However, when the pandemic forced workers and students the world over into ‘lockdown’, many businesses and institutions faced a mad scramble to bring their cloud adoption plans forward, or to hastily adopt new and previously unplanned cloud solutions in order to maintain continuity.

According to PwC, cloud spending rose a whopping 37% during the first quarter of 2020 alone, with public IaaS and PaaS services accounting for the bulk of the market. A recent ADAPT survey also suggests that the move to the cloud has been the most significant change within the technology sector, with 50% of respondents saying they increased their cloud workloads significantly in order to enable their remote workforce.

Now, as many businesses are adjusting to the new ‘normal’, it’s an ideal time to take stock of where their app modernisation has landed, and the role that cloud can play on an ongoing basis.

Five clear reasons why now is an ideal time to modernise apps in the cloud include:

1. Employee expectations

The way people work has changed – as has the very concept of a central office space with people working fixed hours. Today’s employees also have higher technology expectations of their employers than ever before – particularly when it comes to using cloud-based applications that enable remote working.

According to a study by the University of Sydney, 75% of employees want to be able to work from home for an average of two days per week after the pandemic. A Deloitte survey also suggests that 64% of employees would opt for a lower-paying job if they could work away from the office.

To attract and retain quality employees into the future, businesses will need to modernise their on-premises workplace applications in the cloud.

2. Agility to prepare for the unexpected

The Covid-19 pandemic was so entirely unexpected, many businesses were left without a plan or knowing what to do next. To avoid this situation happening in the future, businesses are now realising that they need extra resilience and agility in their technology. Modernising applications in the cloud is a core part of this.

As an example, over the last few years, Modis has been working with the Western Australia Police Force to deliver a broad range of technology initiatives – one of which has been moving their file storage to the cloud. When the pandemic hit, this new cloud-based infrastructure enabled them to remotely collaborate on material, and release important Covid-19-related forms to the public in just a few days.

3. Robust, easily managed security

As more people work from home, the security risks abound. IBM recently surveyed more than 2,000 people who were new to working at home due to Covid-19, and found that while 80% are confident in their organisation's ability to handle cyberthreats that arise due to remote work, 45% also said that they haven't received any additional security training since going remote.

By partnering with an organisation like Modis to modernise your applications in the cloud, you can ensure that you have appropriate and reliable levels of security and protection in place.

4. Scalability at low cost

Right now, times are uncertain, and many businesses have faced economic downturns or are unclear about what lies ahead. Modernising applications in the cloud gives businesses the ability to scale up/scale down their applications/workloads depending on what’s happening in the market and their need – rather than making large, up-front capital investments.

5. Cost management

Research indicates that in the current climate, cutting costs is the #1 priority for IT managers, and 60% of Australia’s IT leaders say unexpected costs remains their most significant cloud challenge.

By moving applications to the cloud, businesses can avoid the upfront, capital expenses that can be associated with on-premises applications. Instead of periodically refreshing their server hardware and licensing, they can simply pay for applications with a per-user, per-month amount that’s tax-deductible as an operating expense.

An application modernisation strategy can help ensure applications are in the most appropriate environment based on factors like how often they are being used, the level of security they require, and the data volumes they carry. This means businesses can avoid paying too much for on-premises applications, or over-provisioning applications in the cloud unnecessarily.

If you’re interested in learning more about modernising your applications in the cloud, download our whitepaper today.