Leveraging Cloud Computing for Business Advantage

At a recent Queensland Leaders Brisbane Knowledge Workshop, Managing Director of Veracity Bill Owens spoke on how while some businesses have adopted elements of cloud computing, many were not leveraging the full benefits. Below are key insights and considerations for business leaders. 

Businesses typically employ one of three models when it comes to their cloud technologies, depending on their specific requirements and custom application needs. 

• On-Premise: All software, data and hardware are managed within a physical location, such as an office. 
• Cloud: Everything runs via the internet, with data and services hosted by external providers and accessed through a web connection. 
• Hybrid: A combination of on-premise and cloud solutions, allowing for flexible data management and system control. 

The cloud offers numerous advantages that can drive business growth and efficiency such as: 

1. Scalability and Flexibility: Easily scale resources like storage up or down based on business needs. 
2. Cost Efficiency: Reduced hardware costs and only pay for the services used. 
3. Collaboration and Productivity: Enable seamless teamwork to collaborate across locations in the same file, at the same time. 
4. Anytime, Anywhere: Enable employees the ability to work remotely. 
5. Access to Advanced Technologies: With data governance and privacy controls in hand, tap into the benefits of AI and other innovations without heavy investment. 

If you don’t have fast, reliable internet connectivity and a redundant link – forget it. Reliable commercial-grade internet connectivity is foundational for cloud environments. If your primary link goes down, do you have a secondary link in place to enable you to carry on working?  

Considering the application layer is essential to drive agility, innovation, productivity and efficiency. Common cloud apps for business environments are below with key pointers for optimisation: 

File store: Microsoft SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox 

• Design a clear taxonomy for files so you can easily find what you need, create metadata standards, limit customisations, commit culturally to a unified system (marketing doesn’t get their ‘own’ file store, sorry!), monitor performance regularly. 

Collaboration & conferencing apps: Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom 

• Upgrade to business-grade subscription to mitigate performance/glitch issues (“Bill, you’ve frozen”), optimise bandwidth usage, or buy more bandwidth, use pre-call diagnostics, ensure granular controls, apply end-to-end encryption and patch vulnerabilities to mitigate data breaches. 

Project management: Asana, Trello, Wrike 

• To streamline work processes and enhance productivity, integrate the tool into the corporate app ecosystem (e.g. with CRM, email or cloud storage (file store). Provide intuitive onboarding, templates and tutorials. Include views like Gantt charts, calendar integrations and enable notifications and reporting to ensure accountability and visibility across the board. 

Infrastructure ecosystems like Microsoft Fabric and Google Cloud’s (multi-tool) ecosystem offer integrated data analytics that unify data engineering, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence. These solutions can simplify data storage, access across multi-cloud environments, and allow for greater data management, analytics, streamlined workflows, collaboration and visualisation. 

The cloud offers many opportunities to enhance productivity, reduce costs and innovate faster. With a clear strategy, cloud computing becomes not just a technology choice but a competitive advantage. 

Please do get in touch if you’d like to continue the conversation.