Discussions with hundreds of CEOs and CIOs have brought a series of myths about the cloud to light. Those companies that have not been taken in by these myths are the ones which have benefited the most from switching to the cloud, writes McKinsey.
Myth 1: The cloud only saves money for the IT department
McKinsey research shows that the aggregation of business benefits potentially disrupts IT cost efficiency in the cloud. Expenditure on application hosting for large companies is often only a fraction of the total income, sometimes less than one per cent. Even if the cloud reduces these costs by 25 percent, these are only small steps compared to the broader potential impact of the cloud.
There are more cloud initiatives that contribute to a company’s success. These include greater data transparency, faster time-to-market and above all significant innovation. The cloud improves almost every aspect of the products, services or processes of an organisation. Innovation is faster and less risky, because exploring and testing new ideas is less expensive and less time consuming. This encourages sales growth, an accelerated turnaround time of new products, the entering of new markets and an immediate response to competitive threats.
Myth 2: Working in the cloud is more expensive than working from your computer’s own storage
You will save on costs once you switch from working locally to working in the cloud. An example of this is Office365. You no longer have to invest in maintaining your own servers, software or hardware. Instead, you simply lease the necessary server capacity from cloud computing companies for a reasonable price. This is possible because providers offer their services on a large scale and distribute their capacity over multiple customers.
Leasing prices are layered according to usage. This also enables you to scale up or down as needed. If, for example, you take on additional employees (temporarily) or your company is going through a slightly difficult period, you can adapt the amount of capacity with just one phone call. But you can also save huge costs by becoming a paperless office. On average, we use about 195 kilos of paper per person per year. Money in your pocket!
Myth 3: The security that I can set up and manage on my own computer is better than security in the cloud
You still hear some people say that the cloud is unsafe. If data, files and programs are no longer stored on your own equipment, are they still safe? And if you have remote access to data, what prevents a cybercriminal getting access to your valuable information? These are the types of questions that keep many organisations from switching over to the cloud. But the cloud is actually the ideal place for security. This is because the number one concern of cloud services is to prevent third parties getting access to your data.
The measures taken by these companies to protect your data usually go far beyond those that you would take yourself. And did you know that most cases of data theft occur internally, by a company’s own employees? A study carried out by RapidScale shows that 94 per cent of surveyed companies had more data protection after they switched to the cloud. The main reason for this added protection? Encryption. This makes it much more difficult for third parties to gain access to your data. For example, construction companies such as Besix and Heijmans had to deal with large-scale data hacking last year. Construction company Heijmans narrowly avoided this. (Source: 1limburg, Tijd.be)
The key question for companies is not whether the cloud is safer in the beginning, but which measures they should take to help improve their cloud security. Companies that define the right policies and train or recruit the right talent can actually realise projects more securely in their cloud environments than on a local computer.
12Build hosts its application with AWS Amazon Web Services, the global leader in hosting services. All the data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany. By using redundant services (the duplication of critical components to prevent failure), we offer a scalable platform-as-a-service solution. In short, this configuration ensures the necessary stability in service provision and security in data preservation. It also means we can quickly expand the capacity if and when the need arises so that the accessibility and speed of the application remain assured.
Myth 4: The cloud makes IT staff superfluous
Are you one of those people who think that IT professionals will lose their jobs because of the cloud? Well, that is not the case.
IT specialists are extremely important for improving and managing the cloud. You should think just the opposite of this myth. In doing so, a problem does arise…. Huxley research suggests that IT talent isn’t there for the taking. You’ve probably heard it around you. Recruiting staff isn’t so easy anymore. Employee shortages are occurring everywhere. The demand for IT specialists is very high. In short, it is a difficult task to bring in these experts. More and more companies are focusing on training their own staff. The workload is also changing. They do not have to worry about server maintenance and lost files. This allows these specialists to focus on the things they are good at: coming up with solutions for the challenges within the organization.
Renewing software licences, manually installing updates and maintaining the technical expertise to keep your data safe. These are all part and parcel of not working in the cloud. If you decide to make the switch, these tasks will no longer be necessary. Software updates in the cloud are automatically carried out by the service provider. And that saves you time and money that you can invest in other important business.
Myth 5: There are no advantages of having e-mail in the cloud
E-mail is e-mail, right? This is true. But e-mail in the cloud offers many advantages. E-mail software itself is very complex and requires a high level of maintenance. If you send and receive your e-mails through a cloud-based solution, you can be sure that you will always be working with the latest version. And another advantage is that software updates and fixes will be installed automatically as soon as they become available. So you can rest assured.
The 12Build platform also offers benefits in terms of e-mail communication. Correspondence between general contractors and subcontractors is automatically stored, which means that important information is always at hand. The e-mails remain visible. 12Build ensures that the e-mails do not land in different mailboxes but remain conveniently available at a central location.
Myth 6: Auditing in the cloud is complicated
Data in the cloud cannot be inspected as well as when it is stored on physical servers. Right? No, that is not the case. Cloud-based solutions give auditors a quick and clear picture of their customers. If you are going to be audited (a systematic periodic inspection), you only need to enter the data once. The information will then automatically be in all the appropriate fields. And this will save an enormous amount of work. Folders, files and work documents will be carried over automatically to other years and you and your colleagues can work in them simultaneously. Auditors recognise problems more easily, enabling them to avoid errors that are common with manual data entry. According to experts, cloud solutions improve efficiency by 35 percent. If you work entirely in the cloud, efficiency will be improved by up to 50 percent.
The second part of this myth is that the cloud does not meet auditing standards. Physical inventories, the design and management of fraud risks can all be done remotely. When offices are closed, it is difficult to get access to ledgers, files and paper tenders. Auditors, or controllers, need to guard against fraud. This is really not complicated in the cloud, because it provides a secure, reliable solution for remotely accessing sensitive but critical information.
The benefits of the cloud solution of 12Build
Planning a project with WeTransfer and Excel no longer meets the demands of these times. If you want to maintain an overview and communicate properly with your customers, you should choose 12Build, the leading European cloud platform for the construction industry. You will have all your communication conveniently in one place, just like the documents you need for a project. You will have the opportunity to promote yourself the way you want to. This will enable you to attract those commissions that are best suited to you.
At 12Build we also work in the cloud. 12Build hosts its application with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the global leader in hosting services. All the data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany. By using redundant services (the duplication of critical components to prevent failure), we offer a scalable platform-as-a-service solution. In short, this configuration ensures the necessary stability in service provision and security in data preservation. It also means we can quickly expand the capacity if and when the need arises so that the accessibility and speed of the application remain assured.
