Why Small and Medium Businesses Should Use Cloud Services to Outpace Competitors

If you found yourself amidst a software buying spree the last few years, you’re not alone. Over three-quarters of small and medium businesses (SMBs) increased their reliance on technology due to the pandemic, especially for cloud-based services to improve remote work and modernize business applications.

But now the current macroeconomic climate has SMBs rethinking their use of technology and how to best leverage their infrastructure, SaaS subscriptions, vendors, and more. Additionally, the tight labor market for top technical talent has increased the cost per hire for highly skilled people. Let’s not also forget how inflation has created new stresses on businesses and people, as costs of goods and services have increased, while spending power has decreased.

In spite of all those market factors, SMBs need to find new ways to innovate. Speed, agility, experimentation, automation, and training aren’t just buzzwords; they are the recipe for success in an even more competitive economy.

Why SMBs should continue to invest in cloud services

Challenges in the economy have a unique way of helping SMBs get back to their roots. The scrappiness that helped their original growth trajectory rises again, and the desire to compete through rapid innovation is front and center. The desire is to not just survive the next few months, but to set up their companies for years of success following this tumultuous economic climate.

SMBs are focusing on long-term success and their ability to respond to customer feedback through modernization of their technology. Speed and agility are required to modernize, with 88 percent of SMBs saying that automation enables them to compete with larger companies.

So, what does this look like in practice for an SMB?

Three business benefits an SMB experienced in the cloud

Collectors is a US-based company that provides third-party authentication and grading services to collectors, retail buyers, and sellers of collectibles. For years, they used their own on-premises IT hardware for standard business activities: disaster recovery planning, scalability, and connectivity. Collectors wanted to use the opportunity to consolidate efforts to Amazon Web Services to get out of their expensive datacenter. But they knew they couldn’t do it on their own so they partnered with AWS and my team at Caylent.

Caylent is an all-in AWS Premier Tier Services Partner that helps accelerate customer business and technology goals. Caylent’s core practice areas include migration, application modernization, data analytics, and more.

To undergo this transformation we used two models to help Collectors meet their business goals: the AWS Migration Acceleration Program and Caylent Pods. Together, these quickly helped Collectors get their apps up and running in production on AWS in less than two months.

Collectors was able to gain the following benefits by migrating and modernizing on AWS:

1. Cost savings

Caylent migrated their on-premises data centers to AWS and managed their cloud workloads with Amazon EKS, software which allowed them to benefit from economies of scale and increased productivity. Caylent engaged in the process of right-sizing and cost optimization, using platforms such as Datadog and New Relic to provide insights and analytics, respectively.

2. Accelerated innovation

Caylent built an Amazon Aurora database for the Collectors team which offered strong uptime and recovery options that the team knew were critical to a good user experience and business longevity. Automatic backups are stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which is designed for over 99% durability. Those backups are automatic, incremental, and continuous and have no impact on database performance.”

3. Operational efficiency

By migrating to AWS, Collectors was able to benefit from economies of scale, consolidation of data sprawl, and improve performance in a few areas (recovery abilities, scalability, and the overall uptime). By partnering closely with Caylent Pods, Collectors was able to reach further maturity on AWS and develop the necessary skills in-house to ensure longevity and success on AWS. For SMBs that have limited internal support, this could be valuable.

Learn more from your SMB peers in industries such as travel, healthcare, media, finance and more. Seek inspiration and get exclusive offers in the AWS Connected Community

Improve internal efficiency by partnering with the right team

With the unpredictable macroeconomy in 2023, SMBs need the ability to respond to ever-changing market demands. By selecting an innovative and cost-effective cloud platform, SMB companies can help set themselves up for immediate and long-term improvements. This is particularly helpful for SMBs that are looking to shift from costly capital expense IT spending to an operational expense, pay-as-you-go model. Selecting the right cloud platform and delivery partner is key to enabling efficient and stable success. AWS and Caylent have a strong record of meeting customer deadlines and adding value along the way.

Offer: Book a free consultation with Caylent to identify your security and compliance needs

Next steps

Based on your SMB’s need to modernize its technology, search for top talent, and the focus on cost optimization, AWS and Caylent can help you make a significant jump forward on your digital journey. If you’re not quite ready to book a consultation as referenced above, you can contact AWS now to chat through your needs.

Disclaimer: The content and opinions in this post are those of the third-party author.