Digitisation is a driving priority for business leaders worldwide, whether in insurance, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, education—or any other industry. And over the last decade and more, cloud has proved to be vital in realising digital transformation agendas.
Today, as the world transitions into our post-pandemic reality, it’s clear that cloud continues to be instrumental in helping businesses accelerate digital strategies. Many organisations now realise cloud is a critical component within their overall technology portfolio.
The benefits of cloud
It’s the cloud’s inherent properties, such as elasticity, scalability, and high availability, that have made it so attractive for businesses. Organisations looking to bolster their resiliency find the high availability of the cloud very beneficial, as well as the ability to create backup and disaster recovery solutions in simpler and lower-cost ways than is possible on-premises.
In the early days of cloud computing, business leaders may have worried about the security of cloud resources. Today however, the major cloud providers offer a path that enables organisations to provide greater protection across both cloud and on-premises environments through robust security and threat detection services.
Resiliency and security are just two of the benefits that cloud brings. There are others too, from sustainability to accelerated time to market, to modernisation and innovation—many more than we have space to cover here.
SXiQ has been entrusted by some of Australia’s largest & best-known brands to deliver their most complex and critical cloud migration and modernisation programs; under extreme time pressure, with significant business demands and market exposure. As a trusted partner of the large OEM cloud providers, we understand and adopt their key support frameworks and architectural patterns, whilst maintaining an agnostic and customer first focus.
SXiQ has a proven track record in transforming legacy IT organisations into modern, “cloud-first” DevSecOps teams which can improve operations, accelerate innovation and reduce operating costs through automation and FinOps.
Paths to migrate or modernise or both
Getting started with cloud is all about migration and modernisation. The two approaches are closely interrelated: migrations provide the foundation for elastic, scalable, and secure infrastructure, while modernisation utilises that foundation to innovate legacy applications to be more agile or offer richer user experiences. The big question for many organisations is, “Where do we start?”
One of the noteworthy advantages of working with SXiQ is that it allows you to move to the cloud and execute your migration and modernisation initiatives at the pace that makes sense for your business. SXiQ solutions for hybrid estates enable IT teams to manage mixed estates of on-premises and cloud resources more easily, applying consistent management and governance controls across both. That flexibility permits you to maintain some resources on-premises, even as you move other resources to the cloud, without extra complexity.
Simplifying the management of diverse IT environments is more important than ever in today’s digital world. A recent Flexera “State of the Cloud Report” notes that 82 percent of enterprises today have a hybrid cloud strategy and 92 percent have multicloud strategies. At SXiQ, we support the need for flexibility so you can have the agility and innovation of the cloud in your on-premises environments for a holistic, seamless, and secure approach that’s consistent across on-premises and cloud resources.
Expand your cloud value
Once in the cloud, you’ll be able to take advantage of numerous opportunities to increase the value of your initial investment. Just as application modernisation can follow (or integrate with) your earliest migration, there are other ways to use the cloud to advance your digital goals.
For example, you might build on your new cloud infrastructure to modernise your data estate. SXiQ’s data and analytics services help you unify data from multiple sources so that you can get richer and more actionable business insights from your data.
The benefits of using data as a strategic asset are significant. A 2020 Harvard Business Review study found that organisations that embrace data to drive digital transformation experience:
Source: How to Lead a Data-Driven Digital Transformation, Harvard Business Review
You can also choose to explore a number of other opportunities, such as:
- Using cloud to accelerate innovation
- Increasing security and compliance
- Driving consistency across hybrid IT estates
- Optimising IT spend through cloud cost optimisation
Cloud is transforming industries
Cloud-enabled digital transformation is happening across industries worldwide. Many organisations are already using cloud to address their most pressing business challenges. Let’s look at a small sample to see what’s possible.
In Insurance, evolving consumer behaviours are prompting organisations to focus on better understanding their customers, to serve their needs more effectively, and ultimately, delivering smarter, more innovative services.
For example, a leading Australian health insurer has chosen to partner with SXiQ on an ambitious program of work to migrate and modernise 300+ datacentre-based applications to the cloud within the next 3 years, as part of their strategic Cloud Modernisation program. By implementing an agile, cloud-optimising way of work, this health insurer will have the ability to pivot rapidly to meet customer demands and market trends and to innovate more quickly with greater productivity.
Within Manufacturing, cloud is also helping companies become more agile, innovative, and competitive to attract and retain both customers and the next generation of workers.
For example, Bega Cheese partnered with SXiQ to migrate and modernise mission-critical applications, databases and associated backups following their A$560m acquisition of Lion Dairy & Drinks. This created a significantly improved position to enable highly automated cloud platforms for the Bega Cheese business which will accelerate innovation cycles, grow a cloud DevSecOps operating model for Bega Cheese IT and deliver rapid results with better outcomes.
Cloud is helping Financial Services companies protect against growing threats like cyber and financial crime while increasing agility through modernisation of aging financial systems.
And in the Healthcare and Education industries, cloud has allowed organisations to accelerate digitisation to support the rise in virtual healthcare and remote learning, enabling both end-users and providers to interact virtually and access vital data while securing sensitive information.
Get started today
SXiQ provides comprehensive resources and guidance to make planning and executing your cloud migration and modernisation strategy easier. Talk to us about your cloud vision and let us help you get started.
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