The clouds clear for cloud but how clear are you about cloud?

The clouds clear for cloud, but how clear are you about cloud? While cloud innovators gallop ahead, organisations lag behind in harnessing the cloud. What do they need to know not to miss the digital boat?

The hype that surrounded the cloud lasted for over a decade – a very long period for the hype-filled IT industry. Now, however, it is seen as the vehicle for digitalisation. Any organisation that does not have a cloud computing strategy will miss the beginning of the new digital era.

So what do firms need to know in order not to miss that? First, they should not underestimate the cloud. Here’s why:

Typically, a new technological innovation goes through a period of intense hype followed by disillusionment. Only the tenacious remain, and if they are successful, this leads to a “slope of enlightenment”. At this stage, the benefits of the technology crystallise, and the first-, second- and third-generation products emerge. More firms fund pilots, while conservative companies remain cautious. Finally, mainstream adoption begins. 

According to the Gartner Hype Cycle, which measures this process, cloud computing is about to enter the mainstream, with Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service plus (IaaS+) already there. Yet while cloud innovators gallop ahead, organisations lag behind in harnessing the cloud. One Gartner study found that less than a third of firms have a documented cloud strategy. 

The cloud services industry clears the clouds

To onboard to the cloud, firms need cloud-related services, such as cloud consulting, implementation, migration and managed services, says Gartner. The technology research firm expects 28 per cent of spending in key IT segments to shift to cloud-based services by 2022.

Deutsche Telekom B2B EU is part of this rapidly evolving industry. Most recently, we partnered with Microsoft to provide standardised cloud acceleration services for the Microsoft Azure public cloud platform across nine countries, from Poland to Greece. The automated services will enable cloud adoption within minutes, saving customers 30 to 50 per cent of IT operations costs, compared with on-premise solutions. It was the next step in our strategic partnership with Microsoft (announced in 2018), and shows how sophisticated cloud services have become. 

But firms have work to do, too

But firms must also learn what they must bring to the table. Cloud providers can reduce much of the burden of implementing and managing cloud computing, but not all. Gartner warns, for example, that through 2020, 95 per cent of security issues will be caused not by infrastructure providers, but by clients themselves. So firms need well-informed technology product managers who are also competent partners for cloud-related service providers. However, building up internal cloud skills is a challenge.

So cloud remains a tantalising, but relatively untravelled, road. This is no different from other “Next Big Things”. For you and your business, it is therefore important that you not only know what you need to know, but also who in the industry can help you. Watch this space!