Scared of moving B2B transactions to the cloud? We have you covered.

Companies all over the globe are accelerating their moves to adopt digital transformation and cloud technologies.

A 2022 study of IT executives at 850 companies found that nearly 70% of the companies in the past year have started to migrate their operations to the cloud. The study also revealed that over 60% of the companies are expected to have most, if not all of their IT infrastructure in the cloud by the end of 2023.

Cloud adoption is accelerating

Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic helped bring a new urgency to businesses to move to the cloud. As remote work became the norm, companies scrambled to keep their workforce connected. Other companies had to move to the cloud to sustain the business.  McKinsey Consulting notes the story of a fast/casual restaurant chain that transitioned to a new cloud-centered ecommerce and online ordering model because of the pandemic. The result? The chain increased its online orders almost 10X.

Large B2B organizations also see the value of moving to the cloud for their B2B interactions. Another recent study on the state of the cloud showed 80% of the companies surveyed responded that they are leveraging public and private clouds for their businesses, and nearly 90% said they had adopted a multi-cloud strategy.

These businesses moved to the cloud because they want to curb costs, improve their service delivery, and strengthen the security around their B2B transactions. They also want to be able to scale their IT infrastructure in the coming years, as their business needs evolve. They understand that moving to the cloud is a top priority.

But some IT executives have concerns about moving to the cloud. They are afraid of losing control and visibility, or are uncertain about sailing into uncharted waters with a new B2B cloud solution.

You may wonder if your organization is ready to make a move to the cloud. But the problem is, remaining heavily reliant on legacy EDI processes comes with its own risks. Moving to the cloud doesn’t have to be a hassle, especially with the right partner to accompany you.

Legacy EDI systems are showing their age

Enterprise IT leaders need to assess the total cost of ownership and the risks involved in continuing with a full EDI system. As the volume of EDI traffic continues to rise exponentially, along with the number of B2B cloud trading partners, your EDI system must be able to scale accordingly.

The harsh reality is that many legacy EDI systems themselves are nearing the end of their useful lives. IT executives are finding it more difficult to justify the high costs and complexity of operating, maintaining, and staffing these systems.

There are other risks in maintaining your enterprise’s EDI status quo. Those risks include the potential loss of seasoned IT veterans who have handled your systems for years. These skilled in-house workers know your EDI systems inside-out. What happens to your EDI system when they retire?

Younger IT workers may not have the knowledge base or the inclination to work with an ‘old’ technology. These younger employees are likely more geared to working with cloud capabilities. If your company isn’t making some headway into cloud adoption, you might also risk losing potentially good employees to other firms.

Marketplace hesitancy

In speaking with enterprises around this topic, I’ve noticed there is still some hesitancy towards cloud adoption. Migrating to a cloud B2B integration platform brings up common concerns about costs, security, and possible disruptions to business continuity.  Still other companies have expressed to me that they currently lack the human talent in house to drive such a B2B cloud adoption for the company.

B2B cloud migration is a challenging project for any organization. There are increasingly more requirements needed to ensure security and compliance. IT decision makers are also concerned with how cyber threats could compromise data privacy and data security issues.

Moving to the cloud isn’t just throwing a software switch, and off you go. Rather, it’s about going with a service provider who can take over the integration challenge and become your in-house expertise. This eliminates any hesitation about having the right kind of internal expertise needed to handle this move.

And that’s precisely why finding the right partner to manage your cloud b2b integrations should be a priority now: outsourcing your B2B operations to trusted experts allows you to offset risk.

Make the move to cloud on your own terms

Much has been written about how cloud adoption makes your organization more scalable and flexible. It’s absolutely true. Thanks to the cloud, companies can reduce costs, achieve higher levels of transparency and flexibility, and become more efficient at delivering services and resources to meet infrastructure and business demands.

But the way you adopt the cloud can also be flexible. Our Axway B2B Integration platform gives you flexibility and multiple options on how best to move your B2B/EDI into the cloud. You can move in stages, or just delegate portions of your EDI operations at the start. Plus, your team also has options to move any cloud implementation back to on-premises in the future.

If you’re an IT decision maker, and looking to bring your infrastructure to the cloud, working with an experienced partner can reduce your business and technical risks.

Let a trusted partner help you get there

We’ve already helped more than 150 customers deploy securely to the cloud – from healthcare organizations to manufacturing, government, and logistics consulting. These organizations have successfully migrated, modernized, and extended their integration ecosystems with our help. Axway’s B2B Integration experts work with these partners to handle the daily operation of their environments. This results in improved uptime and better SLAs, as well as faster onboarding while reducing overall operating costs.

You don’t need to worry about moving your B2B operations to the cloud: we have you covered. We’ll help make sure your B2B solutions get the right focus, and the right expertise, for your move to the cloud.