesses solve problems more efficiently for even the most complex data cases, and delivers a smoother Cloud migration journey.
For these reasons and more, Gartner estimates that by 2025 over 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on Cloud vendor platforms, up from 30% in 2021.
Benefits of digital transformation in the Cloud
- Lower IT costs: Cloud transformation allows businesses to respond to the changes in their industry and adopt new tools and working practices without investing in new servers and hardware to get the job done.
Findings from Accenture reveal that moving your company’s IT ecosystem to the Cloud can lower your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by as much as 40%, enabling companies to do more with less.
- Improved analytic abilities: The age of Big Data is here. Cloud-based tools enable you to visualise and analyse numerous data sets for better business outcomes.
In contrast, siloed information stuck in legacy systems can only be pulled and analysed with significant effort and expense. For example, 90% of customer information in the insurance industry is held in unstructured data forms such as emails, web forms, and policy contracts.
However, if all information is accessible from Cloud infrastructure, data analysts can enhance the process of customer relationship-building via customer relationship management (CRM) tools and data visualization.
In addition, data analytics tools can deploy AI and machine learning (ML) algorithms to monitor all network activity in real-time and make improvements to operations.
- Increased competitiveness: If your workload relies on obsolete systems, you will quickly fall behind your competitors. A survey by Deloitte found that even small businesses deploying Cloud technology expand 26% faster and generate 21% higher revenue than those that stick with on-premises IT.
In the longer term, data migration to a Cloud environment can help companies open up untapped revenue streams that have the potential to increase profit growth by up to 11.2% year-on-year.
Why you should start your Cloud migration journey now
Some legacy systems no-longer support updates
Maintaining up-to-date tools is vital to uphold employee productivity. Legacy software and hardware may not be compatible with modern systems, hindering your company’s productivity and, in some cases, shutting down operations altogether.
For instance, the average hourly cost of server downtime is between $301,000 and $400,000. Few companies can afford for their systems to fail as a result of not making the necessary system updates.
You may also lose hardworking team members to roles where workflows are more straightforward and less time is spent carrying out manual or system maintenance tasks. With that said, it is possible to retain operational efficiency with older technologies.
For example, if you are not ready to overhaul your entire IT ecosystem, developing a Hybrid Cloud model enables you to move some operations onto Cloud-based systems while keeping some crucial data archived within your existing on-premises servers.
Meet customer expectations: Customers demand efficient digitised services
Omnichannel communication involves integrating many channels or means of engaging with clients so that, regardless of the channel customers use, the experience is seamless. It provides the means for real-time communication and adaptation of services to meet the customer where they are to give them the help they need.
Businesses deploying omnichannel communication strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers, whereas those that don’t retain only 33% of their existing customers. Omnichannel communication provides the means for real-time communication and adaptation of services.
Cloud applications, such as CRM tools, provide the best IT environment for employees to implement this kind of service level.
Mitigate security risk
A recent survey found that 87% of IT leaders believe reliance on legacy systems exposes their company to cybersecurity risk. It’s only a matter of time before a legacy solution becomes exceptionally rigid, unresponsive, and vulnerable to threat actors.
Cloud migration lowers some infrastructure security risks through encryption, logging, private networking, monitoring, DDoS protection, automated patches, and other components.
From an employee perspective, modernised Cloud security protocols lift some of the individual burdens of mitigating security risk, as access is automatically controlled and assigned based on an individual’s role within the organisation. Furthermore, Cloud security tools can monitor unusual system behaviours and shut down threats before they become a broader issue.
Vizlib and Qlik analytics galvanise the success of digital transformation
Businesses must adapt as consumer expectations and technology continue to evolve. Migrating services to the Cloud should be a business’ first step. But making speedy, data-driven decisions will be essential for a company’s capacity to succeed with its digital transformation plans.
Modernising your BI with Vizlib and Qlik can supercharge your efforts. It offers a stunning and easy-to-use interface, helping you improve operational efficiency from day one. And for unprecedented insights from Cloud data, our newest unique solution, Vizlib Live!, combines In-Memory analytics with Live-Query BI capabilities – you can read about it in our introduction to Vizlib Live! blog, here.
So if you want to learn more about how harnessing the power of dynamic Cloud analytics can aid in your cloud migration process, download a free Vizlib trial now.
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