Fix your data and make use of modern cloud – the choice of a cloud provider boils down to a few big players

The big public cloud providers are so far ahead in the development of modern cloud services that it’s not sensible to compete with their products any more. Platforms, like Google Cloud Platform and AWS, with the wherewithal to invest in service development are dominating the field – and the big players are now really pouring money into cloud. In the last three years, for example, Google has spent USD 30 billion on the development of cloud services, and the overall investments on data centers doubled last year. Chinese Alibaba Cloud is also planning to invest USD 15 billion in its cloud services in the next few years.

The digital business places such demands on the capabilities of cloud services that simply offering capacity just will not do any more. Today’s digital services are increasingly built on off-the-shelf blocks, and the choice of cloud service boils down to the provider that has the best developer tools and capabilities for supporting the organization’s business.

To an extent, the major service providers have specialized in certain industries. Google’s data capabilities were originally built to support Google’s own consumer business, and the current services can be used for both B2B and B2C business and a variety of business-promoting applications, such as easy data processing, gaining a better understanding of data and machine learning. For example, online stores can use off-the-shelf elements to make it through campaigns like Black Friday without going down or having to worry about the scalability of their service, all the while following their sales figures in real time.

In the public cloud, you pay for what you use, which reduces the initial investment and transfers expenditure from capital expenditure to operating expenses. This makes it easier to test new functions and decreases the cost risks involved with the technical infrastructure.

You can only leverage innovation when you’ve got the data at hand

There is no shortcut to utilizing the potential of modern cloud service innovations. Without the right data, there are no benefits to be had. This doesn’t mean that new companies couldn’t use public cloud services from the start. Or that large companies couldn’t bring in public cloud services when they start to arrange their data into a more viable form. The only way to get your hands on the innovations of modern cloud services, however, is to organize your data in the right way.

To find out what your data maturity level is, get to know our data maturity model and read Tuukka’s article.

Most Finnish companies have room for improvement in their data capabilities. Even those that are collecting data don’t necessarily manage their operations through it.

We have been talking about big data for years now, and its importance alongside analytics is known in theory, but many companies still have relatively low data maturity level. In order to increase that level, companies should think about where they are collecting the data from and where they should be collecting it, whether their digital service development is managed through data, and do they have systematic processes for increasing data maturity.

The best service design is driven by data. Finnish game companies like Supercell and Rovio are really good at this and have used data to optimize purchases and the customer experience.

Well-collected and maintained data can show new paths forward for your business and more efficient methods for maintaining your current operations. Collecting data will not solve anything by itself. Only processing the data and using it to lead your operations will take your business forward.