There are lots of compelling reasons to move to the ‘cloud.’ Fear of getting left behind because ‘everybody’s doing it’ isn’t one of them.
The compelling reasons for moving to the cloud–that is, adopting remote data-center-based storage, applications and infrastructure–include key benefits such as predictable subscription pricing, avoiding hardware upkeep, avoiding heavy up-front capital expenditures, immediate access to software updates and better mobile and remote collaboration.
So cloud does have lots of real benefits to offer and the pace of adoption by business has been torrid over the last decade. But you shouldn’t mis-interpret that as meaning all businesses are completely in the cloud. Indeed, Microsoft, a cloud leader, recently announced only 25% of its business customers are currently in its cloud. 75% haven’t gotten there yet.
More importantly, focus inward. How could cloud-based infrastructure and software improve our business functions? Or some of our business functions? (Cloud migrations do not need to be total and do not have to happen all at once.)
In short, don’t play ‘catch up.’ (You might not be as far behind as you imagine.) Just focus on improvement and see what parts of the cloud might fit in getting there.