In nearly every sector in Australia, from agriculture through to hygiene distribution, the cloud offers easier data management, greater IT security and storage scalability on a nearly unlimited scale.

Given these distinct advantages, it should really come as no surprise to hear that a substantial cloud push is coming in Australia. Businesses in the aforementioned sectors cannot afford to stand idly by while this technology grows and should seize the opportunity to utilise the new systems.

But how can companies do so without causing disruption to operations? Powerful certifications such as ITIL can make cloud implementation an easier undertaking.

Australia's cloud push

Through to 2018, the Australian cloud services market is primed to soar from $1.23 billion in 2013 through to $4.55 billion by 2018. This forecast comes from a report released by Frost & Sullivan, which claims the demand for cloud services Down Under is "being thrust by the increasing use of data intensive applications". In turn, this requires cloud applications in the back end to store and then analyse the information.

It's not just Australian organisations that will push spending – the government ICT sector will also see spending increase by 2018. In fact, International Data Corporation (IDC) claims spending will reach $6.2 billion this year, with a 1.7 per cent five-year compound annual growth rate.

"Although overall ICT budgets are tight, Australian government organisations need to take advantage of the long-term benefits and cost-saving opportunities offered by cloud and mobility for their organisations," said Bonnie Li, an IDC market analyst.

"Understanding how these technologies can support cost savings through process change, transformation road maps and education across the organisation is critical."

This rings true for every business – not solely government organisations. Cloud technologies can offer uniform benefits for all types of company. For example, a distribution business can run telematics applications from the cloud, so all branches and drivers can store and access information from anywhere it's required.

In another example, retail chains can store near-limitless amounts of data, accessing it later to derive useful and relevant information.

With such a large cloud push comes expansion of the underlying infrastructure, too. IDC noted in another report that the worldwide cloud IT infrastructure market grew by 14.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014 as data centres continued to expand.

"The transition to cloud-oriented infrastructure and data platform architectures within enterprises' datacentres continues to accelerate […]," said Vice President of Datacentre and Cloud research at IDC Richard Villars.

Opportunity for businesses

It's easy to see how uniform cloud technologies can benefit businesses of all sizes and sectors, from small retail stores through to corporate giants. With the infrastructure continuing to proliferate, there's certainly no better time to seize the opportunity and start taking advantage of these capable new technologies.

Firstly, a word of caution. Businesses can find significant difficulties when rushing head first into the adoption of new technologies, even with something as simple as the cloud. So what's the best way to prepare? By training staff to both utilise the new technologies effectively and managing the transition.

A cloud push is coming to Australia.

Starting with the former, training staff in an IT framework is one of the best ways to prepare them for the changeover. ITIL teaches best practice when it comes to IT – for example enabling business change, managing risk in line with the needs of the company and helping with continual improvement.

Other frameworks can provide additional benefits for the business in other ways. PRINCE2, for example, is a project management framework that could prove invaluable when attempting to utilise the cloud, as staff will understand how to effectively run the transition project.

It's clear that with cloud technologies primed for such significant growth in the not-too​-distant future, preparation is necessary now. 

To get your staff on the same page and at the right skill level through capable frameworks, speak to ALC Training today!