Cloud adoption has accelerated at a remarkable pace over the last few years. What began as a gentle canter turned into a gallop during the COVID-19 pandemic – a time when remote access to workflows became essential rather than just desirable.

Now the horse is careering away at a remarkable speed. It's been projected that, by the end of the decade, the cloud market will be worth $376.36 billion.

Remember when a gigabyte seemed like a lot of data? Well, it's been forecast that by 2025 there will be 200 zettabytes of data in the cloud. That's 2 billion terabytes. Don't even ask us how many gigabytes that is – we'll probably trigger a global shortage of zeroes.

In 2022, 60% of corporate data was resting in the cloud – and barring the end of the world, there's no real chance of it stopping there. That's doubled since 2015. This isn't a mere networking upgrade – it's a full-scale transformation of the way business is done.

In one sense, this transformation is a matter of access. Once upon a time, you had either to be in the office to access the intranet or in possession of a floppy disc or CD-ROM. Information was as cumbersome as furniture. You couldn't move it without a struggle.

Nowadays, information can be accessed from any location and any authorised device. While this has made international teams more connected than ever, it also presents novel security challenges and creates the need for advanced remote collaboration tools.

Some of these challenges are created by using a combination of legacy applications and newer cloud technologies. This is why many companies are increasingly adopting a cloud-first culture.

What is a cloud-first culture?

A cloud-first strategy (as opposed to culture) is where a business, well, puts the cloud first.

When a business goes cloud first, cloud technologies become the primary way of delivering IT. This contrasts with a strategy that's more reliant on physical hardware, such as on-prem data centres.

Businesses that successfully put the cloud first will be the first to tell you that it's cheaper, more efficient and more agile than a mixed approach. We're not saying that it's the only way to proceed – but there are definite advantages.

But wait – a strategy isn't a culture. A cloud-first culture is one in which the company's organisation and operations are committed to the cloud – not just its technologies. As Alfred Rubina of digital consultancy firm SoftServe has said: "Cloud-native is much more than just technology".

Or, in the words of Google itself: it's a case of organisation, operations and technologies (O-O-T) and not technologies, operations and organisation (T-O-O). You won't get the best from your technologies if your organisation doesn't have a shared mindset about their value.

Keeping your team up to date

Cloud technologies aren't just complicated – they're also constantly changing. When it comes to technical information, what was true yesterday may be misinformation today.

That's one reason why cloud security training by experts can be advisable. This could be instructor-led or employee-led.

If you go with an instructor – either in-person or online – then you need someone with recent real-world experience. Someone who looks forward to tech news digests dropping into their inbox. Someone who can explain difficult concepts to non-specialists.

Or you could have a more team-led approach, where staff share learning resources at a weekly webinar. This doesn't have to be at the expense of a visiting instructor. You can always harness the power of both.

Terabytes of data – zero trust

So how do you keep your workflows safe when they're no longer tied to an office branch and an on-prem data centre? Today's networks are perimeterless. They're not a chain of desktop computers joined by literal cables. They can grow and shrink as needed.

Combine this flexibility with BYOD (bring your own device) culture and you have a perfect storm of users and devices – each one of which could be a weak link in the chain. What does that mean? It means that every endpoint could be a point of entry for malware, ransomware or other cyber threats.

Zero-trust security is an approach to cyber security built for cloud-first culture.

It works a bit like this. You're on a night out with your friends. There's a queue to get into the club. Rather than spot-check random individuals, every single person is frisked.

Sounds exhausting, right? Well sure, it would be a bad night for the bouncer. But in the context of zero-trust security, this digital frisking is automated. No one has to break a sweat.

Zero-trust security systems treat every device and every user as a threat – and each one has to be explicitly verified and given access permission. This keeps your network safe, no matter how sprawling and transnational it may be.

Making the move to a cloud-first culture

Are you ready to put the cloud first? Then you'll need to migrate all your workflows to a cloud – or multiple clouds, as is increasingly the norm.

As technologies become more widespread, they become more complicated. Back in 1965, Moore's Law stated that the number of transistors in a circuit would double every two years – in other words, as technologies become more widespread, they become more complicated. As an observation about circuitry, it's a little out of date – but the principle remains true.

The cloud is everywhere – but the people who can look under the hood and make sense of it are a rare, in-demand breed.

This is one reason why outsourcing migration to a cloud consultant can be wise. You just need to find a consultant who's committed to meeting your business needs as well as configuring the right tech – not one at the expense of the other.

The bottom line

Building a cloud-first culture is about mindset as well as technologies. Its aim is simple: to build a network that's agile, cost-efficient and super-secure – and a team that's on board and up to date.

Looking for a managed cloud migration service? At Ascend, we have 400 migrations under our belts and counting. Get in touch to learn how our experts can help you.