Cloud and data-driven technologies are necessary to unlock digital innovation. Despite the ongoing crisis and the economic impact it’s had on industries across the board, cloud adoption in particular continues to rise as business and organisation leaders everywhere increasingly recognise the benefits of moving mission-critical workloads from on-premises to the cloud, as well as of leveraging emerging data-driven technologies to meet business objectives and better position themselves in changing markets. The proof is in the numbers.
In April of 2021, Gartner Inc. reported that it was forecasting worldwide public cloud end-user spending to grow 23.1% in 2021. That brings the total to $332.3 billion, up from $270 billion in 2020. Offersings that support or deliver public cloud services are therefore experiencing tremendous growth. Take Software as a Service (SaaS) for example, which remains the largest market segment, and is predicted to reach $122.6 billion in 2021.
But why now? Is this really a good time for a big change?
The reality is, the events of the last year have already kicked off or accelerated many of your digital innovation journeys, whether to accommodate a remote or hybrid workforce, to meet new demands or compliance regulations, or simply to gain valuable insights to help you make better decisions in real-time as the crisis continues to unfold. But this isn’t just about the current situation, it’s about leveraging technology to future-proof your business for long-term success and growth. With a strong cloud adoption framework behind you, you can ensure that you are on the right path for your journey.
The Journey | Start, Innovate, Continuously Improve
Unlocking your digital innovation is a journey. Step by step, taking a data-driven and cloud-powered approach will allow you to access advantages such as the ability to gain mission-critical insights, adapt to market changes, and find efficiencies and cost-savings. But the roadmap won’t look the same for everyone; every journey is unique to where you are, and where you want to go. That’s why we’ve introduced the Lixar Cloud Adoption Framework, a foundation of technology agnostic guidance and best practices expertise that is designed to support many paths to business value, at all levels of cloud maturity, whether you wish to disrupt, lead, or catch up.
Where Are You on the Cloud Maturity Scale?
Cloud maturity, as with data maturity and technology maturity in general, is a scale by which to measure how advanced your cloud capabilities are. There is no right or wrong place to be; however, the further along you are towards full cloud-enablement, the more benefits you’ll be able to take advantage of. And while there are many starting points, there may be just as many end points, depending on your business goals. In fact, the greatest advantage of full cloud-enablement is the potential to continuously improve by leveraging more and more data-driven technologies, all of which are powered by the cloud.
You may be starting at the very beginning, in the pre-cloud adoption phase, accelerating your innovation in the early cloud adoption phase, or expanding your capabilities through continuous improvement in the mature cloud adoption phase. Wherever you are, and wherever you’re going, having a strong cloud adoption framework as your foundation will help you get the most out of your digital innovation journey.
Start | Pre-Cloud Adoption Phase
If you are in the pre-cloud adoption phase, you are a non-cloud business or organization looking to set up a cloud foundation so that you can benefit from cost reductions, more efficient workflows, better security, and more. You may also be considering implementing some data and AI capabilities, which all start in the cloud. Leveraging our Lixar Cloud Adoption Framework, we’ve helped many organizations start their journeys, right from the beginning. While these projects vary in complexity, they all begin with a belief in “the art of the possible,” and the expertise to realize it.
When Transport Canada decided to optimize their time consuming and labour intensive screening process, they selected Lixar to build an AI-powered screening platform for their Pre-load Air Cargo Targeting (PACT) team. At the time, they were only in their pre-cloud adoption phase. Our team used our cloud adoption framework to build a scalable, secure, cloud-based data analytics solution that leverages AI to automate assessments and provide near real-time advanced reporting on an interactive visualization dashboard, thereby streamlining the entire PACT process.
The outcomes proved immediate value, enabling the team to:
- Save thousands of work-hours
- Leverage real-time assessments on all shipment data received
- Better support overall security outcomes
As a result, PACT now has an efficient and effective risk-based oversight program, which will contribute to a safer and more secure transportation system for all Canadians.
To learn more about this story, download the complete Transport Canada Case Summary.
Innovate | Early Cloud Adoption Phase
Businesses and organizations in the early cloud adoption phase are past the initial cloud setup, but may not yet be positioned to gain true value from it. In this case, your next steps may include migrating workloads and ingesting data into a best practices-enabled data lake. You may even be interested in custom, cloud-based web and mobile application development, disaster recovery, and infrastructure and application support. If you are particularly forward-thinking, you may also be considering future potential to innovate further with more mature data technologies. When you’re on this path to business value, adaptable and scalable solutions are a must.
One manufacturing company was looking for a solution to a very common problem these days, making their incredibly high volume of data more accessible. Being in an early cloud adoption phase, the company was looking to build on their cloud foundation, and leverage more benefits through a cloud-based data platform. We worked closely with their technical team and stakeholders to provide means to scale and ingest critical data at low latency. Ultimately, we developed and matured a program of applications and components to enable real-time big data applications.
Benefits of the solution include:
- Online access to data, on-demand
- Easy-to-use UI tools for better data interaction
- Programmatic access to data via APIs
- A foundation for future advanced analytics to allow data scientists to derive meaningful insights
Continuously Improve | Mature Cloud Adoption Phase
Once you’ve reached the mature cloud adoption phase, you’re already benefiting from advantages such as: cost-optimized infrastructure, governance, data science, and cloud-native applications. But your journey isn’t over yet, because now that you are fully cloud-enabled, you’ve provided yourself with a strong foundation with which to continuously improve. This is where you get to realize your full potential to drive innovation, leverage leading-edge technology, expand your capabilities, and grow.
We’ve had the pleasure of working with a cloud-mature, major Canadian airline that required a mission-critical solution that would help them maintain compliance with new and changing regulations. Leveraging both our cloud adoption framework and our award-winning HeroPath data platform, we worked with their teams to deliver a cloud-based, advanced data analytics solution, with strong ingestion and transformation capabilities, scalability, and interactive visualization dashboards that are accessible to users participating in critical compliance-related processes. It provides users with the data they require, in near real-time, helping them do their jobs quicker and more effectively.
The benefits provided immediate value, by:
- Helping to mitigate costs associated with non-compliance
- Optimizing critical processes
- Helping to ensure compliance
- Offering scalability and flexibility for the future
- Providing near real-time data for always up-to-date analytics
- Helping people be more efficient in their work
The project is demonstrated proof of how investing in a strong cloud adoption framework enables even the most technologically mature businesses to continue innovating, improving, and meeting changing business outcomes.
To learn more about this story, download the complete Canadian Airline Case Summary.
Conclusion
Your business’s future depends on the choices you make in the present. As cloud and data-driven technologies continue to gain popularity in the mainstream, it becomes increasingly necessary to take stock of where you are, where you want to be, and what’s stopping you from getting there. Your digital innovation journey starts with you, and we’re here to help. We meet you where you are, and help you build a roadmap that’s right for you.
Ready to take the next step in your journey? Learn more about our Cloud Adoption Framework, our award-winning data platform, HeroPath, or reach out to start a conversation with our experts, today.