Who Wins with Cloud Adoption?

More and more companies are adopting cloud computing, and soon we’ll see the tipping point where the majority of business data is up in the cloud. Businesses big and small are embracing the software that allows transformation without serious overheads. It almost goes without saying that as a flagbearer, the IT department is leading the way for digital migration with 67% of data expected to be cloud-based within two years.

There’s still some understandable reticence from uber-cautious legal departments, but predominantly, things are only going to look cloudier from here on in. So who are the big winners going to be? Who wins from the mass migration of business data into the cloud?

Employees

If IT is taken as ready to lead the cloud migration, the HR department won’t be far behind for most businesses. As the structure of organizations changes at pace, the way that HR is structured has shifted, and therefore the demands made on their resources are greater than ever. To be appropriately agile, cloud storage is the natural choice.

Employees benefit from a dynamic HR department that owns securely stored and easily accessible data. The accompanying insight across a range of worker actions guarantees an optimal employee experience. Companies can recognise their star performers with detailed data analysis, and make sure they have a full and accurate understanding of their workers’ needs. 53% of UK departments want to embrace the cloud as a storage option already; for happy workers, it just makes sense.

Customers

To boost customer experience, cloud based storage is fast becoming an essential tool in the armoury of many companies. The upcoming sea change of GDPR is going to have a massive impact on how businesses manage customer data. Managers will have to be incredibly careful about accurately and securely maintaining information.

Within a year, everyone will need a watertight system, and this is where the cloud can really come into its own for businesses – at the moment, 46% of teams are looking to tap into wider awareness of customer data with cloud solutions, and I’d be surprised not to see that figure soar around the introduction of GDPR. The cloud can ensure that customers have the data experience they want.

The finance department

Finance is another area where there’s an appreciable level of risk surrounding utilization of the cloud to handle data. Execs are constantly asking themselves about the maturity of cloud solutions and whether third-party vendors are possible security breaches waiting to happen. But cloud technology offers many tangible advantages for finance departments – increased flexibility, standardization and compliance chief amongst them.

All this comes at a comfortable pace of change and adoption. Securing data in the cloud is something half of all finance departments currently want to action; as executives come to understand their wealth of options generated from the cloud, this figure will shoot up.

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The future challenge of the cloud won’t be adoption – the benefits are too great for that. In fact, making sure that they have a workable cloud strategy, that avoids data siloing and ensures visibility, will be the question that organizations need to answer.

Click here for more on data warehousing and analytics in the cloud.