The snowball effect: Why cloud is outgrowing legacy IT solutions

The main drivers for cloud, and how it helps your organisation

Most IT teams have seen the headlines about the rise in cloud service adoption globally. With public cloud revenue surpassing $15 billion in the UK alone and Infrastructure as a Service revenue reaching $2 billion, the numbers are there for all to see.

But while those numbers may be great for the likes of AWS, Microsoft and Google, how does it help British businesses on a day-to-day basis?

The snowball effect of cloud

For techUK, “cloud computing is a key driver of the UK’s data-driven economy, with cloud-based platforms, infrastructure and services supporting UK businesses across every industry and sector.”

In other words, in a competitive data-driven economy such as the UK, the cloud helps organisations to create optimal digital experiences for their customers, facilitate new ways of working for users, and create competitive differentiation.

For IT teams, it holds many benefits. The ability to quickly spin up new infrastructure or storage capacity without needing to purchase and configure physical hardware can be priceless, especially as storage space or access to physical locations becomes increasingly challenged.

Helping to do more with less

Although it is not a new phenomena, IT teams are continuously asked to deliver more either with the same, or less budget. The elasticity of cloud achieves both these objectives, with utility-based billing conserving precious budget by only paying for what you use.

On a more strategic level, shifting core IT to the cloud enables savings to be made on day-to-day IT services. This shift away from traditional “break-fix” models to IaaS services delivered by specialist cloud providers empowers users with the tools they need, while modernising the IT support available.

Is cloud replacing IT departments?

In short, no – far from it.

For progressive organisations, cloud is not replacing the core IT function, but actually helping it to deliver more strategic value to the business. Instead of creating a Luddite effect, it actually emancipates IT from daily battles with helpdesk tickets and queries while trying to manage complex infrastructure.

Instead, the cloud enables IT to shift to being a key enabler of digital transformation initiatives.

Because of the redeployment of expertise it enables, the cloud is also proving to be a great leveller for SMBs. Prior to the cloud, larger organisations also held the advantage of more IT staff on hand to cope with periods of greater demand, and to absorb periods of relative downtime.

Cloud’s modular, consumption-based composition means that SMBs can now access the same resources – and flexibility – as much larger competitors. By adopting a cloud-first approach, smaller firms can combine the previously conflicting goals of reducing costs but optimising innovation and customer experience.

Keeping the CFO happy

From a financial perspective, cloud enables SMBs to shift from capital investments (CAPEX) to operational expenditure (OPEX).

This avoids expensive capital outlay on on-premises hardware, while reducing the need to invest in physical assets that depreciate considerably over time. Furthermore, it enables a shift to regular, predictable billing in line with the organisation’s strategic objectives.

Key business outcomes of a switch to cloud

Greater agility to spin up new projects, virtual offices and services
Scalable, on-demand compute and storage resources with minimal over-provisioning
SLAs to fit your needs
Futureproofing IT to keep pace with and surpass competition
Galvanise operational resilience with 24/7 uptime and monitoring
Reduced CAPEX
Safeguard data with managed security and disaster recovery capabilities
Reduced utility bills for power and cooling and requirement for physical storage space
Decreased carbon footprint