How a cloud-first enterprise application strategy boosts speed and scale for your business
Against a backdrop of disruptive global events and fast-moving technology change, a cloud-first approach to enterprise applications is increasingly critical. That’s the consensus from members of CIO.com’s community of IT experts who weighed in on how a cloud-first approach to enterprise applications allow an organization to scale its business.
With a cloud-first approach, businesses can sidestep the high costs associated with on-premises deployment, installation, maintenance, and IT infrastructure upgrades with an option that scales capacity up or down based on need. Cloud-first applications support a manageable OpEx cost model, metered like a utility, as opposed to requiring significant upfront capital investments in infrastructure and software licenses.
Another upside to the cloud-first enterprise application model is standardization and lower complexity for internal IT operations, says Helen Yu (@YuHelenYu), founder and CEO of Tigon Advisory Corp. “It also brings your products and services closer to more customers with faster time to value, flexibility, and better adaptation to their ever-changing needs,” she adds.
At the same time, the auto-scaling nature of cloud-first applications requires no human intervention because scaling is done based on CPU and memory usage to further improve efficiency, notes Scott Schober (@ScottBVS), president and CEO at Berkeley Varitronics Systems Inc. “Configurability in cloud-first strategies is key as organizations don’t have to worry about hardware control, allowing for more focus on getting new services up and running faster,” he says.
A cloud-first approach “allows companies to focus on the business dynamics that dictate when and by how much enterprise applications need to scale,” says Steve Guilford, CEO of AsterionDB. “What could be worse than to plan for an event that requires the scaling of an application’s infrastructure only to have it all fall flat on its face when the time comes?”
Consider the last two-plus years of business disruptions caused by the global pandemic. Companies that not only survived but thrived amidst the myriad business challenges show why cloud-first application deployment is a critical component of a retooled IT strategy.
“Those that adopted a cloud-first approach were able to shift and adapt to the impeding changes that COVID brought efficiently and rapidly as compared to businesses that delayed efforts to move off premises,” notes Elitsa Krumova (@Eli_Krumova), a global thought leader and technology influencer. “The cloud-first approach gives organizations a strong competitive advantage, ability to keep up with the competition, and improved roadmap for sustainable, future business growth.”
A shift to cloud-first enterprise applications ensured that remote employees could work effectively during the pandemic while creating a backbone to accommodate what is fast becoming a hybrid and distributed workforce, says Sridhar Iyengar (@iSridhar), management director, Zoho Europe. “A cloud-first approach provides benefits to all organizations, whether their employees are spread disparately or working in one location,” Iyengar says.
“The COVID-19 pandemic established that business and cloud strategy are interwoven,” says Gene De Libero (@GeneDeLibero), chief strategy officer at GeekHive.com. “That’s illustrated by the ability of cloud-first businesses to pivot to a remote work-from-home model with unprecedented speed and scale.”
Growth for today’s modern business hinges on a variety of factors, including the ability to deliver seamless and compelling customer experiences and automate manual and cumbersome business processes, along with the crown jewels: creating a foundation for data-driven insights. By taking a cloud-first approach to enterprise applications, IT organizations free themselves up from repetitive implementation, configuration, and maintenance tasks to allow time for innovation efforts trained at promoting value for the business.
