Digital agility, the ability to quickly align IT and business strategies to adapt models and operations, is key to maintaining a competitive edge. Yet as we explained in Building Digital Agility: A Blueprint for the Modern Enterprise, the first article in this blog series, it must be built from the ground up. Cloud infrastructure is the foundation of digital agility, enabling businesses to adapt rapidly to changing market conditions and evolving customer expectations. Gone are the days when cloud adoption was merely about migration to cloud-enabled infrastructures. Today, businesses are embracing a cloud-first model, building their entire ecosystems in the cloud. In fact, according to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation® 2024 Cloud Native Survey, cloud-native adoption has reached an all-time high of 89% among surveyed organizations.
This shift has also given rise to multi-cloud strategies, with businesses increasingly leveraging multiple cloud providers. Most companies today do not rely solely on a single provider like Microsoft Azure or AWS. Instead, they are adopting cloud-neutral architectures to unify fragmented data and streamline operations.
Optimizing Cloud Investments with FinOps
As organizations scale their cloud infrastructure, managing costs becomes a priority. Cloud computing promises businesses certain financial advantages, such as avoiding costs for on-premises facilities and equipment maintenance. Yet enterprises often suffer “sticker shock” from unexpected charges. This is where FinOps, an operational framework for managing cloud costs, comes into play. FinOps provides businesses with insights into their cloud spending, helping them lower costs.
Contrary to popular belief, FinOps is not just about numbers. It ensures shared accountability across teams, procurement, and operations. For example, FinOps can identify unused virtual machines, storage costs, or license programs to cut technical debt. Every cloud provider offers its own FinOps framework tailored to specific workloads. By using cloud billing and usage data, budget data, and performance analytics, FinOps can send alerts when spending gets too high and automate shutting down or cleaning up unused cloud resources. This frees up finance to focus on forecasting and planning or evaluating investments that drive business growth.
The Case for Cloud-Neutral Architecture
In a multi-cloud world, data fragmentation is a common challenge. Most companies use a mix of SaaS applications, homegrown systems, and cloud ecosystems like Microsoft or AWS. This complexity often leads to inefficiencies, with employees spending an average of 9.3 hours per week searching for information or making sense of disparate data.
A cloud-neutral architecture addresses this issue by creating a unified layer that connects all applications and data sources. For instance, cross-cloud CI/CD pipelines and AI-assisted dashboards can integrate various platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Jenkins, GitLab, and GitHub Actions, providing a seamless experience for users. AI-powered tools can also analyze usage patterns to optimize costs further.
Service providers such as CTG play a crucial role in building these unified systems. By using AI-assisted DevSecOps and other tools, we help organizations connect siloed data sources and create dashboards that surface insights from multiple platforms.
Low-Code, No-Code: Democratizing Application Development
Cloud infrastructure is no longer just about platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP. It’s also about how low-code and no-code tools are revolutionizing application development. Companies like Uber and Meta use these tools daily, proving that they are not just for small and mid-sized businesses.
Low-code platforms empower cross-functional teams, including coders and business users to collaborate on application development. These tools reduce development time and eliminate the need for extensive coding knowledge, making it easier for non-technical users to contribute. For example, Microsoft’s Power Platform and ServiceNow enable users to create workflows and applications without needing to understand complex syntax.
AI adds yet another layer to the no-code equation. Microsoft’s Copilot, for example, automates workflows and helps users create apps from scratch.
Aligning Business and IT for Digital Agility
A decade ago, IT and development teams were the primary decision makers because technology was seen as a specialized area that only experts could understand and manage. Decisions about technology then were mostly about fixing problems and making sure everything worked correctly, not about driving business growth or changing how a company competed. As technology began influencing more parts of a business, leaders outside of IT—like those in finance and business—started to get involved and wanted a say in these decisions. Today, finance and business leaders play a more significant role, focusing on cost predictability and resilience. This shift underscores the importance of integrating cloud strategies with broader business objectives.
According to industry analyst firm IDC, modern CFOs are increasingly influencing IT spending decisions. They evaluate “technology investments through a strategic lens, determining how platforms such as automation, AI, and cloud computing align with business objectives.” In their evolving role, CFOs must understand the full value, including ROI, that these new solutions will deliver and whether they indeed are the right solutions to advance the company’s goals.
And don’t forget about the need for governance. Organizations must ensure that applications are secure, compliant, and aligned with business objectives. Proper governance also ensures that applications remain relevant and do not become obsolete over time.
Empowering Digital Agility with CTG Technology Solutions
As digital disruption becomes more frequent, technology alone isn’t enough. Businesses need strategic alignment between IT and business to unlock real value. A strong IT business partnership transforms IT from a support function into a driver of growth.
Cloud infrastructure is as much a business strategy as a technology decision. From optimizing cloud investments with FinOps to building cloud-neutral architectures, organizations have more opportunities than ever to become more digitally agile.
At CTG, we’re here to guide you on this journey. CTG’s offerings are designed to help you prepare for your leap to the cloud and support and manage all phases of your journey. Our experts help you navigate common migration challenges while ensuring your organization maintains its critical operations and controls costs. Our Cloud Services and Solutions also help organizations overcome reductions in capital expenditures, provide agility to operate during structural business changes, and address potential gaps in business continuity. Let’s build the future of digital agility together. Contact our team today.
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