Hesitating to embrace the Cloud? These insights may change your mind

Digitalization almost always means tapping into cloud computing, but what if your organization is still doubtful? Check out these insights…

Is your organization still in doubt about how cloud computing can be a springboard to digitalization?

At a recent event by Amazon Web Services, participants were exposed to the broadening array of ways that businesses had tapped into cloud services to weather the months of pandemic-driven business chaos.

The cloud allows people to use only the services they need, such as data storage, networking, databases and the like. By removing considerations about geographical location, cloud services allow users to run applications and exchange information over the internet anytime and anywhere with a broadband connection.

Here are some basic tips and strategies gleaned from the event that may help organizations hesitant or skeptical to cloudify some or all of their operations:

• The moderator of the event, Tan Lee Chew, Managing Director (ASEAN), Worldwide Public Sector, AWS, offered her views on the first-hand value of cloud and digital transformation: “it allowed governments to quickly set up services, reach millions of citizens, enable remote learning and remote work.”
  
  With the cloud, organizations are able to provide “the right infrastructure and solutions in the region for the public sector and organizations to achieve their transformation goals.” With that in mind, Tan announced AWS’ plan to make ‘AWS Outposts’ available in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
  
• For his part, AWS’ Max Peterson, Vice President of International Sales of Worldwide Public Sector, encapsulated what is expected from AWS: “It can help you transform your tech stack, deliver modern services and ultimately improve the way you serve your mission, your customers, your constituents and your students.”
  
  He reiterated four key principles to ensure that ideal user experience: “Move fast, have an agile platform, keep innovating and think big.” As an example, he cited the Selangor state government of Malaysia being able to quickly pivot and deliver new and important services specifically tailored to address the challenges posed by the pandemic.
  To better elucidate the Selangor vision of turning into a smart regional state by 2025: the Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU), a state government owned company, first began working with AWS in 2018. The SSDU created the “Citizens Electronic Payments Platform” to help citizens access paid government services through a central mobile and web portal.
  
  According to Dr Mohammad Fahmi Ngah, Managing Director, Smart Selangor Delivery Unit Innovations Sdn Bhd (SSDU), Cloud computing has helped SSDU to rapidly scale app development more efficiently, and also provided frameworks and policies to ensure digital security and privacy. This year, that collaboration and speed enabled SSDU to introduce new solutions and pilots with little investment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• To cite another example of a country in need of world-class technological solutions when the pandemic struck, let us not forget India, which has chalked up over 9 million infections and more than 132,000 deaths. The country’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is a government agency devoted to research and development, focused on strengthening national technology capabilities and developing world-class solutions to serve their citizens.
  
  When faced with the COVID-19 pandemic and a critical need for patient-to-doctor telemedicine solutions, C-DAC was tasked with developing a central platform for India’s entire healthcare delivery system.  Dr. Sanjay Sood, Associate Director for health informatics at C-DAC, was quoted at the event on how the Cloud helped them scale quickly and address security concerns, as well as train staff to manage the day-to-day operations, to help all citizens get access to quality medical care.

Regardless of how well any organization had been doing before the pandemic, or how well their existing level of digitalization had weathered the challenges this year, the insights above may be useful to illustrate the myriad ways that embracing cloud computing can create better outcomes.