Recently, a survey was conducted among over 750 executives regarding their technology habits during the pandemic. One of the more noteworthy findings to come out of this survey was the fact that near sixty percent of those asked said that during the crisis their cloud usage was at an all-time high. Particularly, with so much uncertainty surrounding the business environment throughout the past couple of months, cloud computing and for that matter all aspects of cloud, have enabled companies to maintain security and cost efficiency overall.
As more and more businesses had to shutter their physical locations and with supply chains collapsing, cloud technology prevented many companies from having to reinvent their operations and communication strategies. Granted, there still of course were major changes, but all in all, cloud—whether Azure or Microsoft 365 for example—enabled business leaders and owners a great deal of flexibility throughout March, April, and May, months that could have otherwise been catastrophic.
Most IT executives found that they were faced with having to pivot quickly—and cloud technology-enabled just such a pivot. It allowed them the ability to integrate more automation, access remote data far more quickly, and just in general, facilitate running the business given the unique and challenging remote situations so many faced.
Many business owners and managers did indeed turn to their IT teams and CIOs as so many employees reverted to a work from home situation, and in numerous cases, utilizing the power of the cloud, those CIOs did indeed step up. It wasn't simply about averting disaster, it was instead about keeping the continuity despite the distances. It was about business as usual, just now via laptops and mobile devices more so than ever before.
There has been a definitive shift as far as attitudes in general regarding cloud computing. Surprisingly, many business executives (typically non-IT-oriented people/) had somewhat skeptical attitudes about the cloud before the pandemic. Some were downright anti-cloud. That tune has certainly changed. Those very same executives are now the ones saying, why isn't everything in the cloud?
The CIOs who rose to the forefront of many businesses during the crisis were the ones who found themselves leading from the front as opposed to from behind. That is to say, they were proactive when it came to their efforts to digitize operations. They did not falter under the pressure of the pandemic and its many challenges, but instead, they innovated. And a huge part of how they reshaped the way their firms did business was to rely more heavily on cloud computing and relevant cloud-based technologies.
At First Union Lending, we are here to help small companies make it through this and come out stronger than before. If your business has yet to implement the technology necessary to evolve along with the rapidly changing business landscape, we can most definitely help. Our loan programs are designed to suit your individual needs—no one size fits all approach with us. Call today and let's get started!