As recently as a year or so ago, most tech industry pundits were still talking about a hybrid world in which data center growth was alive and well. The thinking was that many workloads just don’t belong in the cloud, and at that time, there were still some lingering concerns about data security in public clouds. Fast forward to today, and not only are the pundits changing their tune, but CIOs in both the public and private sectors are issuing directives to avoid on-premises data center infrastructure investments in favor of moving to the cloud.

Focusing on the public cloud for your primary IT infrastructure is a wise move. IT teams that continue to make on-prem data center investments today will have some explaining to do as cloud migration accelerates. In a recent report, Prepare for the Death of the Datacenter as We Know It, Gartner Research Director Tiny Haynes stated, “By 2025, 80 percent of enterprises will have shut down their traditional data center, versus 10 percent today.”

That’s an impressive number, and it’s just a short seven years away. What does this mean for your organization, and what do you need to do to prepare?

Cloud Computing is Strategic

Organizations are increasingly discovering that their on-premises data center infrastructure has no strategic value for the company. They have quickly evolved to a place where moving to the cloud is enabling the flexibility, compute power, and business agility they need to achieve their corporate growth goals.

The cost and complexity of managing and maintaining a data center no longer make any sense for them. It’s not just about the maintenance overhead of on-premises infrastructure; among the many compelling reasons for cloud computing is the ability to hire talent anywhere in the world and pursue new business regardless of geography. This opens up revenue opportunities that were just not addressable because of the computing limitations organizations face with on-premises data center infrastructure.

Additionally, CIOs are looking ahead to how technologies enabled by the cloud, such as AI and machine learning, can revolutionize their industries. This is particularly true in health care and life sciences, where cloud computing allows for unprecedented data analytics that will quite literally save lives. You’re just not going to get there with an on-premises data center. 

Benefits of moving to the cloud include greater efficiency, cost containment, and better performance. This goes for VDI as well, because with cloud desktops, organizations can eliminate the cost and complexity of the “I” in VDI: Infrastructure. Modern VDI is cloud-native, overcoming the poor performance and high price of legacy VDI solutions. Maintaining your own infrastructure for virtual desktops is no longer necessary.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained 

The vast majority of CIOs want to get out of the business of running a data center, but there are those who remain hesitant, either because of investments they’ve already made or because they face regulatory requirements that complicate moving workloads and data to the cloud. It’s certainly not trivial to make the move, but there are more options today to accommodate those who need to keep some desktops and data on-premises or need to take an incremental approach to moving to the cloud.

Repurposing IT Resources — What a Gift!

As your data center infrastructure becomes less strategic to the business, your IT team becomes more strategic. That’s because cloud computing frees these smart, highly valuable resources from “keeping the lights on” tasks associated with managing infrastructure. Sure, some of them will need to acquire new skills to navigate your new cloud infrastructure focus, whether those are coding skills, big data experience or soft skills that will help them communicate technology considerations and decisions to the C-suite. Supporting that transition for valuable IT personnel is a no-brainer when you consider that end-user computing in your organization will become simple, secure and future-proof. 

Get Started with Enterprise-Ready Solutions

Moving to the cloud is a multi-faceted journey, and one facet to consider early is adopting PCs in the cloud. Whether you’re still dealing with physical desktops and workstations or you’ve struggled with complicated, on-premises, legacy VDI, there are modern, enterprise-ready solutions that will surprise you with their simplicity. When you’re ready to make the move, be sure you understand the advantages of a cloud-native solution vs. one that is merely cloud-enabled. A cloud-native virtual desktop solution is how you achieve the magic of better-than-PC-performance and free your organization of unnecessary infrastructure management. Get that done, and you can get on with changing the world.