Global Cloud footprint matters during a Pandemic

When most people think about the cloud, their initial thoughts are to reduce costs and shorten their time-to-market. More experienced buyers will layer on other criteria like performance, security, compliance, workload segmentation, and how to integrate the cloud into their existing environment. Your global cloud footprint however, is an equally important consideration.
 
For example disruption to the construction industry from the coronavirus has mostly been visible on construction jobsites, with workers furloughed and deliveries delayed or even cancelled. But there are similar interruptions happening at engineering and design firms—and not all companies are able to handle the forced move to a virtual office. 
For many, key project files sit inaccessible on isolated servers. Those who have successfully migrated to the cloud say it's not a move that can happen quickly, but there are things that companies can start doing now. 
For the firms that made the investment, the current virus pandemic has been an unplanned stress test of their IT infrastructure. 
Below are seven reasons why having a global cloud footprint matters:

1.  Collaboration and Innovation can happen anywhere during this pandemic period – As modern enterprises increasingly rely on innovation to drive new market demand; their IT departments must be at the ready to support these activities wherever they occur. The cloud takes away the need for large upfront investments in hardware and provides companies the ability to spin up “start-up like” environments whenever and wherever, giving optimal flexibility to the innovative projects in your business.
2.  Bring your apps closer to your remote work force and customers – Having a flexibility to choose where your apps are delivered and where the data is stored. Whether it’s about performance, latency issues, data privacy or data sharing; as you move more and more of your own IT footprint into the cloud, you will want a provider who gives you the flexibility to decide where that footprint lives. These are decisions that should be based on the business, not dictated by your service provider. Ensure your business stays productive during the crisis with effective remote working strategies.
3. A single pane of glass management interface – The cloud continues to transform connectivity between people and businesses on a global scale. Having a standardised management interface greatly simplifies your IT operations and deployment methodologies. Think of things like your service provisioning and catalogues, alert and reporting, analytics, and support and how those feedback into your own IT department. At no other point in time has there ever been such a need for the instant availability of IT resources enabled by the cloud than during this coronavirus pandemic.
4.  Enabling a path towards a global cloud strategy – From the speed of modern business to the rapid response to COVID-19 enabling millions of people to work remotely, it’s hard to imagine a world without cloud technology. Many multi-nationals companies are still endeavouring to formulate a global cloud strategy. Evaluating and eventually selecting a global cloud provider can greatly facilitate this process and provide a framework for your global IT organization to streamline and standardize operations.
5. Standardised support with ITIL and service catalogues – Look for a standardised on-boarding and support levels that compliment your environment. If you go with the right managed cloud service provider, you should have the ability to build out your standard IT service catalogue, group your application templates, and distribute it globally with little effort.
6.  Compliance cannot be ignored during this time of pandemic – Compliance is another crucial that if not properly handled can delay or stall key business activities. You need a managed cloud service provider that is thinking about global compliance issues and enables you to deal with that in a standard way across all of the regions where you do business. With the recent spate of global furloughs, proper backup of company data may not be optimal for remote laptops, by providing a secure virtual desktop in the cloud, companies can protect sensitive information yet still enable a remote work from home scenario.
7.  Data sovereignty, privacy laws, and local regulations are real – Often times they can put a halt to your business in many regions if not properly adhered to. Choosing a cloud provider with a strong global footprint not only gives you the ability to comply with local regulations in the countries where you do business but also allows you to manage your cloud footprint from a global level, which is more efficient and cost-effective. 

Design firms aren’t the only ones benefiting from working in the cloud. As a case in point, one of our customers in ship management which was working on moving all its documents and drawings to the Cloud has just decided to accelerate their plans to do so because of the pandemic.
 
 
 At Cloudvela, we always consult thoroughly with our customers to understand the challenges they face with their current IT infrastructure so that we can help to customise the most suitable tools and build in the simplicity they need.
 
We have been helping our clients move towards flexible working and we know the best ways to help your organisation run smoothly with a remote workforce.
 
Over the years, we have developed strong relationships with global cloud infrastructure providers whose footprints consist of data centres in Singapore, Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe regions. While the expansion into these data centres has been driven primarily by customer needs, with the advent of digitalization and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, low-cost resources are not enough in leading a successful migration to the cloud. It takes a managed cloud service provider like us to help you streamline your digitalization effort and bring in the best Cloud solutions.
 
The ways we work and function in the world have forever changed and the new norm even when this pandemic episode is over will be heavily dependent on professional remote servicing with cutting edge technologies. We are ready to help you get there.

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