More Than 50 Percent of Companies Are Moving to the Cloud — Is It Right for Your Business?
Are you considering migrating to the cloud? If so, you aren’t alone. But this decision is a difficult one, mainly because it requires changing the way products and services are delivered to your company. In the beginning, most companies migrating were early adopters, but today the masses are following suit. But why?
A study of 1,242 professionals discovered that over half of organizations are moving a variety of capabilities to the cloud, according to CIO. And what companies are finding is that making this transition is saving them money and increasing profits. But you might be wondering: What exactly is the cloud, and how are companies using it?
Leveraging the cloud
Many businesses use applications like Microsoft Office in the work environment daily. But with the cloud, you can use some of these applications, such as Office 365, on the go virtually with more flexibility and the ability to work and share files remotely.
That’s because the cloud is a large powerful network that runs much faster than your typical home Internet connection. In fact, it contains over 50 million servers that all share information using an optic network. It’s so powerful, the network runs at about 200,000 times the speed of your Internet connection at home. But what are some of the ways businesses are leveraging the cloud?
The cloud can be used in many different ways. Take, for example, software as a service (SaaS) — basically, hosted applications. It can also be used for infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which handles things such as servers, network components, and hardware or storage. And finally, it can run platform as a service (PaaS), which includes operating systems and computing power.
How you use the cloud, of course, will vary based on your company’s size and industry. For example, 40 percent of medium-size companies and 35 percent of small companies are using the cloud primarily for storage. In contrast, larger businesses tend to use the cloud more for conferencing and collaboration.
But what about your business? With all the options available in the cloud, how is this important to you, and — more important — is migrating worth it?
Insight, visibility, lower costs, and increase profits
There are many benefits to migrating to the cloud, including managing big data and getting more insights from the vast amounts of data available today. In addition, you can benefit from using the cloud for easier data sharing across multiple applications. But perhaps most interesting is the fact that companies are saving a lot of money by migrating to the cloud.
Take, for example, a recent study reported by CIO that surveyed 1,300 companies in the U.K. and U.S. The study found that 88 percent of cloud users said they experienced cost savings, and 56 percent of respondents agreed that cloud services helped them increase profits. In addition, 60 percent reported that it reduced the need for IT to maintain infrastructure, providing more time to focus on strategy and innovation.
Today, migrating to the cloud is no longer just for the large companies and early adopters. This technology has the ability — for businesses of all sizes — to provide a competitive edge in the marketplace and help you drive down costs and increase your profits.
