Deloitte recently came up with a report, focusing on the transformation of the Asia-Pacific region: The cloud imperative, and Asia Pacific’s unmissable opportunity. The report analyzes and scrutinizes challenges, opportunities and case studies about the significance of cloud and its ability to drive business success in times like these.

The report majorly talks about how investments in cloud based technologies can benefit and generate profits for businesses based out of Asia-Pacific region, a US$160 billion future economic boom. It observed that, if businesses in India contribute and invest more in cloud-based technologies, it could gain a benefit of around USD 17 billion.

"Our analysis found that out of the eight countries, India is one of the most cloud ready markets. From around USD 11 billion in 2015 - 2019, cloud services are expected to contribute around USD 17 billion between 2020-2024. The huge economic potential to drive growth and serve customers in a differentiated way further puts cloud on the top of mind for senior management and boards. Businesses now more than ever before, look to innovation and digital transformation, led by adoption of cloud services, to make them more resilient, agile and customer focused", said Abhrajit Ray, Partner, Deloitte India.

Cloud computing is expected to impact all aspects of business and home lives, and it's here to stay. The increased adoption will also lead to increasing numbers of businesses actively seeking out qualified and experienced cloud experts across several domains, including engineering, database management, programming, development, security and analytics.

In 'The Cloud Imperative' report, Deloitte relied on a survey where nearly 600 business companies or organizations were focused on, majorly from Australia, China, Hong Kong (SAR), India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea. The key findings of the report are as follows:

• According to Deloitte Access Economic, investments in cloud transformation and cloud-based technologies could benefit Asia-Pacific region and its economy by over $US160 billion from 2020 to 2024;
•  Public cloud expenses estimated to increase by 28% annually, enhancing productivity;
• -Big companies who own major part of the Asia-Pacific economy could gain profit by adoption of cloud-based technology and transformation;
• There are huge chunk of business and companies who are either unaware or are hesitant to adopt cloud-based technologies, while 10% of the companies portray that they are ready to transform or are well-equipped with cloud transformations;
• 62% of companies estimate their level of cloud adoption and transformation to grow in forthcoming years.

Deloitte Asia Pacific Cloud Transformation leader, Dan Newman and Deloitte Access Economics partner, and principal report author, John O’Mahony believe that the Covid-19 pandemic plays a major role in the enhancing and speeding up investments in cloud based technology adoption.

“COVID-19 has turned the world on its head in too many ways, but also forced governments and businesses to rapidly respond to changes in demand for their products and services”, said Dan Newman. “Cloud has endless potential to enhance operations, support competitive advantage and drive opportunities for significant business value and growth across the likes of productivity, operational efficiency, new customer segments, market share, revenues and profit. That it can also deliver significant economic benefits makes the argument even more compelling, for individual businesses, for industries, for nations and for the wider Asia Pacific region”.

“Our research finds that cloud can be vital in making businesses more flexible, agile and prepared to respond to disruption, and that businesses making greater use of cloud-based technologies can deliver significant national and regional economic benefits and improved living standards,” said John O’Mahony.

The cloud imperative, and Asia Pacific’s unmissable opportunity means leaders would have to also invest in building and acquiring the right digital skills to leverage the opportunity.