Vertical Cloud - for Resilient Businesses
Cloud has enabled businesses to become more agile and efficient by providing opportunities for automation. Cloud providers are now going a step further and providing industry-specific solutions, that are further allowing cloud adoption and digital differentiation for organizations. This new and modular approach to cloud computing has been dubbed Vertical Cloud, as solutions can be added over existing cloud capabilities to enhance functionality. These solutions are focusing on industry-specific use cases, making them adept at handling challenges unique to an industry or business. Vertical Cloud is likely to become the way to do business in the coming years.
So how can Vertical Cloud help make businesses resilient?
Differentiation
The reality of a competitive market is that your business has a lot in common with other companies in the same space. What sets you apart is a small portion of your products, services, or processes. Home-grown codes or technologies are an important aspect of this differentiation and certainly worth holding on to. These are IP assets that differentiate your business and address your unique needs. These can range from invoicing systems to inventory management, or data collection and processing.
But does that mean that you should miss the benefits provided by the cloud to preserve these processes or codes? With the vertical cloud, you can get the best of both worlds.
Cloud providers today are offering the flexibility to not only run your applications in the cloud but also ways to integrate them with off-the-shelf tools or services. This allows you to choose between your existing capabilities and specific cloud solutions, and pick what suits your business. So, if your in-house solution is better than off-the-shelf, then you can choose to stick with it. But if you are in a market with digital natives and your solution cannot meet all the requirements to compete, then you can choose an off-the-shelf industry API.
Organizations need to assess their process inventory and then decide which workflows need cloud-based offerings. Differentiating processes need to be retained while staying updated with the latest in the market and cloud. Business decisions need to cater to current and future technology needs as IT and, specifically, Cloud will play a major role in market differentiation and success of the business.
Autonomy of Engineering Teams
Today’s organizations don’t have the luxury of time as markets demand a quick turnaround. Modern engineering has shifted from large teams working on huge multiyear projects to small teams focusing on cloud-based services that can be quickly integrated and deployed.
These teams work closely with a multidisciplinary approach involving developers, cloud engineers, data scientists, and QA experts. This collective focus on a specific issue enables faster and more effective problem-solving for businesses.
Smaller teams are also given more autonomy in the form of working on purpose-driven projects and choosing the right tools and technologies. This allows more room for creativity and innovation guided by the required security and compliance rules. It places engineering as a core creative discipline integral to business strategy and its future.
Adapt to Change
Businesses can only keep up with the competition and ever-evolving customer demands if they embrace rapid innovation. This is made possible by cloud technologies that are constantly updated with the latest tools. solutions and services. The ability to adapt to change quickly and be able to proactively respond to uncertain situations is what ensures business continuity. Capabilities like automation and predictive analytics are aimed at achieving this task. Industry-specific solutions by cloud providers are further enabling companies to have the best-in-class solutions for their specific challenges. Businesses need to manage fewer systems in-house and dedicate resources to better customer experiences.
Small Steps towards Big Change
The beauty of the vertical cloud is in the fact that companies don’t need to make sudden shifts from regular business. Depending on their cloud maturity, they can take on smaller steps and introduce the cloud to various aspects of their business in a phased manner. This incremental change gives the entire organization a chance to adapt to the new systems. These thoughtful steps will ultimately lead to a cloud-enabled business.