While the cloud is steadily becoming the biggest player in the digital transformation era, businesses of all sizes are realizing the benefits of a cloud-first strategy. The main principle behind this model is utilizing safe public cloud infrastructure instead of hosting your in-house architecture. Making a decision on whether you should be adopting a cloud-first strategy requires a better understanding of the cost-savings and productivity benefits that this transformation will bring to your business.

1. Boost In Productivity

Streamlining

There is one thing that we know about the cloud for sure: It makes the data management process simpler to coordinate! In fact, there is no actual moving of stored data from company devices for regular back-ups and pulling of old data, as you do this directly to and from one centralized location which is the cloud. This way, not only is your corporate more retrievable but it is also securely stored on the advanced cloud servers of your provider. Cloud-first is a multi-lateral type of strategy that does not focus on only one benefit and a single shift to the cloud. It requires a comprehensive outlook towards adopting new technology for the purpose of streamlining operations and boosting business productivity.

Business scenario:

A large-size company adopts a cloud-first strategy and all data is stored on the cloud infrastructure of a third-party provider. The company is experiencing a sudden growth from a high surge in demand after investing in a profitable market solution. This required fast recruitment and set-up of new workstation for a couple of new departments. Due to the large downtime in operational efficiency of the internal IT teams, the company decided to adopt a cloud-first strategy by migrating their software on cloud infrastructure where it will be deployed directly to the devices of the end-users and it will be managed entirely by the cloud provider and specially dedicated teams monitoring the data center locations. As a result, the company achieved more streamlined operations and zero downtime in the efficiency of the IT department.

Better Data Recovery

Some Cloud-hosted services can be used as a disaster recovery strategy to store data safely without risking the repercussions in an unfortunate case of hardware failure or loss of data due to breaking, theft, or hacking. Physical devices are often not reliable enough to have as your only disaster recovery plan in your business model. This is why a cloud-first strategy will shift the focus from old-fashioned approaches to new solutions like DaaS, SaaS, and PaaS. With a cloud-hosted service, you can feel safe that all corporate data is safeguarded and secured against loss in integrity or availability.

Business Scenario:

A mid-sized company experienced a power outage and some of the on-premise infrastructures was been malfunctioning all day. This disrupted the business not only of the IT teams looking after the issues but also of the rest of the operational teams using a virtualized desktop environment to access mission-critical applications. After the business realized that their disaster recovery model was not working smoothly, they decided to migrate all their data to a multi-tenant cloud as part of their new cloud-first approach. After one week, all departments were running uninterruptedly by electricity failure or other technical problems.

2. Boost in Cost Savings

 

The most appealing benefit to the cloud-first strategy is undoubtedly the convincing promises for large cost-savings, once the business moves to the cloud. Everyone knows that designing, building, and maintaining your own infrastructure can be a costly undertaking. In fact, only a small minority of the businesses have the resources, the time, and the expertise to invest in this kind of project. This is why outsourcing cloud-hosted services will decrease the incurred cost from small and mid-sized businesses to keep their operations remote, whilst safe and fully efficient.

Business scenario: 

A rapidly expanding business decides to build their in-house server room for hosting a virtualized desktop service for employees. After embarking on this project, the company realizes that the cost for implementation will be a lot higher than initially expected. Setting up the equipment, hiring extra staff, and paying for the licensing would have crossed the upper limit of the budget for this project. The company considered all the options and decided to outsource its infrastructure on a month-by-month subscription basis. The cost with this cloud-first approach was significantly lower than a traditional approach, giving more space and time for the company to focus on its core functions during the expansion stages.