Moving Your Infrastructure to the Cloud is No Longer A Nice-To-Have

Over the past couple of years, digital transformation has swiftly moved from being an initiative that is talked about as a future strategy to an absolute necessity in order to keep up with the market. In the same timeframe, companies are subsequently scrambling to modernize their infrastructure to keep up with the demands of the ecosystem. Both customers and employees are opting to stay loyal to the companies that have best prioritized their digital experience strategy.

One of the most critical drivers of digital transformation is, of course, cloud infrastructure and deployment. Without rearchitecting the stack in the cloud, companies cannot move with the speed and flexibility that is necessary to keep up with the rapidly evolving digital age. Not to mention the ability to future-proof businesses in order to adopt emerging technology like AI, NLP and AR.

As you’re grappling with the best approach for streamlining your search tech in the stack, here’s some things to think about. Rearchitecting is complex, but knowing the real benefits and being able to envision the possibilities for long-term growth will lead you in the right direction.

Start thinking about:

Flexibility

The first and most important element of cloud infrastructure is its flexibility. Cloud infrastructure is capable of allowing employees and customers to access information they need at any time, anywhere. The mobility of cloud infrastructure can enable the customization of tools and applications for employees and customers. This also allows you to build new, more innovative applications that support a long-term vision and don’t just meet short-term, reactive goals.

The pandemic punctuated the need for flexibility, as many businesses that had not deployed a cloud-based infrastructure struggled without physical access to equipment and systems. With many teams now operating either permanently remote or in a hybrid fashion, the need for flexibility isn’t going anywhere.

Security

We can’t talk about architecture and data without talking about security. It’s paramount. The cloud provides a naturally more secure form of infrastructure, especially when it comes to the sharing of data. By taking advantage of public cloud resources, brands can be assured that their private information is never compromised and always patched with the latest security innovation. Whether in transit, or at rest, your data is collected, transferred and stored in the safest way possible.

Security, in addition to safety, became an immediate concern the moment physical businesses began moving to remote operations. Businesses that were already adopting cloud infrastructure found themselves in a better position to react to security threats because of how their data was already being handled. Today, businesses and their IT teams have had the time to step up measures to counteract security risks to their cloud networks, leaving behind the risks previously posed to physical systems.

Scalability

Cloud infrastructure is all about scaling in rhythm with a business’ unique peaks and valleys of traffic. Migrating to the cloud allows brands to scale workloads up or down without the need for an IT triage or additional strain on existing resources. This also helps save costs – you pay for what you use, when you use it, so budgeting for scale is a pain point that’s virtually erased. Now you can grow and evolve with ease.

The state of the world is, frankly, taking time to get back to “normal.” In the meantime, businesses will still need to focus on growth. Cloud infrastructure presents a bounty of growth opportunity because of its aforementioned flexibility, security, and scalability. Businesses that moved to the cloud due to the pandemic will find themselves able to continue growing as the world continues to evolve and change to meet the demands of consumer and employee.

Here To Stay

The adoption of cloud infrastructure is likely going to expand, even after the pandemic has passed. There’s been a permanent shift in the perception of digital transformation, and the benefits that so many brands have relied on during the past couple of years can’t just be unlearned. With so many businesses either maintaining permanently remote or semi-remote operations, cloud-based infrastructure is guaranteed to be a mainstay best practice.

Simply put, there’s no turning back. The brands that will stay ahead of the curve are already looking into how they can further optimize their cloud infrastructure, and brands that haven’t yet started the adoption process are already being left behind.

Supporting Your Cloud Deployment

We believe the best search infrastructure solution should prioritize the above benefits, plain and simple. In addition to this, we make a significant effort to ensure that deploying cloud infrastructure with our platforms affords brands the following additional benefits:

• Saving major costs in operational expenses
• Reinvesting in additional strategic business initiatives because of cloud savings
• Focusing on core competencies by deploying more elasticity and higher-level services
• Allowing the brand’s workloads to scale and closely match demand from one moment to the next
• Replicating the brand’s database as needed, which is always highly available to its internal teams with the appropriate permissions
• Developing a brand’s products on top of our managed database service
• Having additional bandwidth available so brands can deliver value to their customers sooner

At Lucidworks, we believe in a cloud-first approach and our internal teams have designed infrastructure that helps brands offload the efforts of building in the cloud so they can focus on initiatives that differentiate them as a business.

Interested in how we can support your brand’s cloud deployment strategy? Drop us a line.