As many organisations discovered earlier this year, the cloud is a valuable tool for remote workforces. With continued lockdowns in various parts of the world, and uncertainty over when life might return to something more similar to the pre-pandemic normal, more and more businesses are looking to cloud computing to help them navigate this period.
It is perhaps unsurprising that Gartner is predicting global spending on cloud computing will increase significantly in 2021.
According to the tech analyst, global spend on cloud computing is expected to increase by 18.4 per cent in 2021 to reach a total value of $304.9 billion next year.
In addition, the research found that spending on cloud computing is expected to account for 14.2 per cent of global IT budgets to 2024, a significant leap from the 9.1 per cent recorded in 2020.
Research vice president at Gartner Sid Nag commented: “The pandemic validated cloud’s value proposition.”
He added: “The ability to use on-demand, scalable cloud models to achieve cost efficiency and business continuity is providing the impetus for organisations to rapidly accelerate their digital business transformation plans.”
The research carried out by Gartner also revealed that the pandemic has had a direct impact on the level of spending organisations are putting into cloud computing, with 70 per cent of those surveyed revealing they will spend more on the cloud as a direct result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
While large and established organisations might be pivoting to make better use of the cloud and to install systems that work across their companies, startups have been making good use of the benefits the cloud offers for some time.
An article for e27 recently noted that startups already have one of the most sought after qualities in a business at present – agility – and they are using the cloud to help them take advantage of this and leverage the opportunities that come their way.
It’s not only businesses that are embracing the cloud and digital services generally, but consumers too. That means companies need to find the most cost-effective and efficient way of providing seamless services to their customers, and often cloud computing allows them to do just that.
Again, this is an area that startups have already mastered, innovating with cloud technologies to provide the best possible experiences for their customers online.
Whatever stage your business is at, whether an agile startup or a more established company, it’s clear that cloud computing offers many benefits that can’t be ignored in this post-pandemic world.
Introducing this technology to an existing organisation and rolling it out across multiple functions and teams can be challenging, which is why it’s so important to work closely with professionals who deliver cloud application integration in London and elsewhere to ensure you get the most out of this technology.
As the Gartner research found, the cloud providers themselves are also innovating, with many forming partnerships with telecommunications companies to “extend their reach into the edge and support a hybrid workforce”.
These kinds of partnerships are also expected to result in further cloud computing market growth in the coming three to four years, the organisation asserted.
