Why Cloud Migration is the Best for your Organization in this Pandemic
By: Rizza Sta. Ana
In the last few years, cloud migration was not imperative for most organizations. Adopting cloud solutions was considered a trendy thing to do, and something to consider in the near future.
Early adopters, on the other hand, saw the potential and went ahead to dedicate more of their IT resources, staff, and time towards moving key business functions to the cloud. As a result, it enabled them to, for example, have easy access to files and applications anytime from anywhere, empower flexibility in the workplace and encourage global collaboration across teams. Cloud solutions also gave early adopters the ability to scale up or down easily and quickly, and in the process, allowing them granular budget control, whether they are facing disruptions or explosive growth. Moreover, cloud saw early adopters implementing on-premise infrastructure and improvements to reliability and security, and realizing savings in the process.
These benefits were especially highlighted at the start of the pandemic. Organizations that were initially hesitant or dismissive about it in the first place are now making cloud migration a priority because of these key reasons:
1.) Business Continuity
The conversations on cloud migration and adoption are centered on business continuity. The pandemic definitely made a significant impact not only in the way we work, but also the way we do business. As such, organizations naturally wanted to implement strategies that not only allow them to return operations, but bounce back pre-pandemic levels, but also to grow and be agile regardless of any worldwide-disrupting events like Covid-19.
2.) Business Operations
In-demand industries have certain organizations pivot their business operations to integrate cloud solutions. Organizations in industries like e-commerce, logistics, construction, manufacturing, business process outsourcing, video-streaming and content rely on the cloud to be able to scale and manage their service delivery.
3.) Future of work
The first year of the pandemic had majority of the workforce to work from home. Even with the social distancing and travel restrictions in place, productivity, most especially in organizations that are in industries that are experiencing explosive growth, has also gone the roof but remains manageable and scalable, thanks to cloud solutions.
Moreover, organizations are open to temporary and permanent flexible work arrangements or remote work so they can quickly onboard new hires towards operations. The flexibility not only allows organizations to help its people to cope with the mobility restrictions during the pandemic, but also allow them to fill in staffing demand in growing business units or functions without compromising work output and collaboration.
4.) Future of learning
With lockdowns and social distancing in place, learning has largely transitioned to online course delivery. While most organizations have long adopted this for online trainings, they are also adopting cloud solutions to encourage people in continuous learning, especially on technical skills that are essential to their current or future roles and responsibilities.
5.) Environmental sustainability
Organizations that have made environmental sustainability a business strategy to win customers, partners, and governments are migrating or adopting new cloud solutions to harness the benefits of carbon footprint reduction. Savings-generating cloud solutions are also becoming attractive to organizations that are looking to reduce costs in waste management.
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While cloud migration is a transformational path for organizations in these uncertain times, adopting it should not be a hurdle to many Filipino enterprises. The reasons are:
1. Migrations kept workers employed
Migrations allow organizations to keep people working. When other things in an organization’s operations are not happening, it is the perfect time to reallocate the manpower and other resources towards cloud migration. This way, it gives employers reasons to keep people in the organization and employees one less thing to worry about this pandemic.
2. Migrations keep organizations from falling behind
The first months of the pandemic has slowed economies all over the world. As the economies slowly open up, organizations are also eager to bounce back and keep or gain a new lead over their competitors. Organizations who started cloud migration before the pandemic allow them to be more resilient with the effects, pivot quickly and retain momentum in their operations during the pandemic’s early months.
3. Migrations will eventually happen
As the saying goes, the only permanent thing in this world is change. Organizations who have adopted a wait-and-see attitude on cloud will find themselves down the road needing to migrate to the cloud. It may be because of obsolete technology, process, or the lack of staffing needed to manage critical services.
If your organization hasn’t started their journey to the cloud yet in this pandemic, it does not matter. Whether your organization opt to steadily invest in a new platform or simply jump to something new and cutting edge, there is a plethora of options out there that can cater to your needs.