McKinsey’s had produced a recent report, “The State of Cloud Computing in Europe,” revealed that many European businesses are struggling to achieve significant returns from their cloud implementations.
The report found that the benefits of cloud computing are often limited to specific areas within an organization and are not always felt beyond the IT department.
Historically, cloud computing has been primarily controlled by IT departments. This legacy can make it difficult to shift the focus beyond IT-centric benefits.
This means cloud success hinges on IT
Despite 90% of companies prioritizing cloud projects, only a third regularly discuss cloud progress at the C-Suite level.
Leaders often misunderstand that cloud adoption isn’t simply a solution to change their business. Instead, it’s about identifying necessary changes and implementing the appropriate technology.
However, the report also reveals a hybrid approach to digital infrastructure. For instance, two-thirds of companies have migrated over half of their workloads to the cloud while maintaining more than 20% of their operations on-premises.
McKinsey’s claim that cloud programs are essential for leveraging new technologies, such as generative AI, should be questioned. This perspective implies that cloud adoption is the sole determinant of technological advancement, which may be an oversimplification.
To align with BBC guidelines on brand mentions, there are alternative digital infrastructure options available. Some of these existing alternatives may surpass cloud capabilities.
Edge colocation data centers offer low-latency processing and real-time response, enabling new capabilities and revenue streams like video analytics. For industries like oil and gas or power generation, relying on cloud-centralized facilities can pose significant risks due to potential connectivity issues.
Gartner forecasts that by 2025, 75% of enterprise data processing will shift to the edge.
In Conclusion
Data strategy is not a universal solution. Each business needs to develop a tailored strategy that aligns with their IT focus on cloud and complements their operational approach to drive value from their digital infrastructure investment, regardless of the technology.
