Growth of Cloud Computing since Covid 19 - Amit Gupta, CEO & Founder, Rapyder Cloud Solutions

The year 2020 will be touted as the golden year for cloud computing. Covid-19 has made tech infrastructure companies find innovative ways to meet the accelerated demand for cloud-based offerings.

A number of existing factors have that's known to drive cloud transitions now seem to have accelerated because of the Covid-19 crisis. Cloud spending has increased to 37% in the past one year. This trend is here to stay as the world is more towards virtual work. Despite lockdowns in various parts of the world, cloud spending has been estimated to rise by 19% by the end of this year, according to a research by Gartner.

In 2020, the Cloud Computing industry was valued at $371.4 Billion and is now estimated to reach a whopping $832.1 Billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 17.5%.

How is Cloud Computing helping businesses stay connected?

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, digital business transformation has entered a challenging phase. The sudden shutdown of offices, schools, SMEs have increased the demand for cloud services. 

1. Enabling remote workforce

With governments worldwide enforcing lockdown, there has been a steep increase in use of video conferencing tools and virtual meeting software. This has led to a massive spike in demand for internet bandwidth. In such cases, cloud computing has been a savior since it is easy to handle the unexpected spikes in bandwidth usage in a cloud computing scenario.

2. Provides easy access to online data backup

In many industries such as healthcare and finance, data is the primary asset. Managing and storage of data can be expensive when on-premise servers are chosen. In such scenarios, cloud computing is the best option since it provides access to online data backup and the scalability is high. But one must thoroughly assess security risks involved and tackle them efficiently to avoid data loss or data leak.

3. Enabling team collaboration

Business collaboration earlier involved face-to-face interaction. These interactions were critical in ensuring business objectives were met by large teams. With Covid-19 pandemic forcing millions of workers to work remotely, organizations are struggling to create the same office environment and engagement between team members. Cloud helps increase efficiency and also enhances productivity. It allows individuals to share or edit projects in real-time working from different locations and allows the teams to stay connected. It is easier to provide latest information, updates, developments of the project when organizations are working on a cloud environment. It also allows control over who has access to information ensuring information security.

Global Shift Toward Cloud Computing

In addition to pandemic, the shift to cloud has been a long awaited one. Flexible consumption models like “Everything or Anything as a Service” (XaaS) have become increasingly popular. Cloud computing has enabled strategic shifts for many organizations across industries. With five times more growth forecast for cloud computing models by 2025, organizations opting for these cloud-driven shifts can definitely see more aggregation at lower costs, greater financial predictability and enhanced customer and team collaborations. 

Cloud Migration Strategy

Cloud adoption has been moving at rapid speed and it is important for organizations to keep up with the pace and ensure information security is applied. Enterprises must understand that cloud migration is not just about moving to cloud. It is continuous reinvention to check for ways to achieve cost efficiency as well as create new opportunities. It is critical to follow a well-planned approach and adopt cloud migration in a phased manner so that business stays uninterrupted. 

As enterprises move towards cloud migration, cost duplication must be kept in check since organizations pay for both cloud and legacy systems as well as cloud synchronization costs must be added too. Many key players provide cost effective cloud environments which helps organizations achieve cost efficiency.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the key players in the cloud market. Amazon provides cloud computing services to enterprises and SMEs worldwide. AWS for the longest time has focused on scalable, reliable cloud services and is in the forefront to provide leading cloud services like analytics and machine learning to its customers. 

The cloud is now more than just an efficient storage option. Cloud as a platform generates data and provides innovative solutions to leverage that data. More businesses are opting for cloud to drive innovation, become more agile and save money. Enabling cloud computing has become a necessity for smooth functioning of the organization than a luxury. It's no more the question of choice.

Cloud computing is now very much at the center of any organization's strategy and that's a trend which is here to stay despite steepest economic contraction.