In an age of rapid digitalization, CEOs, CFOs and other members of the C-suite are committed to using technology to increase operational efficiency, improve customer experiences and drive revenues. More than 75 percent of executives surveyed for the Forbes 2021 CxO Growth Survey said they plan to “double down” on technology investments over the next two years.

As part of their digital transformation efforts, organizations of all shapes and sizes are embracing technologies that allow them to analyze massive data sets in order to gain market insights, optimize operations and create personalized customer experiences.

Storage has always been one of the more logical use cases for the cloud — it provides a cost-efficient and easily accessible environment with almost infinite scalability. The benefits have been particularly pronounced during the pandemic, allowing companies to ensure their mobile and remote employees can get the files they need, whenever and wherever they need them.

Agility is a critical competitive advantage that small to midsize businesses (SMBs) have over larger enterprises. SMBs typically can respond rapidly to changing demands and market conditions and fine-tune processes on the fly to enhance the customer experience.

As we discussed in a previous post, there remains widespread confusion about the cloud’s “shared responsibility” security model. Major cloud service providers such as Microsoft and Google have strong measures in place to protect their platforms, but their customers are responsible for securing their data within these cloud environments.

Businesses are aggressively adopting cloud-based productivity suites to improve agility, efficiency and collaboration in a work-from-anywhere world. Two of the more popular platforms, Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s G Suite, have hundreds of millions of users.

Bloomberg analysts report that cloud computing will be the top government IT spending category over the next several years. Most government CIOs say this is a welcome development. In an age of increasing digitization, government agencies are finding it difficult to support their constituents with aging infrastructure.

While early adoption of the cloud was driven largely by a desire to reduce capital expenses and management overhead, organizations are now moving to the cloud for strategic purposes. Users can be more productive because they have the flexibility to access cloud resources, collaborate with co-workers, and serve customers from any device and location.

Early video conferencing solutions were major timesavers and money savers. Organizations no longer had to spend days or weeks planning face-to-face meetings, or pay for travel and accommodations. But those early solutions did require expensive on-premises equipment.

The rate of cloud adoption will continue to be highest among small to midsize businesses (SMBs), according to recent forecasts from Techaisle, with 57 percent of SMBs accelerating their cloud initiatives. Not only is cloud adoption increasing, but cloud strategies are becoming more advanced.