January 19, 2021 —“Cloud technology has fundamentally taken a different form during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Karthik Narain, cloud first lead at Accenture, adding that businesses are transitioning to the cloud at rapid paces.

Investments in and usage of cloud computing have surged 57 percent due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, said a panel of experts contributing to the Consumer Technology Association’s annual Consumer Electronics Show.

Cloud computing is rapidly reshaping the mobile experience and growing at an incredible rate, said Brian Comiskey, manager at Industry Intelligence-Consumer Technology Association.

According to Narain, moving a business’ operations to the cloud is a significant commitment, but one that increases efficiency and scalability. Businesses and governments alike have more flexibility to scale up or scale down with cloud computing power, he said.

The value of cloud technology to businesses is also seen in the company’s return on investment.  Balancing the pros and cons associated, Narain said one concern businesses may have about cloud technology revolves around security risks that may arise, such as ensuring new and existing cloud consumers’ data is securely kept. Yet, he maintained that cloud providers are well-equipped to handle this issue.

Companies can explore cloud computing technology as a testing ground, without committing too much early-on when deciding to move to the cloud, said Edna Conway, vice president and chief security and risk officer for Azure at Microsoft.

When it comes to cloud adoption rates, some estimates predict as low as 20 percent of companies will adopt it in the coming years, while others are as high as over 60 percent.

Conway says that the variance in adoption predictions is no cause for concern, as it merely depends on the rate at which industries move towards it. For example, the healthcare sector is integrating cloud services slower than the retail sector.