Cloud enablement is a term that’s frequently used, but not always understood. There are a couple of specific elements to the concept of cloud enablement that make it distinct from other similar ideas. Here’s what you need to know about the benefits of cloud enablement.
What Is Cloud Enablement and Why Is It Important?
On its most basic level, cloud enablement is the process of making an enterprise’s networks and related applications run through the cloud. But there’s an important distinction to be made between cloud-native and cloud-enabled products. For something to be cloud-enabled, it needed to have been operating off the cloud, likely on-premise, at some point in the past. On the other hand, cloud-native means the product or service originated on the cloud.
Compensating for the inherent friction between cloud and non-cloud network deployment is a major issue for enterprises today. Financial, analytic, and security concerns make cloud enablement an important consideration for any major organization.
How Can Enterprises Benefit from Cloud Enablement?
More businesses than ever are turning to the cloud to power their essential functions. It’s estimated that under 30 percent of enterprise work and applications are now running through on-premise servers. Organizations will benefit from converting their existing on-premise infrastructure to cloud-enabled tools.
Enterprises typically have the easiest time with cloud enablement when working with a third-party provider that specializes in cloud services.
Here are a few benefits of taking this specific path for cloud enablement:
- The on-boarding process will be smooth and simplified. While it’s never easy implementing new technology at a business, altering the network configurations at a large enterprise can be a true nightmare. Many things can go wrong when doing it internally, leading to potential downtime or vulnerabilities. Employing the services of a specialized provider means you’ll have the expertise of people who have undergone the process many times. These people can predict what might go wrong and suggest fixes far faster than an internal IT department would do alone.
- Cloud enablement specialists have the most insight into what products, applications, and network architectures will work best for your enterprise. It really can’t be overstated how critical your networks are to a business’s overall function. Having poorly configured networks is like playing a game with a massive handicap: as you languish in the mud, all your competitors will be poised to excel. This doesn’t have to be the case if you get the right tools for the job. A software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) is one likely candidate for your cloud enablement architecture. This essentially allows your enterprise to run and monitor network flows from an array of sources through one protocol, thereby boosting security, control, and efficiency.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the need for enterprises, where possible, to have remote work capabilities. In order to facilitate this, organizations would be wise to prioritize cloud enablement. Furthermore, cloud enablement means companies will be able to have users connected to devices in more places than ever. Employees at work sites can connect there, as opposed to having to go various places to access critical apps and documents.
- Cloud enablement can lower costs for enterprises. For starters, organizations that work with specialized cloud enablement companies can lower server and IT department expenses. Additionally, there are more synergies and fewer bottlenecks when more applications are consolidated through cloud enablement.
Cloud enablement is an essential thing to think about for enterprises in the modern economy. Moving more workload to the cloud has myriad benefits, but it needs to be done in an intelligent way to preserve the integrity of business applications.
