We live in a world where digital innovations and transformations are the keys to a successful organization. If a company or business wishes to remain competitive and profitable, there’s a need to be open to digital transformation and digital innovation. It’s out with the old, and in with the new, and the best way to deliver the new is through cloud computing.
The cloud offers on-demand services that can be modified based on business needs and demands. It allows you to execute new ways to engage users and bring new products and services to the forefront in minutes not months
Worldwide Public Cloud Service Revenue Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars) **Source Gartner
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| Cloud Business Process Services (BPaaS) | 45.8 | 49.3 | 53.1 | 57.0 | 61.1 |
| Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS) | 15.6 | 19.0 | 23.0 | 27.5 | 31.8 |
| Cloud Application Services (SaaS) | 80.0 | 94.8 | 110.5 | 126.7 | 143.7 |
| Cloud Management and Security Services | 10.5 | 12.2 | 14.1 | 16.0 | 17.9 |
| Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS) | 30.5 | 38.9 | 49.1 | 61.9 | 76.6 |
| Total Market | 182.4 | 214.3 | 249.8 | 289.1 | 331.2 |
Example: Digital Image Extract
Digital Image extract uses cloud technologies in an innovative way. Its a perfect example of using cloud for innovation. There are many solutions out there extracting data from images, but this make the complete process so easy.
Cloud computing, digital transformation, and innovation
To put everything in perspective, you need to understand what these 3 things mean and how they correlate with each other. Cloud computing is using hardware and software to offer a service that can be accessed from any location and device over the Internet. Examples include social media, online schooling, or bill pay services. Digital innovation and transformation use these digital technologies to implement new technological strategies and to improve and add value to their business and customer interactions. This results in an increase in revenue, better customer experiences, and cost-reductions.
Cloud technologies speed up innovation
Through the use of cloud computing, innovations can be completed faster and more cost-effectively. How? By using cloud computing resources such as SaaS(Software as a service) you can instantly collaborate with a large number of individuals through project rooms that you set up online and everything is instantly ready to go and accessible from any location. It’s a cost-effective way to share ideas because you are not bound by any service agreements or contracts so you can cancel or close out your SaaS account at any time.
If you want to test out an idea or service you can use an IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) and have a highly scalable, virtual development machine set up and ready to go. This eliminates having to set up complex infrastructures to build, test, and execute apps.
Variety of technologies available
There are a variety of cloud computing technologies available to you and the right combination can be created quickly depending on the needs of your business. Here are the categories that these technologies fall under:
- BPaaS – form of business process outsourcing (BPO) that employs a cloud computing service model. Whereas the aim of traditional BPO is to reduce labor costs, BPaaS reduces labor count through increased automation, thereby cutting costs in the process *
- PaaS– Platforms as a service- application platform, integration, business process management, and database services.
- SaaS– Software as a service-eliminates the need to install software on your servers.
- IaaS– Infrastructure as a service-storage and networking capabilities available on-demand
Challenges faced by cloud computing
Sometimes a business has to revamp its ways to incorporate cloud computing into the business model. Small and medium-sized businesses tend to lack the resources or the ability to obtain cost-effective resources to keep up with the advancement of digital technologies. Not every business can afford to employ cloud specialists to work with their IT team. The solution is to use developing tools to monitor the usage of resources and perform backup when specified.
The bottom line is that if you want to keep up with the competition, you need to embrace transformation and innovation through the cloud. You have automatic updates, rapid deployment, agility, data backups at your disposal through the use of the cloud.
