Pandemic forces cloud computing strategy changes

Studies show that companies have accelerated the migration process to cloud computing as social isolation was adopted in different regions with the covid-19 pandemic. A new study suggests that while many countries plan to return to physical offices and work areas soon, 60% of IT leaders will continue to increase the overall use of cloud computing and 91% are already changing their computing strategy in cloud as a result of the current economic climate.

A study by the Swedish company, Snow Software, interviewed 250 IT leaders around the world to find out how cloud computing usage and investment decisions evolved during the crisis . Overall, 82% of respondents said they had increased their use of cloud computing in recent weeks in response to the pandemic. The majority of respondents (60%) said that cloud usage continues to increase, indicating that cloud computing consumption patterns are still in flux, even after the initial increase in remote work.

In addition, 66% reported that they will continue to use the cloud computing services and applications implemented during the crisis as soon as employees return to the workplace. Surprisingly, only 22% reported seeing an initial increase in cloud usage, but it has stabilized.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has made cloud computing an essential service for many organizations, in addition to highlighting the complexities of cost management and cloud usage,” said Jay Litkey, Snow's Executive Vice President, Cloud Management.

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Cloud applications and services

As Snow Software points out, although Zoom and Teams dominated the news, the cloud computing infrastructure was really the biggest driver of this increase. When asked how their company's use of cloud applications and services changed in response to the current crisis, 76% said they increased their use of cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and even private cloud.