One thing is certain today: Cloud technology is no longer a nice-to-have, an exploratory technology, or something for your organization to consider. It is a critical requirement for success and survival in this era of business. Period.
Think about this:
The pace of change in technology increases each day and is disrupting business operating models across all industries. The birth and obsolescence of technologies is now more pronounced than ever. How do you keep up? What do you choose? How do you enable a faster time to market? How do you continuously drive gains in productivity and efficiency in your organization? How do you more adeptly enable services that your customers need? How can you become more cost effective? How do you test and fail more quickly? That’s right, how do you test and fail more quickly so you can move on and implement those improvements that will drive lasting organizational benefit. You need the Cloud; it enables speed and agility.
The industry I work in, Construction, has long ignored digital technologies but is undergoing a metamorphosis. Dogged by lack of productivity and shrinking margins, the construction industry is adopting Cloud technologies to drive gains in productivity, efficiency, safety, schedule, and quality–producing benefits not only for those conducting the construction, but more importantly for the owners who commission the work.
Success is a recipe
Successful organizations will leverage Cloud solutions as a part of their core technology strategy, and this will enable them to leverage the necessary adjacent technologies more effectively. Specifically, and critically important in today’s business operating environments, mobile applications and services married to data and analytics can be delivered faster and more successfully via the Cloud. As an example, many of us take for granted the applications we use daily on our smartphones. They have in common the ingredients described above: they are mobile, based in the Cloud, and access the data we need to make decisions quickly. They are self-service. We can find these solutions at our finger tips for free, or for a small fee. This is the face of most customer-facing solutions today, and traditional business solutions are now mirroring the same model. The train doesn’t stop here though. It keeps moving and is picking up speed.
The next leg of the journey
Without the Cloud, your organization will stand little chance of successfully adopting the latest sexy and evolutionary technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). These new technology accelerants complement the mobility and accessibility we’ve all grown accustomed to and will once again put business on a path to substantial change, enabling enhanced experiences, solutions, and insights that drive business value. Cloud-based solutions enable this acceleration to happen more quickly, and early adopters will enjoy positions of market leadership.
If you and your organization aren’t combining all of the above right now, you may be challenged to find yourself able to compete in the world we are rapidly entering.
You need to have your cake and eat it too. Don’t be afraid to take a bite out of the Cloud—your organization’s very survival depends on it.
