Organizations that treat cloud as new operating model realize greater business value: Accenture

A new report from Accenture has identified a select group of organizations that treat cloud as a new operating model to continuously reinvent their businesses using innovative, multi-cloud capabilities — across public, private and edge — realize greater business value, well beyond cost savings.

Based on a survey of nearly 4,000 C-suite executives at both private- and public-sector organizations globally, the report, titled “Ever-ready for Every Opportunity: How to Unleash Competitiveness on the Cloud Continuum,” explains why looking at cloud as a one-time migration to a static destination — essentially as a cheaper, more-efficient data center — is limiting. In fact, a narrow focus on cost savings can actually put organizations at a competitive disadvantage compared to those using cloud more strategically across its many dynamic forms, including public, private and edge.

“Most organizations today deploy some mix of public, private and edge clouds, with little integration between them,” said Karthik Narain, global lead of Accenture Cloud First. “As a result, innovation, data and best practices achieved in one part of the organization aren’t benefitting others — thereby impeding value realization. However, a small percentage of organizations are positioning themselves to reap the greatest value from the cloud by viewing cloud as a continuum of technologies that spans different locations and types of ownership, dynamically supported by cloud-first 5G and software-defined networks to support the ever-changing needs of their business.”

The report reveals that while organizations plan to migrate more than two-thirds of their workloads to cloud, on average, over the next three to five years, only half are using the full potential of cloud in its various forms to transform their day-to-day business operations, carry out knowledge work and modernize applications to meet business needs.

Accenture defines the organizations leading the way in cloud as “Continuum Competitors.” These organizations — about 12-15% of respondents, depending on region — stand out by extending the experience they gained from public cloud to their private data centers and edge locations to transform daily business operations. As a result, they achieve substantial gains from their continued cloud engagement and outperform competitors. Continuum Competitors are also much better positioned to withstand future shocks, according to the research.

Continuum Competitors include organizations such as Carlsberg, for example. Beyond operational cost savings, the Danish multinational brewer cites its freedom to innovate and experiment as one of cloud’s key advantages, enabling it to launch new initiatives and campaigns in hours, rather than months. Continuum Competitors are also much better positioned to withstand future shocks, according to the research.

“A company’s future competitiveness hinges on choosing the right type of cloud for the right applications and cloud-based services — such as artificial intelligence, smart contact centers, edge computing, robotic computing, extended reality and others — from across the continuum and implementing the advanced practices needed to leverage those technologies,” Narain said. “By using cloud-first strategies, companies can build better customer experiences, smarter business processes and more sustainable products.”