IT

Key Drivers behind Increasing Cloud Adoption

Basics-of-Cloud-StorageOver the past few years, many organizations have begun to realize the true potential of cloud adoption. As a result, most organizations have migrated their archival data to the cloud while keeping the operational data at hand through a combination of private and hybrid clouds.

Employing the cloud is a sound decision, as it brings many benefits not only for large organizations but also for small and medium sized businesses. Adopting the cloud helps reduce operational costs and improves the overall IT efficiency of an organization. Additionally, the cloud supports critical business tasks by providing robust performance and improved security.

Cloud Adoption Statistics

Gartner and RightScale have recently released cloud adoption findings acquired through various surveys (one of which involved 45 decision makers and 300 companies). These findings revealed that almost 29% of the organizations are using public cloud, 58% are using a combination of public and private clouds, and only 7% are using private clouds. Furthermore, the survey results indicated that either more than half of the organizations in the survey are experimenting with hybrid cloud or they have the intention to do so. Almost all of the organizations are experimenting with infrastructure as a service. This demonstrates that many organizations are already using the cloud to improve IT operations and thereby save cost and to keep up with the fierce competition.

Benefits of Adopting the Cloud

The section given below highlights the key benefits of cloud adoption:

Flexibility

Respondents to an InformationWeek survey said that the ability to meet business demands effectively and efficiently was the major reason to move to cloud computing. When an organization has more than typical bandwidth requirements, cloud computing can step in to fulfill that need. How? The remote servers of cloud service providers offer extensive bandwidth that many organizations are not able to obtain internally.

Cost Effectiveness

One of the most cited reasons for adopting the cloud is cost effectiveness. Cloud promises more for less, which is the basic motivation for many budget conscious organizations to make the transition. There are several reasons why opting for a cloud setup can be less costly than having on-site datacenters and similar solutions. The most obvious of them being that large cloud providers are able to leverage the power of huge economies of scale and are therefore able to provide more for a lower price.

Pay for What You Use

Another key aspect of cloud deployment is that you only pay for the services you use. Cloud service providers offer the flexibility to opt out of services you do not plan to use in the near future and you always have flexible opt-in options based on your changing business requirements.

Disaster Recovery

When an organization moves to the cloud, they hedge off the majority of the disaster related concerns. By purchasing a cloud computing service, you do not need complex disaster recovery plans. The service provider takes care of all such issues, and reports have found that their turnaround time is less than that of traditional disaster recovery processes. Aberdeen Group reports reveal that organizations using cloud are able to resolve recovery related issues about four times faster than those who do not use the cloud.

Remote Access

As long as your employees have access to the Internet, the cloud enables them to work remotely. This flexibility positively affects employees' work-life balance and greatly increases productivity.

Automatic Software Updates

In 2010, a survey by Salesforce revealed that the majority of large organizations spend almost 18 working hours per month managing updates and security. When you employ a cloud computing service, it is up to the service provider to handle the security and software updates. This frees up your organization's resources and enables them to focus on core business operations.

How to Adopt the Cloud?

There are two basic approaches to adopting the cloud: 1) complete an internal assessment and migrate using internal resources or 2) work with a cloud technology consulting company. Many organizations lack the internal expertise to analyze their cloud service needs. It is therefore often recommended to have an external entity complete a thorough analysis for your organization to provide you with a detailed report explaining specific benefits to your organization that may warrant cloud migration.

Always start any cloud initiative with a detailed cost benefit analysis and assessment of your needs. While there are many advantages that cloud has to offer, your choice of right service provider, service delivery model and the type of cloud (public, private or hybrid) in alignment with your organization's needs, greatly influences the returns from your cloud investment.

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