by Camille Chin | March 30, 2021
The global COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of many businesses. Contactless payments, store-based fulfillment and curbside pickup became vital weeks into the crisis with many wholesalers and retailers rushing to implement the services. While frenzied implementations have ended, the need for additional technology updates has not. Brands are prioritizing adaptable business models to weather disruptive times.
Public cloud computing (via Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, for example) has become an important solution for many businesses. The cloud enables fast implementations so businesses of all types can get much-needed technology up and running fast. A March 2021 Harvard Business Review article reported that leading pharmaceutical company Moderna is building and scaling its business operations on the cloud.
While most wholesale and retail companies agree that migrating workloads to the cloud is necessary and valuable, it remains a daunting process to some. Legacy ERP systems are often disjointed and hard to upgrade. To make the logistics easier, some are classifying their applications and choosing to migrate their customer-facing applications first.
Here are five of the main reasons why many wholesalers and retailers are migrating to Jesta’s Vision Suite cloud platform to stay relevant and accelerate their business growth.
Flexibility and Speed to Market
Retailers need to be more agile and replacing legacy in-house IT systems with cloud applications give brands a fighting chance against the industry’s dizzying pace of change. Gone are the days of taking up to 18 months to implement technology’s next big thing. Lift-and-shift implementations via the cloud are completed in weeks with minimal disruption. The cloud also makes it easier to update applications frequently.
Real-Time Unification
Cloud platforms deliver complete supply chain visibility and real-time operational data for all channels and users. It connects data pipelines and unifies that data with low latency and high transaction output. End-to-end real-time visibility gives retailers the power to create superior shopping experiences for customers, employees and partners across all platforms.
Big Cost Savings
Faster deployments, patches and upgrades are just the tip of the cost-savings iceberg. Less on-site hardware and bandwidth requirements, and the ability to manage storage and scalability on an as-needed basis save money. Maintenance expenses are lower too. Trusted cloud service providers are responsible for both the hardware and software. This frees up IT resources for more strategic projects.
High Reliability and Security
A cloud platform is more secure than what any average IT team can achieve and manage to protect in-house IT systems. In 2017, Gartner reported that through 2020 public cloud workloads were expected to suffer 60% fewer security incidents than those in traditional data centers. Breaches are largely due to misconfigurations. A comprehensive set of deterrent, preventive and detective controls, and back-up procedures ensure the highest levels of security.
Near-Unlimited Scalability
The ability to scale your IT systems on demand is one of the big advantages of cloud technology. Software as a Service (SaaS) gives retailers the flexibility to quickly and easily scale their usage requirements up or down based on how promotions, annual holidays or even the weather may be affecting customer behavior.
Ready to discuss your business’s cloud needs with one of Jesta’s subject matter experts? Send an email to Jesta at info@jestais.com to schedule a chat.
