We believe the COVID-19 Pandemic has changed the lives of many. These are the difficult times imposing different challenges for different segments of the population. COVID-19 leads to the largest ‘work-from-home’ experiment in history, rapidly shifting employers into remote working scenarios.
Companies across the globe like Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, and Yahoo are encouraging employees to work from home and stay safe. With the government pushing a work from home solution amidst COVID-19, are organizations and employees ready for remote working?
Honestly speaking, with every industry, process, and geography affected, remote working is a conversation which needs to be explored in-depth. The coronavirus has presented an opportunity for all of us to outmaneuver uncertainty with tangible actions and turn massive complexity into a meaningful change to improve organizations.
But to work remotely the key component required is a standardized proprietary technology like Cloud computing for easy access to resources anytime anywhere without a threat to the data. So how are organizations embracing cloud computing for the future of work?
Impact of cloud computing on remote working
COVID-19 is the catalyst for immediate implementation of a remote working environment in organizations worldwide. To establish business continuity and protect and empower your people, investing in the Cloud has become the imperative and critical need of the hour. There are many powerful tools like Google, Microsoft suite, Skype, etc. on the cloud accentuating employees’ ability to work from any remote location via virtual desktop or remote infrastructure.
With the right tools and technology, offices can easily optimize communications, processes, and workflows while making employees feel engaged, empowered and safe.
Are you sharing documents on Skype or through Google Drive? Are you constantly collaborating for meetings through Teams? Are you using Skype in business for virtual messaging? Well, these are just a few tools that can be used over Cloud to reshape your business as a quick response to these unprecedented times.
Although there are myths that the cloud is solely used for document sharing, storing and data security, trust me, it is much more than you think. The Cloud is the foundation for most workplaces, popular tools and resources, and is changing the way we communicate and collaborate.
According to RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud research – “Almost 94% of today’s businesses have adopted some aspect of the cloud into their daily operations.”
Here are a few ways how cloud computing is impacting businesses and enabling remote working in times of COVID-19:
1. It promotes team collaboration and better communication
In earlier times, employees would access software that was physically downloaded to their computers, confining them to office desks. But cloud computing has enabled them to use those programs over the internet and work from anywhere, anytime, in the comfort of their home.
To help employers implement safe practices, there are several collaborative tools on the cloud that enable workflow efficiencies. According to Craig Roth – Vice President at Gartner, Cloud computing is a “new way of working” allowing teams to work simultaneously and efficiently on in-house documents.
Rather than being bogged down by inefficient communication, heavily marked hardcopies, or pesky revisions, cloud-enabled tools make collaboration, communication, and document sharing more efficient and less arduous. Using various tools like Microsoft Teams or Skype, people can now easily communicate and work in collaboration.
2. Provides flexibility and scalability for growing businesses
One of the most valuable characteristics of the Cloud is its scalability, allowing businesses of all sizes to easily upscale or downscale as per their IT requirements. Modern cloud-based suite tools offer a myriad of business applications allowing organizations to easily rent more storage space, acquire more bandwidth, enhance functionality, speed, etc.
As your business expands or team grows you can opt to add new business tools to your cloud suite and achieve agility, scalability, and flexibility for your growing business.
3. Increases security for remote working
Cloud computing is the new normal during COVID-19 when employers are seeking new ways of working remotely without the loss of data. From increasing data security to mobile access from anywhere, the cloud allows storing files and important data more safely than by traditional means.
Cloud infrastructure is fully redundant and highly available, protecting your business from hardware failure and preventing loss by taking timely backup of all your data.
Prevent your business from hacks or data breaches with the cloud and stay updated with all the complexities the external environment may impose.
4. Fuels organizational innovation
The Cloud today boosts an organization’s ability to deal with ever-changing technology and comes with new work styles to increase productivity, further accessibility, improve resource allocation, and automate processes to support collaboration.
Although many organizations originally migrated to the cloud to reduce cost, the majority now cite “staying current in the market” as the top benefit. Whether it’s customer service, data security, payment processing, eCommerce, or back-end operations, you can now invest in the cloud to maximize your ROI and optimize cost efficiencies.
Did you know remote working has grown by 7.9% in one year, 44% over the last five years, and 91% over the last decade?
Whether you are working from home in this COVID-19 situation or partaking in freelance work, cloud computing is a foundation for new working styles beneficial for both employers and employees.
5. Reduces capital investments
Whether you are a small company or a large group, the cloud does not require any upfront investments or huge capital for resources or server installation. Contact any cloud service provider to take care of purchase, operations, infrastructure maintenance, and other costs associated at a minimal fee.
Your server space and costs can be shared by setting up cloud infrastructure thus eliminating initial hardware investment, saving money, and efficient utilization of equipment and resources.
With the surge in the use of the cloud during the coronavirus pandemic, the question is can it sustain the rush?
The rise in the cloud over the past few years has transformed many businesses, but the COVID-19 Pandemic is the true stress test for the technology. Over the past decade, many businesses across all domains have massively migrated to the cloud, but the demands of the crisis have recently seen a spike.
The new concept of moving to a remote way of working may put many organizations in a fix. Companies that are currently very fixed, immobile, and adequately equipped to cope with this challenge are facing devastating consequences for organizational productivity.
As businesses juggle with maintaining valuable customers, real-time decision-making, workforce productivity, and security – leaders must make decisions quickly to integrate virtual workspaces into the traditional office setting to address current challenges and lay a foundation for the future.
Summary
After the Pandemic –
We believe there will certainly be some quick wins which will lead to greater adoption of cloud computing by enterprises across the world. According to us, the Cloud is very much an enabler for mobility, providing the greatest level of access, flexibility, security, and productivity.
Post COVID-19, remote work will continue, if not expand, and organizations will need to implement safe and secure work-from-home environments to help protect their employees and companies from threats. Stay safe, stay home, and work remotely in this challenging situation with cloud computing. All you need is a stable internet connection and you are good to go! I think this is the best time to spend some time quality time with family without compromising the productivity outside the office.
