Cloud services help adapt and respond to COVID-19 challenges

38 percent of businesses have scaled infrastructure to meet new levels of demand during the lockdown period (March-June), highlighting how the pandemic has accelerated businesses’ digital transformation plans, according to Aptum.

The findings also demonstrate that organizations that adopted cloud technologies prior to the pandemic have been best positioned to deal with the unprecedented crisis, as they have been able to meet demand and deliver critical services to their customers (48 percent).

The study surveyed 400 senior IT professionals in the US, Canada and UK across industries in financial services, IT, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public and commercial sectors. Additional results revealed business leaders are confident in their company’s business continuity during COVID-19 due to managed cloud services.

Key findings

• 38 percent of respondents have scaled infrastructure to new levels of demand, in order to control costs.
• 48 percent of businesses have adopted cloud solutions to provide end-customers with critical services.
• 76 percent of organizations are utilizing cloud services including Microsoft Office 365 to facilitate remote working, in response to COVID-19.
• 92 percent of business leaders are confident in their company’s business continuity throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

“Managed cloud services provide business leaders with the confidence to maintain and adapt their business strategies. The pandemic could easily bring business processes and productivity to a stop. Yet, this study shows how cloud services have been used to adapt and respond to the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19, in addition to many cases of continuing to function,” said Susan Bowen, CEO and President at Aptum. “The cloud is critical to long-term sustainability and profitability, and the rewards have quickly become apparent.”

Craig Tavares, Global Head of Cloud at Aptum added: “The majority of companies did not initially envisage a global pandemic as a use case for managed cloud services. We’ve seen many organizations, including some of our customers, realise the potential of cloud to rapidly scale and also deploy new services, particularly in terms of remote working.

“As we navigate the economic effects of COVID-19, now is the time for businesses to ensure any response measures that were put in place quickly are now robust and enterprise-grade. This will allow organizations to continue to accommodate long periods of remote working and distributed workforces.”

The results call for non-cloud enabled organizations to consider adopting appropriate cloud technologies post-COVID-19, in order to drive business resilience.