The shift to the cloud is no longer inevitable. By the end of 2020, an estimated 83% of all workloads for companies worldwide were already in the cloud. And this is expected to intensify further in the coming years.
In early 2020, this effect was amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies were partially forced, overnight, to give their employees the ability to work remotely. Consequently, corporate data, workflows, and apps had to be available at any time and from anywhere.
“9 out of 10 new Atlassian customers prefer a cloud solution over an on-premise (server) solution.”
However, availability is not the only reason to switch to the cloud. Security, sustainability, agility, scalability, and cost efficiency are factors you should consider when migrating to the cloud.
Read our 5 reasons to switch to the cloud now.
Scalability of (Atlassian) cloud solutions
Companies, teams and apps are growing, and so must your IT and server capacities. Imagine your team grows by 200 people within a few months, or you sell 10x as many of your products or services in the shortest time possible. You naturally record this as a “win”, but your IT and team are probably struggling to keep up. As a result, an on-premise solution quickly reaches its limits and demands ever faster update and upgrade cycles. This is ultimately not only costly, but also means your team has less time for more important tasks (e.g. IT security).
You therefore need a technology that scales automatically as needed. This is exactly where cloud solutions come into play. They allow you and your company to rely on flexible and adaptable services, without constantly having to worry about costly and manual upgrades.
More revenue and lower admin costs through a switch to the cloud
Servers, hardware and maintenance are expensive and a major cost factor within your company. Your IT must be renewed at regular intervals to ensure your competitiveness. However, a switch to the cloud also means that costs in the form of monthly and annual fees will arise. In the short term, a migration to the cloud is more costly than your proven on-premise solution. In the long term, through the cloud-native mapping of your infrastructure and services, you will realise that the cloud is the far more cost-effective choice.
“As a general rule, it can be assumed that you will achieve a cost saving of approximately 30% in the long term through a migration to the cloud.”
While the obvious costs of on-premise solutions, such as hardware/hosting costs and licence fees, are far lower than subscription and admin costs, it is primarily the hidden costs of on-premise that make cloud solutions preferable in the long term. Costs for IT security, upgrades, performance, maintenance (and more) only become visible over time.
More performance and speed through cloud migration
42% of IT professionals state that network performance is one of the top reasons for switching to the cloud. But that is not all. Availability and speed play a major role, especially in the SaaS (Software as a Service) sector. Retaining customers in the long term and ensuring that users can use your offered service without interruption is easier to provide through a decentralised solution than through a local one.
Imagine you are using one of your GoTo apps to get your work done. And just at that moment, their server crashes because too many users are active at the current time and the server capacity is no longer sufficient. You are probably visibly annoyed and decide not to use the tool anymore, and the provider loses you as a customer.
A 24/7 uptime and availability of 99.95% guaranteed without performance dips can be achieved much more easily through a migration to the cloud. So if you find yourself in a situation where your services and apps must be available at all times, the decentralised cloud can drastically reduce your risk.
White paper: eight cloud myths under the microscope
Improving the productivity of your teams
Almost 80% of IT professionals report that the switch to the cloud has improved their productivity (Source: Office 365), and according to Stanford, teams that work remotely and use cloud apps are approximately 13% more productive than comparable teams. But for what reasons does a switch to the cloud improve the productivity of your teams?
Fewer ToDos on your IT teams' agenda
ToDos such as maintenance, upgrades or updates become secondary tasks and require less monitoring from you. This leaves more time for more important tasks. Your IT team can then finally deal with topics such as security issues, user & access management or the general setup of your organisation, which will move your company forward and create value within your organisation.
“For our engineers, it is important to focus as much as possible on the things that are unique to our business, rather than on operating a vast amount of infrastructure.”
In general, it can therefore be stated that most IT teams spend part of their working day on tasks that do not provide direct value to the business.
The cloud promotes collaboration within your team
Many companies and teams are often spread across regions, internationally, and across floors. This can make it a significant challenge to stay informed about all ongoing projects and tasks. However, migrating your workflows to the cloud puts that in the past, not only fostering communication among team members but also creating transparency, boosting productivity and performance.
Teams from a wide variety of departments, whether marketing, development, product management, or engineering, can access the same systems simultaneously and exchange information with one another.
The cloud is part of the future – are you?
The cloud is now an indispensable part of the modern enterprise. And that doesn't even refer to your own corporate cloud. Consider this: your teams typically use numerous cloud-based apps and tools to simplify their daily work, often without the knowledge of your IT department. This so-called Shadow IT usually accounts for up to 98% of all apps in use.
The question you should therefore ask yourself is: are you and your company part of it too? Become part of the future and invest in cloud-based systems today not only to remain competitive, but also to save costs, increase your team's productivity, and simplify your employees' daily work and workflows. Furthermore, migrating your business to the (Atlassian) Cloud allows you to draw from a much larger talent pool, including individuals who may not be locally based but are willing to join your team remotely.
The benefits of the cloud therefore extend beyond IT and affect your entire business. Would you like to learn more about the opportunities of migrating your business to the cloud? Download our whitepaper: 5 Reasons to Switch to the Cloud.
