How can you make a success of your digital transformation using the Cloud?
Can we really still question the contribution of the cloud, and in particular the multitude of technological solutions offered by the major public cloud operators?
Yes, certainly for companies that don't want to move outside their national comfort zone and surprise their customers with innovation and speed.
No, for companies of all sizes that do business and have realised that a successful digital transformation is a promise of growth and profitability. They are already convinced of the contribution that the cloud can make to guaranteeing a new experience of access to their products and services.
If we follow the inspiration of the great navigators of the 15th century, observing what is happening east and west of its centre is always an excellent indicator to ponder when it comes to trends and opportunities.
A global study by MIT, for example, states that: " Digital maturity is synonymous with performance; and companies that have transformed digitally and compared with their industry average generate +9% more revenue per employee, are 26% more profitable, and are better valued (+12%) by financial markets".
But how can the Cloud be a major asset in achieving this digital transformation?
To understand this simply, and without getting into the obscure and deliciously exotic verbiage of our IT consultants, we need only look at the simple specifications for the Cloud:
- On-demand, self-service resources,
- Scalable,
- Virtualisation and abstraction from the physical world,
- Programmable and automatable,
- Standardisation and industrialisation of IT systems,
- Large-scale sharing of common and complex functions,
- Pay-as-you-go billing.
With this postulate, it is understood that every IT project serving the business activities of companies will be faster, less costly, less operationally risky and that 'business' applications will be able to have a scope beyond 'map and territory', while at the same time being able to cope with success (which is no longer an option) and a growing number of customers.
To understand this, we need only recall the length of projects of yesteryear, which deployed local infrastructures with the ambition of taking applications beyond borders and to the largest possible number of customers. Months, years and budgets were often underestimated.
The integrated Cloud objective: how do you ensure that you have the right approach to succeed?
Once you've heard that, all that's left to do is to explore this wonderful technological tool that is the cloud and discover all its promising and no less powerful features.
It is perhaps at this point that the project is still full of questions: How do I get started? What's the budget? What solution for power, storage and security? And why not innovate with AI and data analytics tools, or new digital experience and user journey tools?
Clearly, the Cloud providers ' platforms and the interfaces they offer are essential, but far from sufficient to build your project independently. You still need to know how to relate the physical world to the concepts: Inbound Marketing and Big Data are linked by obscure connections that only a few specialists can explain.
What's more, the Cloud is an ecosystem in its own right, and the need to bring together the different business lines, legal experts and security officers is going to become essential very quickly if the result is to be operational and comply with the ever-increasing number of requirements (RGPD, cybersecurity, etc.).
Once the project has been given the go-ahead, difficulties can arise very quickly. Unless the architect is a seasoned expert trained in the many technical and financial screens and possibilities that can be used to animate his target plan, he will have to wade through the 20,000 to 40,000 service lines offered by public cloud operators. If they become disorientated, they will need to call on the expertise offered by IT services companies.
This expertise, in addition to correctly architecting the Cloud infrastructure components and implementing them skilfully during the Build phase, will then take on its full meaning in the budgetary approach and financial optimisation that the Cloud allows through its economic commitment mechanisms.
The Operational Financial Officer or Finops is therefore a key element in managing the risks that can potentially impact a project if Cloud catalogues are not properly managed. The expert will be able to advise the customer on reserving instances in order to take advantage of savings, and/or provide informed advice on the mechanisms for allocating resources by geographical Cloud zone. Numerous options and alternatives will very quickly emerge as potential cost drivers, upwards or downwards, but more or less hidden when the I.S. is being built.
Similarly, the "Build" phase of the project, however rapid and automated it may be in the Cloud, must not overshadow the aftermath, and in particular the operational issues of the "Run" phase.
What about application availability? What about data backup? What about analysing my customer or user pathways? On these issues, the service partner will need to provide a clear answer aimed at securing each day's operation.
Ultimately, this comprehensive support, both technical and financial, can be a factor in the success of the project, which is itself one of the vectors of success for the company that is transforming itself with the Cloud.
What type of player is needed to support this transformation?
There are a number of companies operating in the Cloud today, including specialists in integration, security and development, but it is sometimes difficult to obtain end-to-end support when the subject is complex or critical.
SCC is one of the players that has clearly positioned itself in an end-to-end support approach, and with its experience in the field of infrastructures and user environments, has been able to read the Cloud offering and translate it from an operational and pragmatic point of view.
SCC's stated ambition is to provide our customers with a broad spectrum of high-level skills and expertise to support transformation projects towards the Cloud, the modernisation of data centres and the automation of system operations, as well as business projects using technologies such as IoT and artificial intelligence tools.We also support business projects using technologies such as IoT and artificial intelligence tools.
By way of example, our thirty or so Devops and Automation experts now master more than 40 technological solutions and have assisted more than 60 customers in one year with their Datacenter transformation and modernisation projects. These projects enable our customers to aggregate several Cloud platforms as well as local infrastructures, while allowing IT teams to manage and control their IT services efficiently.
Today, SCC is helping its customers to transform their IT infrastructures so that they become both a vector of productivity and a source of added value for the company's businesses.
We support our customers through the consulting, design, implementation, operation and optimisation of their infrastructures, from the desktop to the Datacenter and the Cloud. We anticipate the future to meet the most varied needs, whether they are simple, complex or innovative.
In conclusion
The advent of the cloud is certain to accelerate and boost the performance of businesses that are able to exploit the infrastructure services and innovation solutions on offer. Business IT teams need to rapidly acquire the skills they need to make proper use of Cloud Services, or risk failing to play an active part in the rapid transformation desired by the business. Costs and infrastructures will have to be matched by the cross-skilling of architects and Finops, so skills will have to be shared if this magnificent IT 3.0 tool - the Cloud - is to be successfully piloted.
Article translated from French