CLOUD & CYBER
44 backed up this point , with a particular focus on startups . Citing statistics from the US Small Business Administration that suggested only 50 % of young businesses survive beyond five years , the survey found that cloud productivity solutions saved both time and money , allowing more time to focus on customers and more hope of long-term survival .
Startup respondents identified the biggest benefit of cloud solutions as being flexibility , however , with 71 % of respondents identifying that it was the freedom to work anywhere with any device that delivered the greatest benefit .
It ’ s not only new companies that can benefit from a cloud first approach , with established businesses able to unlock productivity that was previously hidden away behind antiquated ways of doing business . A Deloitte report , ‘ The economic value of cloud services in Australia ’, found that the productivity benefit caused by the adoption of cloud services in the country over the last five years amounted to $ 9.4bn . “ Larger businesses , and those in the information technology , professional services and finance , are driving uptake of cloud services ,” said the report . “ In 2018 , 76.4 % of businesses with over 200 employees were using cloud services compared with 35.5 % of businesses with four or fewer employees .”
One of the main factors driving that adoption was the need to keep up with competitors , showing that cloud adoption can lead to a positive feedback loop wherein companies adopt the cloud to make themselves more competitive , thus spurring rivals to do the same and lifting the economy as a whole .
One of the fears is that productivity increases obscure a loss in jobs , with technology taking up the slack . But the report found that 48 %
NOVEMBER 2020