When it comes to the direction of your business, the question is no longer “Should we move to cloud computing?” but rather “What’s next in this journey?”

Before diving into that, it’s important to understand that cloud computing isn’t a destination or just a technology. Thinking of it that way is like saying once you get married, you’ll live happily ever after. If you’re still “single,” now is the time to ask those who are “married” what to expect and how to prepare for the future.

According to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), cloud computing has five key characteristics:

1. On-demand self-service
2. Ubiquitous network access
3. Rapid elasticity
4. Resource pooling
5. Measured service
   
   

With that in mind, let’s explore the cloud-everywhere approach.

Understanding the Economics

To understand your industry’s economics, your company needs to establish programs, processes, and technical systems to holistically monitor and track costs across both public and private infrastructures.

In a 2020 survey, IT professionals said they were likely to increase their cloud spending by almost 50%, yet many struggled to accurately forecast that spending—resulting in wasted budgets.

Antonio Neri, President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), highlighted that running workloads on-premises instead of in the public cloud can yield savings of up to 50%. Many companies realize that at production scale, keeping workloads and data on-premises is often more cost-effective.

“Now, customers are becoming more intelligent about this. And that’s why when you show them the math, it becomes clear that in some cases they can save 20%, 30%, 40%, even 50%,” said Neri.

With the right data and insights, your business can make informed decisions about which applications to move back on-premises based on performance, cost, and requirements.

The Data Factor: Gravity and Speed

Another major consideration is data—specifically, how it moves. AI and machine learning have improved processing speeds, but scaling compute power to the edge requires formalized processes involving people, technology, and systems.

While data isn’t physical, it has “weight,” making it hard to move easily—a concept known as data gravity. The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that worldwide data will grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025.

So ask yourself: How much of your company’s data is truly secured and properly managed?

Cloud-first strategies are often more about supporting applications than supporting data. In many cases, the data associated with an application is minimal and easy to move. However, when large volumes of data are generated in operational sites, migrating it elsewhere—cloud or not—can be impractical and expensive.

Lin Nease, HPE Fellow and Chief Technologist, pointed out that as data gravity shifts, organizations will need full IT capabilities at the edge.

“Over time, we will come to regard IT less as an organisation and more as a set of processes, skills, and technologies. Every line of business will have IT-like capabilities,” he added.

Hybrid Cloud: The Best of Both Worlds

Improving your business doesn’t mean choosing between on-premises and cloud. You can have the best of both through hybrid and as-a-service models.

To make this possible, evolve your on-prem operations with:

1. Microservices

2. Automation

3. Modern applications that manage availability and failover

One solution is Microsoft Azure Stack HCI—a hyper-converged infrastructure that hosts Windows and Linux workloads in a hybrid environment. It combines on-premises infrastructure with Azure cloud services.

It offers security, high performance, efficient storage, and scalability—all while giving you cloud benefits with on-prem control.

Real-World Example

Think of companies like Lazada or Shopee during mega sale events like 11.11 (November 11). These events spike traffic dramatically. While they empower the local e-commerce ecosystem, they also demand robust infrastructure that can scale on demand.

Hybrid cloud allows companies to handle this kind of temporary high-load situation seamlessly.

Looking Forward

Achieving the cloud-everywhere vision isn’t easy. But with the support of global consultants and hybrid solutions, you can accelerate your journey while empowering your team with new tools, processes, and skills.

The bottom line? Moving to the cloud isn’t a one-way street. With platforms like HPE GreenLake and expertise from Cloudify.Asia, your business can adopt a flexible cloud strategy that suits both your technical and financial needs.

Cloud isn’t a place—it’s an operating model. And a smart, application-centric strategy will bring long-term business value.