Approximately 30% of all IT budgets are currently allocated to cloud computing. For those who follow business technology closely, it begs the question… where is the other 70% going?
Just a few years ago, moving to the cloud was still very much in question among IT leaders and certainly with IT leaders’ bosses. Those days are over. The shift in technological expectations and corporate acceptance of the cloud accelerated at whiplash speed amid the pandemic.
Still, many organizations have yet to budge from a traditional mindset when it comes to cloud content management.
Some cling to the belief that on-premises data storage remains the most secure and cost-effective place for critical content. Others think that getting employees to adopt a new system isn’t worth the effort.
These misconceptions hold organizations back and put a big hit on productivity. As a result of using systems that don’t allow content to be accessed across devices and locations, employees are forced to root through various repositories or file systems to find the information they need to complete an assignment or respond to a customer request. It’s counter-productive and saps employees’ enthusiasm.
By moving to cloud content management, CIOs and their organizations can improve productivity, decision-making, and security while keeping costs low. In fact, there are five key advantages to doing enterprise content management in the cloud:
The COVID-19 pandemic only reinforced that more and more people are going to work from anywhere. People now work from coffee shops, home offices, and planes at 30,000 feet. The times of being able to store documents offline in file cabinets are long gone.
This was true even before the pandemic. According to Gallup’s 2016 State of the American Workplace Report, 43% of 15,000 Americans surveyed said they spent at least some time working remotely, up from 39% in 2012. In 2021, that number was much higher: 58% of American workers surveyed report that they’re working remotely all or part of the time, and a quarter say that they want to continue working remotely.
Regardless of where they’re working from, most employees work within a team environment—making collaboration and remote accessibility essential. Cloud content management platforms enable instant access to business data across devices and applications so teams can easily share information, get work done, and quickly help vendors and customers.
While an on-premise enterprise content management (ECM) system may work well in certain circumstances, especially if it’s only for a small group or department, organizations that want to roll it out widely will have to pay high user or seat licensing costs, which can put a strain on IT budgets.
Then there are the data center requirements. Server farms, and especially SQL server licenses, are expensive. A single SQL server instance can gobble up a lot of pricey hardware. Web-based cloud content management platforms operate on a per-use basis and can scale to accommodate changing business demands.
Cyber security has never been more important, and some organizations remain hesitant to use a cloud content management platform to store sensitive content. The notion that the cloud is less safe than on-prem software is long out of date.
In fact, today’s dominant cloud environments—think Microsoft, Amazon, and Google—are much more secure than any onsite data facility. This is thanks to the billions of dollars these companies spend every year, with large teams of dedicated security experts working around the clock to ensure customer data is secure. Very few organizations can come close to matching that kind of investment in their onsite data center. (This article from Microsoft’s Director of Program Management for Azure Security shows how one of the most secure cloud platforms gets it done.)
If you’re still not quite comfortable, you can always “dip a toe in the water” with a hybrid solution. Many organizations adopt a hybrid cloud content management strategy to feel “safer” — keeping regulated data hosted in-house while using cloud services for information that requires less secure measures.
Supporting an organization’s workforce and maintaining a hardened yet flexible technology environment is enough to bog down any IT department. Maintaining fewer servers and installing fewer upgrades allows IT to focus on driving an organization’s ability to innovate and think strategically.
Cloud content management systems update seamlessly and frequently, carrying far less risk with implementation and execution since the cloud software provider is making these updates behind the scenes. No more maintaining data centers and sweating over updates and outages.
Today’s workers are accustomed to working with tools that are easy to use and quick to learn, especially millennials, who grew up as “digital natives” using web-based consumer tools. They want an intuitive platform that helps them accomplish tasks with the simplicity and usability of the applications and websites they use in their daily lives. There’s a fundamental difference in giving your employees software they’re eager to use versus forcing them to use cumbersome, clunky software.
The argument for moving content management to the cloud has only been strengthened by the pandemic’s transformation of corporate culture. With work from anywhere now the rule among organizations, the remote accessibility that the cloud allows is a necessity. The cloud’s unmatched security, affordable pricing, and user-friendly tools also make it an ideal place to manage critical content.
IT leaders may consider all of the above and say, yeah, that makes a ton of sense. But what about the legacy on-premise ECM systems we’ve spent years building and maintaining?
This is where cloud content management can be a real advantage. Rather than ripping and replacing, cloud content management platforms can integrate with existing on-premise ECM systems and bring a host of new capabilities, such as automation and AI document processing. This give CIOs and other IT leaders the flexibility to modernize business processes and simplify operations across departments. In a sense, newer cloud-native content management platforms just “ride” on top of legacy ECM, meaning IT gets all the benefits of new technology while avoiding painful and expensive upgrades.
KnowledgeLake’s powerful cloud platform can be of optimal service in this kind of scenario. The lightweight, 100-percent cloud-based solution is the only cloud-native platform for capturing, processing, and managing critical business content. The solution’s connectivity with ECM systems is bi-directional—meaning the platform can tap into ECM systems to understand the taxonomy of each, then use that knowledge to route incoming documents to the appropriate system. Think of it as the perfect complement to legacy ECM.
Interested in making the leap forward into cloud content management? Connect with one of our experts.