Change is the new normal. It’s why so many organizations are reimagining their businesses and migrating systems and applications to the cloud. And they’re doing it while their industries and business are in flux. It’s akin to a ship rebuilding its engine and retraining its crew, while somehow trying to maintain its speed and course through a ferocious storm.
But it’s worth the effort.
Our global survey of about 4,000 global business and IT leaders found nearly 65% of respondents saw up to 10% in cost savings, on average, from moving to the cloud. But that’s just one upshot. A small subset of the companies we surveyed—about 12-15% of respondents depending on region—are seeing substantial gains from their continued cloud engagement. They’re benefitting even amidst global disruptions because they recognize the cloud as a launchpad for innovating and new ways of operating.
When organizations build on cloud’s capabilities, they’ll discover opportunities and options for meeting the ever-changing needs of the business. Organizations working in this Cloud Continuum create a technology foundation that will serve them now and well into the future.
We call these companies Continuum Competitors because they are using cloud not just as a single, static destination, but as a future operating model.
They’re transforming how they interact with customers, partners and employees; how they make and market their products and services; how they build and operate their IT systems; and they’re reimagining the role of data and compute.
Critically, this approach allows them to outpace their peers on many fronts. Continuum Competitors see 1.2x-2.7x greater cost reduction than migration players, and are also:
2-3x more likely to innovate and re-engineer knowledge work
3x more likely to use cloud for at least two sustainability goals, such as using green energy sources, architecting for lower power consumption and utilizing servers better for a lower energy footprint
Continuum Competitors secure their advantageous position in two ways. First, they choose the right types of cloud and cloud-based services. Second, they implement advanced practices to leverage those technologies.
This enables them to reimagine and reinvent their business altogether through continuous innovation, powered by various types of cloud capabilities that operate seamlessly across the Continuum.
The choices you make, along with the speed and proficiency of execution, will dictate whether you lead or follow in the next three to five years.
Migration is challenging enough on its own. There are complex legacy systems to navigate. Changing business and operating models. Evolving architectures, applications and data. Reskilling your workforce. Complying with regulations. There’s also the fear of lost or compromised data.
But this all speaks to widespread misunderstanding of the long-term value of being in cloud.
Those that are advancing their cloud engagements are leading—and even shaping—their industry transformations and pulling farther ahead of their competitors. What’s more, our research shows that organizations don’t have to be so-called digital natives to move quickly and effectively in this space. For instance, 3M, Starbucks and Roche are all Continuum Competitors.
These challenges keep organizations from rapidly expanding cloud adoption and leveraging the Continuum.
First, acknowledge that there’s more to the cloud than savings. The nature of the Cloud Continuum is that speed and change are its fundamental facets. Agile practices that can harness the continual improvements and expansion of cloud capabilities are crucial.
With that in mind, here are the four keys to Continuum success:
Know where you want to go
Establish cloud practices to augment your technologies
Accelerate innovation to deliver exceptional experiences
Keep commiting to strategy
In 2017 Siemens AG created MindSphere, a cloud-based operating system built on native AWS technologies. It can process data, in real-time, from thousands or even millions of devices and sensors in plants, systems, machinery and products dispersed throughout production processes and supply chains.
MindSphere was deployed that same year at Siemens’s own factory in Monterrey, Mexico, which manufactures more than 28 million circuit breakers and switches a year. The factory was finding it difficult to monitor the overall efficiency of equipment, including unplanned downtimes and uneven quality of production.
By connecting the factory to cloud, workers were able to view problems such as a malfunctioning machine, in real-time, and make immediate improvements.
By 2018, Siemens made MindSphere available on Microsoft Azure, which enabled a bigger base of customers to achieve quick time-to-value and scale across the enterprise.
Today, Siemens offers a range of multi-cloud based solutions to customers in many other industries to realize greater efficiency and cost savings from their machines and processes.
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