(3 Min Read)

It’s almost second nature to check Google Maps while driving to find out exactly how long you’ll take to reach your destination. Online streaming has taken over our lives and there’s hardly anyone out there who hasn’t succumbed to binge-watching at least one show on the many popular content networks. Whether we realise it or not, the cloud has become a part of all our lives.

Gartner predicts that global IT spending will reach $3.8 trillion in 2019 – an increase of 3.2% over 2018. Despite an uncertain worldwide political climate, the one thing that organizations are focusing on is strengthening their IT infrastructure as a means to differentiate themselves. In fact, building infrastructure to support cloud computing accounts for more than a third of all IT spending worldwide.

Digital transformation through cloud-based infrastructure – private, public, or hybrid – depends on nailing the how and why of your cloud strategy. It is about making the move for the right reasons, identifying the right partners who can support you on your journey, and ensuring you have a clear plan of what lies ahead once you get there.

Assess what you have and what needs to change
There could be multiple reasons why your organization decides to take the plunge and move to a cloud-based infrastructure. However, as you decide to modernize your infrastructure one of the most important things to keep in mind is to design a strategy that works for your business. Gartner’s IT Budget report states that healthcare companies end up spending nearly 75% of their IT budgets on maintaining internal systems. This is a huge cost that can be addressed by transitioning to the cloud while achieving significant scalability and reliability over and above the reduced cost benefit. Be it addressing security and data privacy concerns, tackling maintenance and uptime issues, or reducing overall costs, a successful migration is about understanding what you’re trying to achieve with infrastructure upgradation and identifying a model that works best for you.

Partner with the right agencies who can translate your vision to action
According to a study conducted by Accenture, a whopping 85 percent of executives believe that legacy IT systems hinder their ability to move to a digital environment. Though there is widespread acceptance of the need to modernize, what stops many organizations from taking the leap is not having the right resources or in-house expertise to achieve success. This why it is important to find the right partner who can understand the business and suggest an infrastructure strategy that works. The right partner will help you modernize and upgrade existing systems with a keen understanding of your business objectives and aligning it with a deliberate and more focused infrastructure strategy.

Ensure you have the right team in place
While the decision to modernize might come from the top, it is crucial to have a strong team to translate that vision into action. This means establishing a core DevOps team internally that is equipped to handle all the changes and upgrades without impacting customers. A huge part of the success of a cloud-based infrastructure depends on educating all stakeholders about the impact of the change and how it can benefit them. You can accrue the benefits of modernization only if internal teams are empowered enough to embrace the changes and make the most of them despite the initial struggle.

Be upfront while addressing privacy and security concerns
Privacy is one of the biggest concerns while moving to the cloud and it is what needs to be addressed with the most urgency. In fact, overcoming data security concerns is universally considered the number one influencing factor in generating benefits from cloud. A recent Forbes Insights report revealed that 46 percent of organizations had suffered damage to their reputations as a result of data breach. Ensuring transparency about where data resides and informing stakeholders of the steps taken to mitigate risk of any kind is key in getting organizational buy-in and reap benefits of a modern infrastructure.

Build for constant innovation
Scalability is the biggest gift you get from modernizing your infrastructure allowing organizations to grow and innovate at a faster rate than their peers. A robust and reliable infrastructure helps businesses focus on improving other aspects that are in their control. Focusing on offering a stellar customer experience, improving process efficiencies, reducing the speed of transactions, and improving collaboration between teams are some of the areas that are transformed with a stronger infrastructure.
The digital world has transformed the way businesses function, and it has changed the way consumers think. Expectations are already set from day one and you need to be quick to spot ways to take the experience to the next level. Innovation needs to be part of an organization’s DNA.

It’s no longer good enough to play catch up.