Chapter IV: how cloud adoption lets untethered enterprises soar

For new-generation enterprises that are not weighed down by legacy or non-cloud tech debt, the ‘Cloud First’ or ‘Cloud Only’ approach has been easy to adopt. In multiple high-customer interaction industries such as retail, fintech, and logistics, this approach has allowed younger, nimbler firms to take a lead over older, bigger traditional rivals that are weighed down by legacy technology debt, though the latter are evolving to remain competitive.

To bridge the gap with legacy systems, some companies are rationalizing their application portfolio by modernizing and rehosting the applications wherever possible. To improve operations, they are building cloud-native products as bolt-ons to existing enterprise apps. Among the cloud service options, Software as-a-Service (SaaS) continues to be the most preferred deployment option among Indian organizations, thanks to the flexibility and affordability of subscription-based offerings and centrally located remote cloud networks. Organizations with legacy technologies are, therefore, adopting cloud native products to modernize business and technology functions as well as make processes and operations more agile. Similarly, with IaaS, they are exiting data centers and may go for wider infrastructure modernization, especially in compute and networks. With cloud-based data technologies such as data lakes and AI platforms, companies are tapping data strategically to get insights. 

Apart from SaaS, IaaS and Product as-a-Service (PaaS), companies are even moving toward Environment as a Service (EaaS) offerings. EaaS essentially extends IaaS, SaaS, codes, and configuration into the application and accelerates overall development and marketing.

While many firms are using vertical clouds with sector-specific platforms to avoid customizing legacy systems and applications, big enterprises with legacy technology debt are finding their own solutions with the help of OEMs and others to transition to cloud with the least pain. OEMs’ Plug-and-play and No-Code/Low-Code modules are helping big traditional enterprises add cloud-based functionalities rapidly. 

Technologies on the rise

Modern digital architecture, once a remote IT function, is now under the spotlight as enterprises, both big and small, remodel their business processes, keeping flexibility and future tech requirements in mind. Organizations are also using APIs to offer customer-facing services while maintaining the core operations within their own networks as they plan cloud migration. However, the coming year will see another trend accelerate — entire data operations and analyzes moving to the cloud. 

As the overall quantum and specifications of cloud demand increase, there are some cloud-related technologies that are gaining popularity among traditional companies.  

Data meshes: In-house data warehouses will increasingly be replaced by cloud data meshes and fabrics that are scalable, cost-effective and, above all, offer far great computing power than legacy systems. 

Cloud data analysis can access the computing power of AI/ML systems running on banks of powerful chips (Graphical Processing Units or GPUs), unlike legacy data warehouses that largely depend on the more mainstream and cheaper, but also less powerful CPUs.  

FinOps: Poorly managed cloud resources may result in the cloud budget shooting up, which could prevent cloud adoption. Cloud Financial Operations (FinOps) is a new trend that helps to control and govern cloud spending and assists businesses in better planning, budgeting, and forecasting. It provides insights into cloud allocation, monitoring, and optimizing cloud spend.  

Spatial Cloud: With the metaverse gaining momentum, AR, VR, and MR technologies are fast improving and driving spatial computing. More industries are exploring spatial computing that is now migrating to the cloud.  

The article was first published on ETCIO