Maximizing your cloud investment through company culture

As businesses the world over navigate the ongoing impact of the global pandemic, many organizations have migrated to a cloud infrastructure. In fact, Techjury found that in 2020 alone, 61% of businesses migrated their workload to the cloud.

But now, as IT managers, CTOs, and the entire workforce establish a rhythm in a completely new way of working, many business leaders are looking to ensure they make the most of the considerable investment of their cloud migration.

Cloud infrastructure comes with certain challenges, but it also comes with huge scope for flexibility, better business continuity, and agility. However, without unlocking efficiencies by implementing the right processes and an effective cloud culture throughout the organization, businesses are at risk of losing out on the potential return on investment of an extensive cloud investment.

Keeping up with the cloud

In recent years, cloud technology has taken the global economy by storm. And, with the impact of the pandemic resulting in demand and further development of cloud infrastructure offerings, businesses can now make the most of the flexibility of sophisticated public, private, hybrid, and hyper-scale cloud models.

But cloud service integration goes beyond the realm of the IT department. Building and nurturing an effective cloud culture requires board-level leadership and buy-in across the entire organization.

Aligning the vision

Cloud technology allows you to link all aspects of a business efficiently and effectively. It also enables you to benefit from an unrestricted, global talent pool, opening up a whole new realm of opportunities for HR and the wider business.

However, if you don’t choose a robust solution that meets your exacting requirements, the technology can become confusing for users, causing more disarray and siloed working than before- the very things cloud technology should resolve.

Building a strong cloud culture allows your business to make the best possible choice when it comes to what your cloud infrastructure should look like. Many organizations now looking for better flexibility, efficiency, and peace of mind are opting for hybrid cloud infrastructure, as the collocated option gives them the best chance of adapting to future challenges and an evolving IT landscape.

The role of HR in embracing cloud culture

Businesses are increasingly recognizing that cloud adoption can improve business operations across the entire organization. With more opportunities for hybrid and remote working through a more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective infrastructure, every member of the team benefits from a successful cloud migration.

Embracing cloud migration means building a comprehensive plan to drive a cloud culture from the bottom up.

But, while many might leave cloud adoption to the IT team, HR professionals should play a key role in implementing change. As businesses increasingly change the way they work, more virtual working models throw up challenges such as solitude and feelings of isolation among staff, as well as burnout, as employees don’t have the tangible boundary of physically leaving the workplace.

What’s more, some may find an existing culture of presenteeism is still well ingrained, and things need to change for the workforce to accept and embrace change.

HR professionals will play a crucial role in the coming months as cloud adoption continues to increase, as technologists realize the importance of a people-centric approach to such huge change.

With HR and IT teams working side-by-side on culture change, organizations can better ensure that their core cloud investments are backed without neglecting their core values and culture.

Assessing your business needs

It’s crucial that businesses assess their unique business requirements, and make sure that their deployment decisions address these needs. Ideally, organizations should begin to cultivate a cloud culture before migrating to the cloud, but this must start from CTO-level and senior HR teams, working their way into all departments.

Molding a cloud culture before migrating to the cloud also requires in-depth involvement from HR as well as IT and senior leadership teams. With HR working alongside the CTO, businesses can assess their technology requirements alongside the key needs of their workforce, considering aspects such as talent acquisition and diversity as well as hybrid working or flexible working models.

It can be a delicate balance to reshape policies and workflows while preserving the core philosophies and drivers that initially propelled the company to success.

However, with a well-considered culture change and plans in place to nurture a more flexible, virtual workplace, HR teams and IT departments can involve every individual that comes into contact with the business (including customers) and avoid resistance to change where possible.

Going beyond the buzzword

Once a common buzzword, and a technology solution that few understood, the pandemic has taken cloud computing beyond the buzzword.

Cloud’s ability to deliver managed services that impact almost every aspect of your operations, as well as the buy-in needed from all departments means that you need at least one cloud advocate to facilitate change and encourage the workforce to foster a cloud culture with longevity.

With IT working hand in hand with HR, organizations with vocal, knowledgeable ambassadors can successfully implement a company-wide cloud culture that every stakeholder can back and benefit from for the long term.