Cloud Transformation with a Focus on Industry and AI – MIT Technology Review

Cloud technology has long proven its effectiveness in reducing costs, improving efficiency, and increasing productivity. However, organizations today are looking for more from the cloud than just operational benefits. Faced with an ever-changing regulatory environment, complex business environments, and rapid technological change, organizations are increasingly realizing the potential of the cloud to drive business transformation.

Cloud can transform businesses by enabling them to take advantage of AI and other emerging technologies. Global consulting firm McKinsey predicts that cloud transformation could unlock a staggering $3 trillion in value by 2030. Key value drivers range from innovation-driven growth to accelerated product development.

“As applications move to the cloud, more opportunities are opening up,” said Vinod Mamtani, vice president and general manager of Generative AI Services at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “For example, the application of AI and generative AI is profoundly transforming business.”

Cloud is no longer just a software and infrastructure upgrade; it's a powerful technology that can accelerate innovation, improve agility and support new tools. But to fully leverage cloud's competitive advantage, businesses need to demand more from their cloud transformation.

Every business operates in a unique context, so a strong cloud solution must have support for industry-specific best practices built in. And as emerging technologies drive every business, an effective cloud platform must be AI-ready and able to handle the immense impact AI will have on how organizations operate and their employees work.

Industry-specific approaches

The need for cloud transformation is clear. In today's fast-changing business environment, the cloud can help organizations improve innovation, scalability, agility, and speed while reducing the burden on time-strapped IT teams. But most organizations have not yet fully migrated to the cloud. For example, McKinsey reports a significant mismatch between leading enterprises' cloud aspirations and reality. Nearly all organizations say they want to run the majority of their applications in the cloud within 10 years, yet the average organization has migrated to only 15-20 percent of their applications today.

Cloud solutions with an industry-specific approach can help enterprises meet their business needs more easily, making cloud adoption faster, smoother and more immediate effective. “Cloud requirements can vary significantly across vertical industries due to differences in compliance requirements, data sensitivity, scalability and specific business objectives,” said Deviprasad Rambhatla, senior vice president and division head, retail services and transportation, Wipro.

For example, healthcare organizations must manage sensitive patient data while complying with strict regulations like HIPAA, so cloud solutions for this industry must ensure features like high availability, disaster recovery capabilities, and continuous access to critical patient information.

Retailers, on the other hand, are more likely to experience seasonal business fluctuations and require a more flexible cloud solution. “Cloud solutions give retailers the freedom to scale their infrastructure,” says Rambhatla. “Moreover, the ability to scale on demand ensures optimal performance and cost efficiency.”

Cloud-based applications can also be customized to meet the exact requirements of a particular industry. For retailers, this might include analytical tools that ingest vast amounts of data and generate insights that help companies better understand consumer behavior and forecast market trends.

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This content was produced by Insights, MIT Technology Review's custom content division; it was not written by MIT Technology Review's editorial staff.