Why the Cloud Is at the Center of Digital Transformation

Cloud computing adds an extra-dimensional layer to digital transformation, taking it from the adoption of digital technology to a full-fledged rebuilding of processes, tools, and experiences in a virtual environment that is accessible from anywhere. Nowadays, there’s no separating the cloud and digital transformation. If your organization wants to future-proof its operations and reach its transformation goals, you need to take a cloud-first approach.

Let’s dive into the role the cloud plays in the business transformation journey, looking at how it relates to the reasons behind digital transformation and the overall impact it makes.

What’s Driving Digital Transformation in 2021?

The term digital transformation gets tossed around quite loosely, making it easy to forget the purpose driving this change. But an organization’s “why” guides the transformation decision-making. It also explains why the cloud is so important for digital transformation in the first place.

Here are some of the key drivers of digital transformation right now:

Customer experience

With an outdated IT infrastructure, your business doesn’t have the processes or tools that are necessary for meeting customer expectations.

To compete in today’s business environment, you need to offer an omni-channel experience with real-time adaptability. This requires integrated, cloud-based business applications – your customer relationship management (CRM), sales, and communication platforms – so employees can access up-to-date insights on customer needs.

Employee productivity

Legacy systems hold employees back because they aren’t flexible enough to meet evolving demands, adapt to new functionality, or scale. They are also prone to breaking down and don’t allow your teams to work from wherever.

With cloud-based systems, your software is housed on off-site servers, which have far more computing capacity than your on-premises data center. As a result, you can offer employees better performance and uptime, as well as greater IT agility.

If you need to add new users or update your platform with new features, you can do it quickly. There’s no downtime or hassle. What you do have is empowered productivity.

The march of progress

Technology keeps evolving. The bottom line is, if your business isn’t moving forward, it’s falling behind.

Only with the cloud can your digital transformation be, as Amit Zavery, VP and Head of Platform for Google Cloud, says, “in a state of perpetual agility, always ready to evolve for whatever customers want next…”

The cloud also enables your business to adapt to new challenges, something we saw happen all over the globe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, summed up the current state of digital transformation when he said in May of 2021, “I’ve been on more sales calls with more CEOs in the last two months than at any time in my career, and there’s universal agreement among them: Digital transformation, while this isn’t a one app [solution], it’s a must-have. Organizations and governments around the world have a digital transformation imperative like never before, and many of them are accelerating their plans for a digital-first work-from-anywhere environment.”

Moving in this direction with your IT isn’t just about serving customers better, empowering employees with greater flexibility, and increasing resilience. It’s essential for maintaining a competitive advantage in the future.

The Cloud Accelerates Digital Transformation

According to research by Gartner, by 2022 global spending on public cloud services will reach $482 billion, up 21.7 percent over 2021. With cloud technology, your business can do more, streamline processes, and save money. The cloud makes your digital transformation more potent today, and more disruption-proof tomorrow.

Here are some of the different ways the cloud can support digital transformation.

Cloud technology cuts IT costs. With the cloud, your company no longer has to spend precious IT dollars on on-premises hardware and software because your systems are hosted in secure off-site data centers.

It can accelerate time to market. With the cloud, your teams can use digital technology more effectively, driving faster results. Companies that have adopted cloud platforms can bring new products and services to market 20 to 40 percent faster.

The cloud enables employees to improve CX. With a cloud infrastructure, employees can access real-time measurement and analytical tools, which they can then use to make smarter decisions about the customer journey. When cloud apps also use machine learning, your company can also better personalize the customer journey.

With cloud-based tools, you can run a work-from-wherever organization. One of the most critical ways that the cloud helps you reach your company’s digital transformation goals is by making your business location agnostic. This is essential for boosting resilience in the new normal. Your teams can work from home, the office, or both and still maintain the same level of productivity.

This is one of the reasons cloud-based applications, particularly cloud communications platforms, took off during the pandemic. With cloud technology, your company is more agile, while also having the tools that are necessary to increase both CX and productivity.

Learn more about how companies today are getting more out of their digital transformation with cloud-based communication solutions. Explore our case studies and see the impact the cloud can make.