07 June 2019
According to Forbes, 67% of enterprise IT infrastructure and software will be cloud-based by the end of 2020. By 2020, 83% of the companies will save their workload on the cloud and 41% of the enterprise applications will be hosted on public cloud platforms Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon AWS.
The impact of adopting cloud computing services has also been mostly positive. Based on research conducted by Multisoft, 80% of companies report operation improvements within the first few months of adopting the tech.
Before we explore the reasons behind the exponential growth of the cloud, let’s quickly grasp the basics of cloud computing.
Cloud computing is the concept of offering computing services such as databases, storage, computing power and other IT resources over the internet with a pay-as-go-pricing – you only pay for the resources that you’ve used. The IT resources are owned and maintained by a cloud hosting provider such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM or Google Cloud.
The cloud can be public, private or a hybrid. In a public cloud, which is also the most common way of deploying on the cloud, a third-party cloud service operator owns and operates the cloud resources services over the internet. Gartner states that the entire public cloud market will grow by 17.3 percent in 2019 making its market valuation around $206.2 billion, which would surpass the market value of $175.8 billion from 2018 and $145.3 billion in 2017.
On the other hand, private cloud involves dedicated IT resources used exclusively by a single organisation. The cloud service provider maintains services, hardware, software and infrastructure on a private network.
Hybrid cloud combines technologies from private and public cloud deployment models to give companies the most customized solutions according to their unique needs. According to a report several companies are increasingly opting for a multi-cloud strategy instead of using public or private cloud separately with 84% of the survey respondents stating that their company’s infrastructure is multi-cloud.
With cloud computing, it’s easy to scale the IT resources based on your requirements and usage. It also makes data backup and recovery easier and faster. Cloud computing allows you to focus on your core business while the hosting provider handles everything related to the infrastructure, from maintaining the data centers and servers to keeping your data secure at all times.
According to Forbes, digital transformation and the increasing adoption of technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things) and ML (Machine Learning) is one of the reasons why more businesses are moving increasingly to the cloud.
The industries that will spend the most on the cloud are the ones that deal with large amounts of data such as manufacturing ($19.7 billion), professional services ($18.1 billion), and banking ($16.7 billion).
One of the reasons behind the exponential growth of the cloud is its immense affordability as compared to hardware systems. In fact, most small and medium sized businesses find it 40% more affordable to use third-party cloud platforms instead of maintaining an in-house storage infrastructure which can be costly to setup and maintain.
As a small or medium business, it’s challenging to invest in IT infrastructure and technical staff to set up and maintain the IT services as well as guarantee their security. Investing in cloud computing services gives such businesses the ability to ‘rent’ IT infrastructure to fulfill their business needs without having to invest heavily in their maintenance and security.
While reliability used to be one of the main concerns that organizations had about the cloud because they didn’t know exactly where their data was being saved, it is now a thing of the past. Cloud has proven time again that not only is it reliable, but it is highly secure as well. Over 94% of companies reported vast improvements in their online security after they moved to the cloud.
Cloud service providers employ sophisticated cyber security methods to ensure safe and secure transmission of data, which protects an organisation’s data from hackers and malicious malware. They also strictly follow all government compliance requirements to ensure data safety and integrity. As a result, cloud services are becoming increasingly reliable and trustworthy.
Out of the businesses that still have fully embraced the cloud, 60% of them already have plans to move their data and applications to the cloud in the next 18 months. From improved speed and greater flexibility to reduced costs, cloud computing offers numerous benefits to organisations, which is one of the top reasons why several businesses are adopting a cloud-first strategy.
A cloud-first strategy is becoming the new normal and businesses today are capitalising on its potential to drive their revenues, boost growth and gain a competitive edge.
