5 Industries Highly Impacted by the Cloud

Article Written by Avery Phillips

The term "industry cloud" is telling of what many industries think of the cloud. It is becoming so much of a part of the industry that they are shaping it to move vertically instead of horizontally. In other words, the cloud system has been customized to fit the needs and operations of a specific industry – and worldwide spending on industry cloud is only expected to grow. 

The benefits of the cloud are too valuable to not make the switch, in fact, there is a substantial chance that your company has already. The benefits may be known, but just how are they transforming leading industries? 

Read below for an analysis of industries significantly impacted by the Cloud.   

Financial Services

A tremendous amount of data is analyzed and produced during financial operations in any industry. Accounting operations, such as tax accounting, sometimes require a recollection of past information as well as a compilation of the current year’s expenses. It would be extremely difficult, and in some instances impossible, to summon all of this information through your personal computer or filing cabinets. Cloud computing services and software has alleviated most of the headaches when it comes to financial operations such as taxes. 

Through cloud services and software, your financial information is stored, saved, and able to be called upon at any time. This allows for you to look back at your financial situation in real-time, providing flexibility and the opportunity to see where you went wrong, and forecasting business operations such as budgeting and investing. The Cloud also continually keeps your records up to date for access virtually anywhere. E-filing your taxes has become such a norm, it has merely become integrated into what we call "filing our taxes." 

Many people in the current world of tax and accounting software wouldn’t know what to do without it. What’s more, is that cloud computing has significantly reduced the amount of paper used in financial operations.

Nursing

The cloud has transformed the healthcare industry as a whole, to the point where it couldn’t go back to traditional procedures even if it tried. The field of nursing is benefitting from cloud computing, providing more efficient and progressive services. A nurse or doctor can now know your medical history before you even come into the office, better preparing them to administer care to patients. 

With electronic health records (EHRs), your medical history can be shared with the professionals who need to see it, with the capability to be updated in real-time, maximizing efficiency and saving time in a potentially life-threatening emergency. An EHR can also alert professionals of any allergic reactions to medications, potentially saving a life. These are just two examples of the scores of benefits the cloud provides healthcare.

Marketing

Data analysis is a hot commodity in the marketing world today. It is understood that the extensive analysis of data produced by customers can reveal such things as buying habits, marketing trends, and many more preferences that marketers are finding to be vital information. A monumental source of data comes from social media, prompting what marketers call social listening – analyzing what is said and shared on social media through analytics software to illuminate how people are talking about products and services for a better perspective of how to target marketing efforts. Or, as Maryville University more eloquently explains the analysis of social data, "Marketers can also use the insights gained through social data analytics to target specific interests and trends with pertinent content." 

Through the interpretation of considerable data, and with the help of analytic software, it is not inconceivable that companies can pinpoint specific audiences that would be interested in particular products and services. Marketing efforts embodying predictive analytics can even have a firm understanding of future buying habits to gear up for a campaign for the continuation of customer sales. Marketing is now reliant on the monitoring and interpretation of extensive data and making correlations between data sets in respects to customer buying and marketing efforts. Cloud computing is a way for marketers to wrangle in a monumental amount of data and make sense of it all.

Information Technology

IT is arguably the industry most directly affected by the barrage of companies adopting the cloud for operations. Many services offered by the cloud were performed by IT professionals. Now, in large part, the IT professional’s job has been shifted to provide the best advice for weighing cloud services – regarding pricing, innovation, and what they can do for said company. 

Many aspects, such as infrastructure elements, are taken care of by cloud services, data storage, server location, infrastructure agility, etc.. However, it has redesigned the role of an IT professional to recognize company needs in these things and suggest the best services that best fit company needs. 

Don’t count the IT professional out; a fair share of infrastructure agility is handled by them on-site. Cloud computing does, however, shoulder some of the load for IT professionals so they can focus on managing cloud and on-site services more efficiently. The cloud has made a significant impact on the IT industry, almost wholly redefining the role.

Science

An industry that requires a careful and comprehensible study to provide conclusions carrying real-life implications heavily leans on data interpretation. Enormous data and software to help decipher this data are needed for all scientific researchers. Imagine trying to develop a cure for a medical condition with no prior knowledge or documentation of previous failed or successful experiments. 

Researchers can reveal innovations that could save lives, help people live longer, and advance technology. A library data manager can make the need for government funding of more research and, as Rutgers explains, "With this financing, researchers can continue their investigative studies and clinical trials, which could include anything from making the world more environmentally conscious to helping cure medical conditions." 

Predictive analysis has helped many scientists compile the troubling research of climate change and how we can start to reverse it – proving that data isn’t just about industries making money, but for conducting research that will benefit us all. 

Big data is now recognized for its ability as a language to be studied, providing insight of the past and predicting future achievements. Virtually any industry can benefit from the cloud’s capabilities of storing these massive amounts of data, while at the same time providing services such as off-site software to help decipher the language. The industries above only begin to demonstrate how the cloud, and its relationship with big data, will benefit the public financially, medicinally, and provides the knowledge we need for the future.  

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About the Author

Avery Phillips is a unicorn of a human being who loves all things relating to people and their entrepreneurial spirits. Comment down below or tweet her @a_taylorian.