By Virender Jeet, Senior Vice President – Technology, Newgen Software
With the onset of restrictions related to COVID-19, more organizations around the world are recognizing the value of cloud. They are keen to future-proof their businesses and deliver products and services with cloud technology. Cloud has enabled organizations globally to continue operations remotely in a seamless manner. The cloud infrastructure is highly scalable and flexible enough to meet the uncertainty presented by the viral outbreak.
The worldwide public cloud services market is forecast to grow 6.3% in 2020 to total $257.9 billion, up from $242.7 billion in 2019, according to Gartner, Inc. Organizations were already moving toward a cloud-based infrastructure due to challenges, such as the high costs of managing in-house server hardware and retaining IT employees to support and fix potential issues. The pandemic has increased the pace of cloud adoption owing to its flexibility – allowing organizations to scale up or down depending on the requirement.
Let’s take a look at how the pandemic has affected the demand for cloud and how it emerged as the real game-changer in today’s competitive business environment:
Transiting to a Remotely Distributed Environment
Cloud has enabled businesses to operate in a remote environment without impacting the speed and quality of services. It has empowered employees to work from home securely and access information anytime, anywhere, while ensuring business continuity
Optimizing Costs
Cloud infrastructure does not require business leaders to invest a hefty sum in purchasing and maintaining equipment. Even cloud data center operations are handled by the provider, minimizing the need for large IT teams. The total cost of ownership of software infrastructure is reduced by shrinking hardware equipment costs and IT expenditures
Ensuring Scalability and Flexibility
Business demand is fluctuating during the pandemic and cloud-based solutions allow organizations to adapt. Their capacity can be increased or decreased without investing in a physical infrastructure. This level of agility has allowed enterprises to sustain themselves and thrive in the dynamically changing business landscape
Improving Collaboration and Visibility
With cloud, users can access, edit, and share documents from a remote location. It is the ideal platform for working from home, as it allows employees to share information and stay updated in real time with live discussions, virtual meetings, and online chats, within the team or with clients
Ensuring Disaster Recovery
Cloud infrastructure helps in data loss prevention. In the unlikely event of a production environment becoming unavailable or unusable, cloud’s disaster recovery environment ensures business continuity while retaining production environment capabilities and mitigating the impact of a site disaster
Providing Automatic Software Updates
Installing system updates can be time consuming. Cloud-based applications do not require the IT staff to perform a manual update, instead they automatically refresh and update themselves. This provides users with the most up-to-date technology and saves valuable time and money spent on IT consultations
Conclusion
The ongoing pandemic has made cloud computing more vital than ever. It has the capability to serve the critical needs of every modern organization with its scalable architecture and support for remote working. Its flexibility is helping businesses stay current in a dynamic environment. Even though new technologies and innovations are going to come and go, cloud will remain a fundamental enabler even in the post-pandemic era.