Medical researchers and innovators were the heroes who made our world liveable again, but they can’t do it without the power of technology — especially cloud computing. This critical technology had enabled the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines.
One of the companies that leaded the way was Moderna, a relatively small organization compared to the pharmaceutical giants working on other vaccine candidates. But by building and scaling its operations on the cloud, Moderna was able to deliver its first clinical batch to the National Institutes of Health for phase one trial only 42 days after initial sequencing of the virus. To accomplish this, the company invented proprietary cloud-based technologies and methods to create mRNA constructs that cells recognize as if they were produced in the body. This allows Moderna to experiment rapidly and easily shift between vaccines for different viruses without investing in new technology or infrastructure.
Moderna also uses the cloud to achieve higher efficiency and visibility across manufacturing, inventory management, and even accounting — and to “copy and paste” its digital manufacturing model onto partner facilities, which is critical for the rapid scaling of vaccine production.
The Moderna example reveals the cloud’s connection to five key areas all CEOs must lead: speed to market, reduced costs, flexibility of operations, business resilience, and innovation capabilities. Cloud technology allows startups and midsize companies to access big tech capabilities — compute power, algorithms, programming tools, and architectures — and partner in an ecosystem with larger firms.
Through our work with companies across the world, which includes dozens of in-depth discussions with C-level leadership, we identified the five key questions business leaders have as they strategize for the long-term and move closer to that 80% target. Two are longstanding concerns about security and legacy IT. The other three ultimately come down to how cloud makes it possible to help CEOs reimagine their business. If you’re a business leader daunted by cloud adoption, consider our research- and experience-informed answers to these questions.
Can I really trust my data in the cloud?
There are two important points here. First, cloud providers operate comprehensive data security programs, so you don’t have to. On-premises infrastructure is prone to the kind of small mistakes that determined cyberattacks can exploit. The main public cloud providers, however, can provide advanced data security controls, including data encryption, database monitoring, and access control.
That said, security continues to be a legitimate concern, and companies would rightly (and often for legal reasons) refrain, for example, from putting sensitive consumer or healthcare data in the public cloud. Most companies are addressing the desire to work through the cloud without exposing certain data to risk of exposure by turning to a hybrid model of public and private cloud operations. The latter allows businesses to maintain control over their most sensitive information.
Do I have to get rid of my legacy infrastructure once and for all?
Beyond the technical issues, the question of who pays for it can slow things down. Executives naturally aren’t keen to start over from scratch; in fact, in a 2018 survey, 70% of C-level leaders told us they wanted to keep running legacy systems as long as possible despite the limits they set on innovation and market agility.
What to do? A “lift-and-shift” strategy is a good approach for many companies. Imagine moving your entire house from one city to another without bothering to pack and unpack all the individual items or even rethink the layout of your rooms. For companies, this makes sense, because it causes minimal disruption to customers and provides relief from pressing concerns like outages. The rest can be worked out later.
How do I make the right cloud choices for my business?
The most important step here is to understand the three major cloud capabilities and what they make possible: Software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS).
SaaS started the cloud revolution. Companies could roll it out quickly, fund it directly from business budgets, and standardize processes while also enabling innovation. In 2015, Rolls Royce put in place a cloud-based HR system in 46 countries overnight using a SaaS solution. Before making this move, the company faced challenges getting an accurate view of its workforce and deploying the right people to the right places.
As cloud computing matured, IaaS and PaaS models emerged, giving businesses a higher level of control over the alignment of business and IT objectives. Food company Del Monte (full disclosure: Del Monte is an Accenture client) transformed its IT infrastructure — including their core applications — in less than four months using IaaS and PaaS. The company was able to consolidate a fragmented IT environment, improve management of hundreds of apps, and speed up new solutions and upgrades.
Today, the key for organizations is to understand the capabilities and strengths of each model and apply them judiciously to enable business innovation and growth. How do you get started? Here are a few simple rules of thumb: IaaS is a simple way to access computing and data storage resources. With IaaS, an organization rents servers and storage in the cloud rather than purchasing and maintaining its own infrastructure. PaaS is a popular choice for businesses that want to create unique applications without making major financial investments. And SaaS, the most used cloud application service, is an important means for organizations to access software applications.