Be at the forefront of cloud computing with Smartflex

In a technology focused era, change is inevitable. Sometimes it is difficult to perceive how much the world is evolving, but it is our duty to stay up to date with new trends and innovations. After the COVID 19 pandemic took the world by storm, it was very clear that becoming more digital was fundamental for companies to ensure competitiveness and continuity. With this digital transformation trend in full affect, the world was introduced to cloud computing, which is now considered a key driver and one of the most important enablers in the market.

Nowadays, companies are experiencing a burden on their IT infrastructure as they struggle to meet growing customer expectations for fast, reliable, and secure services. Cloud computing is a fast-growing technology that allows companies to move away from local IT infrastructure and instead rely on cloud-based services. With just a simple internet connection, utilities can access data and applications regardless of time or location. Additionally, cloud-based providers often offer services such as software, storage, and processing at affordable prices.

According to Gartner, one of the top strategic technology trends that organizations need to explore in order to deliver digital capabilities anywhere and everywhere is Cloud-Native Platforms (CNPs).

“CNPs use the core capabilities of cloud computing to provide scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities “as a service” to technology creators using internet technologies, delivering faster time to value and reduced costs. For this reason, Gartner predicts that cloud-native platforms will serve as the foundation for more than 95% of new digital initiatives by 2025 — up from less than 40% in 2021[1].”

Across all industries, the cloud has become one of the most trending technologies in today’s landscape. With that being said, the utility industry, a large sector that is critical for the economy and our communities, is experiencing an unprecedented phase of transformation in recent years and is moving into cloud computing. Now, the new challenge for utilities is to be at the forefront of this technological era and adopt innovative solutions such as the cloud, which allow them to improve their operational capabilities and provide better services to their customers.

It is important to note that cloud computing is offered in three different service models which each satisfy a unique set of business requirements. These three models are known as Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

According to Foundry’s 2022 Cloud Computing Survey, when asked about the top cloud growth areas, more than half of ITDMs (IT decision-makers) stated Software-as-a-Service (52%), followed by Platform-as-a-Service (38%), Security-as-a-Service (37%), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (36%) and cloud-based analytics (33%). Cloud-based analytics rises to 38% for enterprise organizations compared to 29% for SMBs (Small and Midsize Business) [2].

SaaS is a cloud computing model where the applications are hosted on the cloud and managed by the software provider. In this model, utilities leave IT management to their service provider, who is responsible for maintaining everything related to the software solution such as supplying servers, providing storage, network security, data availability, and infrastructure management.

To differentiate between cloud computing models and understand who manages which services, let’s take a look at the following figure.