Leveraging cloud for digital transformation

It's safe to say that today we no longer conduct business in the same ways we did 20 years ago. As a result of new technologies and the constantly changing dynamic of the work space, worker and employer needs are changing, and so are the ways they access information. Cloud computing has been fundamental to this evolution, allowing remote access to corporate systems and applications, and enabling new ways of innovating in business.

"When it comes to making improvements in business - of any size and across just about every sector - embracing new technology and the benefits it can offer to both the company and its customers is a logical first step," says Richard Vester, Director of Cloud Services at EOH.

"Cloud computing is the perfect example and cloud usage has risen dramatically in the last few years. While the number of businesses switching to cloud computing is impressive, the real success is the significant impact it has showed, not just for individual companies using this technology, but across entire sectors, changing the way industry-specific tasks are managed for the better."

With cloud technology reshaping multiple industries, it is no longer viewed as merely a way to make use of on-demand servers. Vester adds that cloud is about leveraging economies of scale through automation, and about moving to global applications, not just enterprise applications. "Many companies are using the mobility benefits that cloud brings with it, allowing for full control of their data while providing the flexibility their workforce needs these days. Going forward, in order to provide real-time access to company resources from anywhere and any device, complexity, data storage and computing will be removed from the mobile device and handled by the cloud provider."

He explains that beyond utility computing and the industrialisation of IT, cloud is now a major force that's systematically transforming the economy and helping every company on its digital business journey. "The job of the CIO is now more exciting, and much more challenging. In a few short years they have moved from architecting the enterprise to leading the digital enterprise forward."

This was nicely summarised in the recent State of the Market: Enterprise Cloud 2016 report, by Verizon: "In the past few years, we've seen cloud go from a newcomer to part of the established order. But despite the maturity of cloud, the market is still developing and most organisations are still finding new and exciting ways to take advantage of it..." It adds that in many organisations, "the IT function is now much more closely aligned with the lines of business (LOBs) and is adept at managing a portfolio of cloud providers... Companies are combining public, private and on-premises infrastructure to create highly sophisticated, customised environments."

Vester says this is enabling even the most established organisation to do things in new ways, but as cloud increasingly becomes the norm, the edge it gives a company is falling. "It still has a major role to play in delivering competitive advantage; to derive significant competitive advantage from cloud, you need to think how you can leverage it to enable digital transformation, change how you do business, and disrupt your market."