The cloud market proved to be the most resilient in tech in 2020, even with the economic contractions and budgetary reductions caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic. The worldwide push to maintain business continuity while supporting ETL migration remote workforces led to astounding leaps in technology adoption. As Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella stated, “we’ve seen two years of digital transformation in two months.” Arguably, the key driver in said digital transformation consulting has been cloud technology. Deloitte Insights predicts that cloud revenue growth will remain greater than 30% in 2021 and through 2025, demonstrating how essential the cloud has become for businesses to stay agile and competitive in a shifting marketplace.
It is clear that cloud technology is here to stay,Teradata to AWS migration and as more organizations realize the benefits—cost savings, agility, scalability, continuity, to name a few—2021 is sure to witness an increase in cloud migration. In this blog we’ll take a look at how cloud migration strategies have shifted in the new normal and examine the driving forces behind the increased adoption of cloud services in 2021 and beyond.
Key Drivers of Cloud Migration in 2021
Automation for Streamlined Operations
Automation helps organizations lower costs while optimizing opportunities and streamlining operations. With cloud costs lower than ever before, organizations of all sizes and maturities are looking to cloud solutions for automating time-consuming, once manual processes. The ever-shifting market of the pandemic and post-pandemic world requires agility and adaptability, and automating security practices, backups and disaster recovery, and governance and standardization can help organizations cover their bases and put their efforts where they’re needed most.
Business Intelligence for Impactful Insights
Cloud technology enables cutting-edge analytics—something that is a must-have for businesses hoping to thrive in the new normal. Traditional data models were rendered useless by the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, and data analytics help you respond to changing customer needs and market forces in real-time.
Support for Remote Workforces
Forrester predicts that remote work will increase to 300% of pre-Covid levels in 2021. The shift to a work-from-anywhere culture requires infrastructure capable of supporting collaboration, data sharing, and project management while also ensuring top notch security. Cloud solutions are the backbone of safe, secure, and effective work from home efforts across the globe.
Agility with Containerization
Increased demand for hybrid cloud has led to a shift towards containerization. Gartner predicts that by 2022, more than 75% of global organizations will have containerized applications in production. Containers allow organizations to run apps in any environment, whether on-premises or in the cloud, giving them freedom to test, develop, and deploy flexibly and securely.
Cloud Migration Strategies for the New Normal
Cloud has become an essential service for businesses hoping to thrive in the new normal and beyond, but there are a few key factors to keep in mind as you migrate services or applications. IT leaders must take a strategic approach to cloud that enables remote workforces and helps uncover new opportunities while keeping costs in check. Here are some key cloud migration strategies for 2021:
Embrace Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud combines the best of public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises by allowing organizations to keep mission-critical workloads on site in the hands of trusted team members, while granting the agility and scalability that comes with cloud computing power. The flexibility to move workloads between locations allows remote and distributed employees to access data that isn’t tied to one central server. Hybrid cloud also supports business continuity by providing secure backup solutions and ensuring availability during service spikes.
Carefully Optimize Cloud Costs
IT budgets shrunk across the board as businesses faced an uncertain market through 2020. While cloud is essential to support many of the technologies that help businesses thrive in the new normal, cloud costs must be carefully examined in order to avoid over-spend. Start by assessing your asset utilization, then right-size your cloud configuration to your exact needs. Avoid over-paying by using reserved instances for predictable workloads, and take advantage of discounts up to 90% on spot instances for quick tests or spin-ups that aren’t mission critical.
Consider a Cloud Managed Services Provider (MSP)
Cloud Application Service Providers have in-depth knowledge and expertise in all things cloud and can help your organization right-size your solution to address your specific business needs while keeping cloud costs in check. Cloud MSPs also offer flexibly payment options and 24/7 customer support, helping you navigate any technical challenges that arise during your migration.
Prioritize Cloud Security
With the dramatic increase in cloud usage the world has also witnessed a rise in the “dark side of the cloud.” Nefarious actors take advantage of the fact that many organizations have migrated hastily to cloud solutions to enable business continuity, and in their haste may have let security lag. In a digital age trust and privacy are essential to retaining and growing your customer base, and your data needs to be secured at all levels and across all platforms.
Conclusion: Cloud is an Essential Service in the New Normal
Cloud is essential for laying the groundwork for agility, business continuity, and innovation in 2021 and beyond. Forrester predicts that the global cloud infrastructure market will grow 35% to $120 billion by 2021 as cloud drives recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Organizations that view cloud migration as a journey instead of a destination will be the most successful. Cloud migration is an iterative process that requires a well-defined strategy and constant optimization and review. When cloud migration is done properly, it can help your organization not just survive but thrive in 2021 and beyond.