What are enterprise cloud solutions?

The average enterprise organization uses more than 660 different systems in its day-to-day operations. The vast majority of these platforms are called “cloud services,” meaning that the service provider delivers them to the organization through the internet, instead of the software being installed locally.

This kind of software is typically known as an enterprise cloud solution, and is both a major industry in its own right as well as an essential part of how organizations work.

Here’s your guide to these solutions, how they’re implemented, and some best practices to keep in mind.

Enterprise cloud solutions defined

An enterprise cloud solution is a type of cloud service, an application or infrastructure supplied over the internet. This is different from traditional, on-premise software, which an organization installs on its own physical servers or computers. Enterprise cloud solutions differ from other cloud services in that they’re designed for large-scale organizations that typically have thousands of employees, sometimes across multiple national or international locations.

The benefits of cloud solutions for enterprise organizations

While cloud services have benefits for all organizations, including scalability, increased collaboration, and agility, dedicated enterprise cloud solutions bring their own distinct advantages.

Streamlined deployment

Deploying an on-premise solution across an entire organization can take significantly more time and resources than deploying an equivalent cloud solution. A cloud solution can be deployed across multiple departments and offices almost instantly. That leaves more time for onboarding teams and optimizing their new workflows rather than waiting for supporting infrastructure to go live.

Lower investment

While enterprise cloud solutions can be expensive to acquire and deploy, they represent a much smaller investment than on-premise software. With the physical infrastructure alone requiring servers, storage, network equipment, and dedicated power, many enterprise organizations prefer investing in cloud solutions over this infrastructure.

Savings on opportunity costs

The initial cost of building the infrastructure needed for on-premise software is just that, an initial cost. Maintaining that infrastructure requires an ongoing cost on top of a software license, and should that infrastructure ever experience problems, it’s on the organization’s technical team to resolve them. Resources dedicated to this infrastructure over the long term are resources that could be invested elsewhere if cloud solutions were used.

Better upgradability

Adding functionality to an enterprise cloud solution can be as simple as sending an email to your sales representative and getting approval from the finance department for the additional spend. With on-premise solutions, this extra functionality may involve additional infrastructure, different setup requirements, and more. Upgrading an on-premise solution can take significantly more time and be more resource-intensive.

What makes enterprise cloud solutions different?

The first major difference between enterprise cloud solutions and other cloud services is scale. Enterprise organizations need to deploy software across hundreds or thousands of users, while small or medium businesses (SMBs) might only have a few. This means enterprise cloud solutions need to be reliable enough to work across a broad range of devices and departments, with a significant number of users connected at once. This requires significant infrastructure to keep everything operating smoothly.

Enterprise organizations also face a vastly different compliance and regulatory environment than SMBs do, and enterprise cloud solutions need to help them meet these requirements. Some of these solutions have built-in features for this (e.g., more stringent security features) while others may scale back some features common in software targeted at SMBs, specifically to avoid infringing on certain regulations.

Finally, enterprise cloud solutions typically need to be integrated with existing software systems. While SMBs often have the agility to get around integration needs, even if only temporarily, enterprise organizations deal with such massive amounts of data that integrations are essential. That’s why enterprise cloud solutions often have built-in integration capabilities.

Hidden costs of enterprise cloud solutions

While enterprise cloud solutions are typically less costly than their on-premise counterparts, they still generate significant, sometimes unseen costs. The price you pay for these platforms goes beyond the cost of the licenses needed to use them. Knowing these costs is essential to knowing whether a platform is a good investment or not.

Data migration and integration

When you add a new software platform to your existing systems, you’ll invariably have to do one of two things: migrate existing data or integrate it. This can bring significant costs.

Data migration involves taking data from existing systems and moving it to the solution you’re looking to implement. You can migrate only portions of your data or your entire database. Even if the solution you’re implementing has built-in migration tools, you’ll need to factor in time, technical support, and other resources to handle this migration.

Likewise, many enterprise cloud solutions integrate natively with existing systems, meaning they automatically send data to the other tools you use. In some cases, however, these integrations aren’t sufficient, and you’ll need third-party solutions to integrate the tools fully.

Compliance and security

While enterprise cloud solutions are typically designed with the compliance and security requirements of an enterprise organization in mind, this isn’t always sufficient. You may need third-party consultants to bring a new solution up to your security standards or review it for compliance.

This often represents an ongoing cost because compliance requirements evolve. Some solutions may create new compliance issues because they fail to keep up with regulations, requiring additional work from a consultant or even migration to a completely new solution.

Support and training

Even the most user-friendly cloud solutions involve some level of training for your employees. In an enterprise organization, where a tool can be used by thousands of employees, the need for training can be a significant cost. It’s rarely a one-and-done cost, either, because every new employee will need to be onboarded onto this new tool.

Your organization is likely to need support in using a new tool, either to get the full benefits of its features or to resolve problems as they come up. While many providers offer some level of support as part of your license costs, some types of support come at an extra cost.

Feature and performance premiums

Enterprise cloud solutions often offer scaling feature sets that only become available in higher tiers. It’s not uncommon for an organization to deploy a tool for a set cost, only to realize that a specific feature, essential for their needs, comes at an extra cost. This can happen several times over a tool’s lifetime with your organization, leading to steadily increasing costs year after year.

Implementing enterprise cloud solutions

Implementing a cloud solution at scale in an enterprise organization is notably different than deploying a single software tool to just a few users. If you’re responsible for deploying these tools, remember these three elements of implementation: phased rollouts, change management, and risk management.

Phased rollouts

Instead of deploying all features to all users at once, a phased rollout allows an organization to deploy a new cloud solution in predetermined phases. This can lengthen the necessary time for full deployment, but it allows you to resolve potential issues faster and with less impact on essential business functions. You can also use these phases to generate feedback as each phase ends, leaving you better prepared for subsequent phases.

You can structure each phase around deploying new tools to subsets of users over time or only make some features available to all users, rolling out subsequent features over time.

Change management

Change management is a process through which organizations prepare for change, identify its potential risks, implement that change, and support it long after it’s happened. Different methodologies exist to allow organizations to manage significant change, but Kotter’s eight-step methodology is a good framework:

1. Create a sense of urgency to inspire people to act.
2. Build a guiding coalition of volunteers who can coordinate your change.
3. Form a strategic vision to clarify the desired impact of that change.
4. Enlist a volunteer army, rallying people throughout the organization.
5. Enable action by removing barriers to clear the way for change.
6. Generate short-term wins and recognize them publicly.
7. Sustain acceleration.
8. Institute change by articulating the connections between new behaviors and organizational success.
    

Risk management

Every action your organization takes comes with risk, and implementing enterprise cloud solutions is no different. Risk management allows you to identify these risks before implementation, recognize them as they come up, and respond to them appropriately. Through a robust risk management process, you can:

1. Identify the potential risks involved.
2. Investigate their likelihood and potential impact on your organization.
3. Prioritize them according to that potential impact.
4. Act to prevent, contain, or mitigate risks.
5. Monitor the outcome of your efforts.

Implementing enterprise cloud services can be a lengthy, expensive process, but these practices can ensure that you get a significant return on your investment.

Future-proofing your enterprise cloud strategy

Enterprise cloud solutions are essential to many functions in an enterprise organization, and future-proofing the way you select and deploy individual solutions is essential to getting the most out of them.

Emerging trends like widespread AI adoption can impact cloud solutions, both in functionality and viability. If it doesn’t natively integrate with AI tools everyone in your industry is using, a solution you deploy today may become completely obsolete tomorrow. That’s why any plan for implementing enterprise cloud solutions should account for evolving trends.

Similarly, enterprise organizations can rapidly scale in ways that outpace some solutions; anything you implement should be able to scale with your teams as they grow. Strategically managing relationships with vendors is essential to this.

Enterprise cloud solutions give organizations the tools they need to do their best work without significant investments in infrastructure or lengthy deployment times. With the right approach, you can reap the rewards of these solutions without running into the challenges they typically bring.