BANGKOK, 16 June 2023 – Thai businesses need to set out an effective cloud migration strategy to gain the benefits of digital transformation, according to PwC Thailand.

Management level must determine the right methods and investments to meet business growth as well as upskilling the workforce with in-depth cloud skills to maximise cloud technology and system maintenance.

Vilaiporn Taweelappontong, Consulting Leader, PwC Thailand and Financial Services Strategy and Operations Leader, PwC South East Asia Consulting, said that businesses in Thailand are starting to implement cloud technology in their operations such as data backup, programing and infrastructure as a service, instead of legacy IT systems featuring outdated hardware that is wasteful and inflexible with high maintenance costs.

“Today, cloud is becoming a popular enterprise strategy with many emerging organisations adopting cloud through renting with fees based on actual costs. This approach helps save costs during the initial phase without the need for investing in a data centre. Cloud adoption becomes convenient with easily manageable costs,” Vilaiporn said.

“Meanwhile, long-established organisations that have invested in IT systems, are attempting to migrate current workloads to the cloud – whether using private, public or hybrid cloud services – to transform business operations into digital,” she said.

Many organisations are also planning their cloud migration strategy to support technologies for future business development such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data and machine learning.

Thailand’s rising cloud adoption is in line with PwC’s Cloud Business Survey 2023 that reported 78% of 1,010 surveyed businesses in the United States had adopted cloud in most or all parts of the business. Meanwhile, 66% of financial services organisations are turning towards cloud for growth and innovation.

At the same time, PwC’s 26th Annual Global CEO Survey - Asia Pacific found that 67% of CEOs in the region have plans to deploy cloud, AI and other advanced technologies in the next 12 months. Upskilling the company’s workforce is critical to cloud migration, and 73% of Asia Pacific CEOs have made upskilling their number one priority.

Vilaiporn said the main obstacle to cloud migration for large companies is the technical complexity of their systems, especially when it comes to storing high-risk data. Although some companies have analysed data migration approaches and decided on their strategy, many have not done enough. Cloud migration requires caution and must be undertaken in compliance with company and regulatory requirements.

In addition, consideration must be given to cloud migration models, such as migrating the whole system to the cloud (lift and shift) or creating a new system to support workloads on the cloud (rebuild). Businesses must choose the appropriate model to best support their strategies, she said.

Cloud migration begins with ‘mindset’

Developing a cloud migration strategy is vital for businesses to determine the right approach and make the right investments to create the desired business outcomes.

Vilaiporn said cloud migration that maximises the benefits for organisations must start with changing the mindset of executive level about cloud adoption, as cloud is not just replacing the legacy system. Cloud enables digital transformation by shifting from legacy system to a modern system for better productivity in the future.

As for cloud transformation strategy, Vilaiporn said that there are many models depending on whether business owners want to transform their business operations to a large or small extent.

Business owners can consider incorporating PwC’s cloud-powered business transformation strategy into their cloud migration. The cloud strategy services are broken down into four models, depending on the organisation’s level of cloud adoption as follows:

1. Cloud Modernisation and Migration Services: the first step to help businesses study, analyse, plan and evaluate their cloud migration requirements.

2. Cloud Operating Model and Workforce Services: assess the impact of cloud technologies, changes in governance and accelerate digital transformation by upskilling the workforce with required skills.

3. Cloud Cost Optimisation Services: help organisations analyse and control the resources of cloud investments without going beyond the threshold.

4. Cloud-Powered Innovation Services: for businesses able to create new value and innovation from cloud adoption. This service helps businesses use end-to-end cloud services, ensuring they gain the maximum benefit from using various cloud tools.
   
   

“Cloud migration is just the beginning of digital transformation. Organisations need to set up their IT infrastructure, modern workload management and security systems. Business operations need to truly support the use of cloud, and business executives need to empower their employees with in-depth cloud skills to harness the maximum potential benefit of cloud technology,” Vilaiporn said.