When it comes to cloud computing, organizations may be at different stages along the journey, with varying needs. Whether you are completely new to the cloud, or looking to optimize your enterprise, there are many possibilities. But the one strategic driver in common is positioning for business growth – and this is where cloud computing can help, creating a scalable, time- and money-saving future.

Having said all that, how to best leverage cloud computing for business growth may depend on your starting point and current challenges (see also our recent blog, How Should an Enterprise Think About Future Readiness on the Cloud?). Let’s first consider the size of your business and the benefits of cloud computing:

  • Startup: Starting a new business can be one the most exciting but challenging projects. Yet, according to CB Insights, spiraling costs are often to blame for startup failures, so it’s essential you invest finances wisely. One of the best ways to control IT infrastructure costs is by leveraging cloud computing to achieve critical business benefits. Here’s how: cloud computing saves you money on hardware, delivers automatic software and security updates, offers flexibility to only pay for what you use as your needs change, and access to support from the world’s top DevOps experts. Setting up on the cloud is easy to set up and affordable, and businesses that don’t adopt cloud computing are now rarer than ever. Plan for your future from the word go.
  • SMB: As volume of data starts to grow exponentially, many small to medium sized businesses need better IT solutions to keep pace. Reducing costs and increasing efficiencies may be the primary focus, and to achieve this cloud computing becomes a ‘need-to-have’, not ‘nice-to-have’, option. Being on the cloud removes the need to invest in additional hardware or in-house maintenance, offers the ability to scale up, or down, as often as necessary, and opens your world to a whole range of additional technology as the business grows.
  • Enterprise: You’re most likely already on the cloud, or even on multiple clouds, and now exploring ways to further enhance business growth opportunities. As your organization expands to operate in multiple, remote and/or global locations, secure online access and real-time collaboration with customers and employees is critical. Leveraging full DevOps capabilities will support automating manual tasks and managing complex environments at scale. Large enterprises with bigger budgets also have the potential to handle a hybrid cloud approach (see below). The more available cloud services you access, such as modern business analytics tools (predictive, descriptive and diagnostic analytics), the more business intelligence your organization can gleen to secure your competitive edge.

Next – What Path Will You Take?

Once you have identified your strategic objectives, your next step along the cloud computing journey will largely depend on where you are today. Regardless of the size of your organization, small-scale or enterprise, when it comes to cloud computing there are several use case options you can consider:
  • Lift and Shift: moving from on-premise to the cloud
If your organization currently houses data on in-house data centers, and you just need to move to the cloud, then ‘lift and shift’ could be for you. The advantage of this option is that no application changes are required and security is increased. However, any known problems or performance issues will also be migrated and could result in increased risks after migration.
  • Hybrid: partially on-premise, partially on the cloud
This might be an option if your organization is ready to migrate to the cloud, but would still prefer to retain certain data on-premise. In fact, this is quite a common scenario in the finance industry. This option could provide confidence in cloud computing before taking the plunge toward full cloud migration.
  • Moving Clouds: simply moving from one cloud to another
A bit like the ‘lift and shift’, this option applies to organizations already on the cloud, but want to switch cloud partners. Reasons why could include lack of managed services or 24/7 support, limited scalability, inflexible cost optimization, etc. Or it may simply be that as your enterprise business has grown, your needs have changed, and you have ‘outgrown’ your original cloud partner. For example, the need to tap into data analytics for enhanced business intelligence, or leverage cloud cost optimization.
  • Modernization: rearchitecting existing applications
Unlike basic cloud migration, this option is perfect for legacy applications that need some serious reworking before hosting on the cloud. Rearchitecting involves taking apart an existing application and building up from scratch, modernizing its core architecture before cloud migration. So, rather than retiring or replacing an application, the existing application features can be separated out based on demand, to maximize business benefits. This approach ensures inefficient or non-compliant elements are stripped out, while the very latest in innovative cloud technology is seamlessly implemented.

Digital Transformation with SourceFuse

Whatever the size of your business, remember: taking any of the approaches above does not need to be a daunting process. With over 16 years of experience working with top tech cloud platforms, including AWS (AWS Advanced Consulting Partner), Google Cloud and Azure, SourceFuse can support you. Our dedicated, and cloud certified, team of experts work collaboratively with your organization to achieve your unique cloud computing goals.

One size does not fit all, and having successfully delivered over 600 cloud implementations across various industries, we tailor the solution to meet your organizational requirements, often exceeding expectations.

Whichever industry you work in, whether that’s healthcare, finance or media, when it comes to the cloud, we have the experience and expertise in all variety of options. And this comes as a result of being cloud-native and the flexibility to work with many cloud platforms that will best meet your needs.

Get to know more about SourceFuse’s Innovative Cloud Technology for Business Growth below.