One of the key concerns many IT departments report in moving to the cloud is determining which workload to migrate where. In determining what is best for your organization it is typically a great idea to consider what has worked for others. A recent Harvard Business Review Analytics survey, obtained responses from 347 respondents. 60% from companies with less than 1000 employees. Their Hybrid Cloud Becomes a Strategic Imperative report shows how hybrid cloud has impacted small to medium-sized businesses. The findings include details on how those businesses are using the public cloud, including:
- 54% for email and communications
- 29% for billing and invoicing
- 29% business intelligence
- 26% for payroll
- 24% for customer service
- 24% for project management
39% of the small to mid-sized companies who responded to the survey said that they found more security in the cloud. 47% of that demographic also reported that the cloud had enhanced their customer service. This report demonstrates the continued push to a more hybrid cloud adoption as organizations determine what works best where for their individual needs. According to Carl Lehmann, Principal Analyst at 451 Research, “It’s gone beyond cost savings. Now companies are recognizing that cloud architecture can enable them to re-automate their businesses in different ways very quickly.” He added, “Forward-looking companies are analyzing cloud capabilities and trying to use them strategically to enable competitive advantage.”
Legacy systems were covered in this report and it’s worth noting the hindrance that these applications can pose to an organization’s competitive advantage. Lehman commented, “A lot of companies invested in legacy systems that have gone through a series of evolutions and customization over the years, so typically it’s a lot of effort to make changes and adapt those systems quickly as compared to a fresh implementation of a software-as-a-service offering or cloud-native application rebuilt from scratch. When you migrate to the cloud, you don’t just take old processes and move them. You can reevaluate for process efficiency.” The top five areas where legacy systems were reported to impact organizations in this survey were:
- IT implementation time (44%)
- Empowering the workforce/better (internal) user experience (38%)
- Ability to innovate (35%)
- Ability to manage/analyze/act on/share data (34%)
- Better end customer experience (tied with) Business agility/flexibility (32%)
This report underscores the trends for businesses of all sizes to move a variety of applications to the cloud in order to gain strategic and competitive benefits. However, some systems are more well-served than others for a move to the cloud and finding the right balance, as well as choosing the right applications to move first, can put you at a significant advantage. Need help with your hybrid infrastructure? Contact us today.
