Why 2023 is the Year of Next-Level Cloud Value

It is great to see the commitment to cloud surging. Accenture’s Cloud Outcomes Research has shown that a large majority of companies, almost nine out of ten, have increased their cloud initiatives’ scope or volume over the past two-years.

This is the right thing to do. Cloud is essential to achieve strategic business goals today and into the future. However, how do you get the most out of cloud? This is where things get more complicated.

Our research has shown that 42% of companies are actually getting all they want from their cloud journeys. This means that there is still a lot of cloud potential out there.

This is why? This is because cloud’s lowest-hanging fruits have been harvested. The remaining business-critical, more difficult, and riskier problems are harder to solve.

You can reap the greatest rewards by taking on the most risk

Here’s the catch: The highest-hanging fruits are where the most value lies. The greatest opportunity for enterprise reinvention is when you use cloud technology to transform the most important and distinguishing parts of your company.

It’s simple. Each company is unique and has its own secret sauce. It’s the combination of abilities that, when it comes down to its essence is what truly distinguishes a company from its competitors, and delivers value for its customers.

This secret sauce is also where the company has been continuously innovating over many years. They have constantly added new capabilities, improved customer experiences, and increased the complexity of the IT.

These are the most critical parts of your business and can feel the most risky and difficult to make cloud-ready. Our Cloud Outcomes survey found that nearly two-fifths of respondents said legacy application modernization is one (among many) of the biggest barriers to cloud adoption.

Learn how to learn in cloud

These barriers must be overcome. Cloud is the operating system for modern enterprises. Your future ability to innovate and collaborate, gain value, and grow is dependent on your legacy applications being there.

It is important to consider more than just migration. Migrating to modernize is the next-level cloud value. This doesn’t just apply to the technology. It is also necessary to transform the organization’s way of working. This is actually what opens up the Cloud Continuum’s potential value.

 

The modern enterprise’s operating system is cloud

 

It can be hard to learn how to do things differently. It’s likely that we all recall what college was like. No matter how smart we were at the beginning, it quickly became clear that college was quite a different experience than high school. If we want to excel and reap the benefits of the experience, we needed to learn how to learn.

Cloud is one and the same. It is important for companies to be open to learning new ways of operating and thinking in the cloud. This allows the company to fully utilize the technology to adapt, react and grow to new opportunities and risk – opening up the doors to groundbreaking innovations that could transform a company or industry.

Cloud isn’t a destination. It’s a commitment towards ever-changing possibilities.

This analogy is even more. Cloud learning is like learning. It has no end point. As the smartest people learn throughout their lives, the most successful companies also keep learning, adapting, and innovating in cloud.

Cloud is an ever-evolving technology that is rapidly becoming a mega-trend. All those new capabilities and features added each month create a flywheel effect that helps companies gain more momentum on their transformation journey.

We believe that the only way to get full cloud value is to be open to new possibilities and constant reinvention. If you stand still in such a dynamic environment, you are falling behind.

Balance long-term and shorter-term value

Good news: More than two-thirds (or more) of companies who participated in our Cloud Outcomes survey consider their cloud journeys ongoing. However, this still leaves almost a third of companies that view their cloud journeys as completed and who are risking their businesses by letting value go.

This is especially true given the weak global economic outlook and the unanticipated challenges that the business environment presents. Cloud’s agility and flexibility are crucial in this type of environment. It can be both an efficiency-driver as well as a source of new business value.

It does require balancing cost savings and business value. You can achieve more in the short term by being better prepared to handle the long-term.

This year is all about cloud value

I am confident that businesses will find the right balance as we begin the new year. Although we’ve made great strides, cloud’s true value remains to be discovered. It does require that you are willing to learn a lot of what you thought was important and to adapt your business’s operations to reap the benefits of cloud.

source https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/cloud-computing/2023-is-the-year-of-cloud-value