In today’s remote work landscape, you and your team members’ lives might look something like this. 

Get up. 

Get coffee. 

Log in to the computer – with your dog (or cat) resting nearby. 

No commute, no traffic delays. 

Attend meetings with the click of a mouse. 

Take a laundry break.  

Or not. 

Remote work has its benefits. Your employees know it. And, let's be honest, you know it too. A successful pivot to remote work in 2020 solidified the remote employee’s place in any organization. Even the NHL. This abrupt shift was possible because so many companies were in the cloud already. 

According to IDG’s 2020 Cloud Computing Survey, 81 percent of organizations worldwide have at least one application or a portion of their computing infrastructure in the cloud. Like many innovations, cloud computing essential for businesses. Enterprises can either move to the cloud or go home – and stay there. 

With even the most skeptical of skeptics moving to the cloud, migration isn’t the next step anymore. Twenty-first-century Canadian organizations are thinking about what they can do in the cloud - or what the cloud can do for them. With infinite possibilities, let’s take a closer look at how a jump to the cloud impacts your enterprise’s bottom line and what else you’ll find when you get there. 

Insight, collaboration and quality control. 

As businesses scale, so does their data. As the amount of data increases, legacy enterprises need bigger teams of analysts to collect, analyze and report on the data. These analyses and reporting are time-consuming and costly. And the risk of human error is high. 

According to Business Chief, 23 percent of Canadian business leaders want full visibility into all cloud environments while 24 percent want to control and access those environments. The good news is cloud providers aren’t just data storage centers. Many offer data analyses and reporting to deliver valuable cross-functional insights into your business. These data visualization solutions replace the work entire teams once spent months compiling. Companies like ServiceNow, offer easy-to-read, single-pane-of-glass reporting insights - allowing Canadian enterprises to identify bottlenecks and increase efficiencies. 

And because company information is stored in one place, employees can collaborate whether on-site or working remotely. Meanwhile, cloud systems store documents in a central location and a single format – reducing human error and providing a clear record of revisions. 

Disaster recovery and loss prevention.  

In the past year, many enterprises realized that no amount of planning could prepare them for every emergency. Whether it’s a storm, fire, power-outage, major data breach, lost device or global pandemic, unforeseen emergencies always lurk nearby. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan. Migrating to the cloud helps companies mitigate crises that would crush them if their data was housed onsite. The cloud protects data from natural catastrophes like floods, fires, storms and power outages. Many cloud service platforms automatically back-up data to prevent loss in the event of a disaster – from major global events to smaller problems like human error or device loss. Housing data offside frees up internal resources for more meaningful work that leads to a higher return on investment down the road. 

To make this possible even in the more remote parts of the country, Microsoft Canada announced a large cloud computing expansion at the beginning of 2020. Their Azure Availability Zones increase capacity by 1,300 percent in Azure Canada Central. Microsoft’s investment in Canadian cloud infrastructure ensures enterprises have access to a reliable system to protect their data. Even when the data must stay in Canada to comply with government regulations. 

Security 

Yes. The cloud is more secure than your on-site servers.  

Cloud service providers apply industry best practices governance and compliance procedures to ensure client data is secure and compliant with government regulations. Meanwhile, if there is a breach, security workflows alert your team quickly, automatically triage incidents based on how much they’d impact the business and addresses them accordingly. Automating cybersecurity tasks in the cloud frees up IT and security teams so they can focus on projects that help the business become more resilient. On top of that, housing sensitive data offsite reduces the risk of internal data theft. According to Salesforce.com, a “staggeringly high percentage of data thefts occur internally and are perpetrated by employees.”   

And, as mentioned above, financial institutions and healthcare providers can easily keep up with government requirements through their cloud provider.   

Cloud computing is sustainable. 

Keeping pace with competitors goes beyond the day-to-day transactions. Modern brands reflect their awareness of the world at large. According to Accenture, “migration to the public cloud can reduce CO2 emissions by 59 million tons per year.” Cloud migration helps Canadian enterprises combat climate change by reducing wastefulness at every level of the business – ultimately reducing your company’s carbon footprint. And while your customers may not care that you’re in the cloud, they’d love to know you’re helping preserve Canada’s beauty for future generations. 

The return on investment. 

Once Canadian companies dive into cost-savings in the cloud, they find it everywhere. Cloud computing creates operational efficiencies by eliminating the cost of maintaining on-site hardware, takes the guesswork out of capacity estimations and frees up the physical space used to house servers on-site. Cloud infrastructure scales with your business. Whether you’re growing and need more data storage or freeing up space by purging older data, you can quickly and easily make data storage changes through your service provider. Finally, the SaaS pay-as-you-go model increases agility and keeps Canadian enterprises on pace with the competition throughout the world. 

COVID-19 and the major global events in 2020 forced enterprises to review processes and rethink the way they do business. Enterprises that were already in the cloud and those agile enough to pivot quickly have a leg-up on companies who hesitate. With the help of companies like Salesforce.com, ServiceNow and Microsoft, Canadian enterprises are thinking big and reimagining their future state. 

If you’d like to learn more about making a smooth transition to the cloud, or building upon what you already have, we’d love to talk to you, reach out at letstalk@crossfuze.com.