The pandemic situation has affected every segment of the business world. Many organizations are letting their employees work at home for their safety and for sake of business continuity. The concept of “work anywhere on any device” has been around for a while, but work on the Cloud has really boomed recently because of lockdown orders.

Global Cloud platform providers like Microsoft revealed that use of the Cloud has risen 775% recently because of social distancing policies in many countries, which caused people to stop going out anywhere in order to reduce their risk of getting infected. The use of online conferencing through systems like Microsoft Teams has skyrocketed in urban centers over the past month.

Online meeting platform providers like Cisco Webex reported that because of the lockdowns in China, more than 30% of employers have let their employees work from home, and use of the Cisco Webex platform rose over 2,000%.(Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/03/29/microsoft-775-increase-in-cloud-services-44-million-daily-teams-users-900-million-meeting-minutes-weekly/#5e6d73f17c79)

In addition to increasing Work from Home, there are many other factors that caused the noticeable rise in use of Cloud service, such as:

People want applications that allow constant, anytime communication

Social distancing policies have made people stay away from each other and many have to remain far away from family members. Not only do work organizations want to use tools to allow their employees to work together while they all stay in their own homes, but also for social needs, many people are starting to use video applications such as Line, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and Zoom to keep in touch.

Changed formats for organizing events

In a situation like the COVID-19 pandemic, accurate and up-to-date information is extremely important, especially medical and public health information. Huge amounts of newly emerging data need large and stable data processing systems. The Cloud has the capacity for Big Data Analytics ready to use out of the box.

Peoples’ lifestyles are changing

While everyone is stuck at home, they have had to change some things in their lives. Instead of going out to stores and shopping centers, many have started to use delivery services to order food and consumer goods. Online shopping applications have responded with special promotions to encourage people to make the decision to buy online. Online entertainment platforms like Netflix and TikTok have also seen a dramatic rise in use.

As time proceeds, many business organizations will probably continue to implement Cloud services as an integral part of their IT system planning, for their Business Continuity Plans and for long-term plans. Some components of corporate IT systems will likely be transformed from on-premise systems to Cloud-based systems, and some will likely become Hybrid Infrastructure systems that take advantage of the strong points of Cloud technology, such as the ability to expand immediately and adapt efficiently to sudden spikes in use. In the long term, many companies will change their policies to use more software allowing employees to communicate and work together easily from anywhere, anytime without the need to come to the office. Business organizations that want advice on making the best use of Cloud technology or who would like to use AIS’s Cloud services, please contact Cloud Solution Sales at [email protected].

Published 22 April 2020