Digital transformation drivers – Leveraging the Cloud for Digital Transformation
Digital transformation drivers
One of the most important reasons companies are finally beginning to migrate their workloads to the cloud and transform their business is because they realize if they don’t disrupt themselves, someone else will do it for them. They see competition from start-ups that can start with a clean slate and without legacy baggage, or they also see incumbent competitors embarking on digital transformation initiatives.Take the examples of Uber and Lyft. Both companies have upended the transportation business. Taxi companies, rental car companies, and even trucking companies have been noticed and realized that they must adapt or die. A big reason for Uber’s and Lyft’s success is using the cloud to host their operations.Another obvious example is none other than Amazon’s e-commerce operations. In this case, many of its competitors failed to adapt and have been forced to declare bankruptcy. A partial list of famous retailers that had to file for bankruptcy are as follows:
- Tailored Brands
- Lord & Taylor
- Brook Brothers
- Lucky Brand
- GNC
- J.C. Penney
- Neiman Marcus
- J. Crew
- Modell’s Sporting Goods
- Pier 1
In some ways, you can think of Amazon’s special e-commerce operations as simply just another use case of AWS.Let’s take examples of companies that have survived and thrived by migrating to the cloud or creating their applications in the cloud.
Digital transformation examples
Digital transformation without tangible positive business outcomes will inevitably result in a short stay with your employer or the marketplace. Innovation might be refined in academia and research institutions, but in the business world, innovation must always be tied to improvement in business metrics such as increased sales or higher profits.Remember that digital transformation could mean more than just moving your operations to the cloud. As you saw in the previous section, it may involve refactoring and replacing existing processes. Furthermore, it could also mean applying other previously not used technologies, such as robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, and Machine Learning.For example, how many restaurants offer advance booking through the web or via a mobile app?A few more concrete examples are as follows:
- TGI Fridays are using virtual assistants to enable mobile ordering.
- McDonalds uses voice recognition technology in their drive-throughs, and they have almost replaced their point-of-the-system with a self-ordering Kiosk.
- Chipotle restaurants in the US have entirely changed their ordering model during the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of allowing customers to come into the restaurant and order, customers had to put in their orders via the Chipotle mobile app. Customers would get a time when they could come up and pick up their order or, if they ordered far enough in advance, they could choose when to pick it up.
- Rocket Mortgage (previously Quicken Loans) has upended the mortgage industry by enabling consumers to apply for a mortgage in a streamlined manner and without needing to speak to a human. To achieve this, they heavily relied on technology, as you can imagine.
What are some best practices when implementing a cloud migration? In the next section, we will help you navigate so that your cloud migration project is successful regardless of how complicated it may be.
