Cloud-based digital innovation is the key to competitive differentiation, and European organizations expect an acceleration in the use of cloud over the next two years. To realize the business benefits from cloud, it is important to understand where you are on the cloud journey and what the next steps are.
Cloud innovators are far more successful in realizing business benefits from cloud than experimenters or optimizers. They are making industrialized and strategic use of cloud services with very clear governance and management in place. They align their cloud strategy with their business strategy and adoption of automated governance, risk, and compliance-centric cloud management including proactive monitoring and remediation of issues.
They modernize their application estate with cloud-native technologies and execute effective cloud governance strategy at scale.
IDC predicts that to gain business agility, enterprises will commit to modernizing up to 50% of their existing applications by 2023 using turnkey cloud-native development and deployment services.
Innovators have also set up centers of excellence with full alignment to the business strategy to drive their innovation based on cloud as well as efficient cloud operations. Senior leadership is deeply involved in the cloud and digital innovation strategy and has put clear metrics and KPIs in place to measure cloud change management and business value gained.
The time to act is now as a tectonic shift is happening with the majority of organizations having a cloud-first strategy for their applications. 38% of applications are already migrated to the cloud, and by 2023, 70% of the application landscape will be migrated to the cloud, according to IDC research. Cloud innovators are driving this tectonic shift by planning to migrate as much as 87% of their applications to the cloud by 2023 to develop a clear competitive advantage.
Choosing the right Cloud Services Partner
As EMEA organizations are struggling with the cost and complexity of cloud migrations and a severe cloud skills shortage, choosing an external strategic cloud services partner is critical for executing a successful and accelerated cloud-based digital innovation strategy. Innovators are more likely to use an external partner than those organizations less advanced on their cloud journey.
The primary area where EMEA organizations are engaging an external partner is in security, because getting cloud security right is the foundation for digital trust and the success of digital business models. The second area where external partners add value is by driving digital innovation and developing new digital business models and revenue streams based on digital products and services.
