One of the most demanding roles in the modern workforce is that of the CTO. By balancing your tech team’s evolving needs with C-level strategy — you’re effectively living in two heads at once.
Since the introduction of a distributed en masse workforce, balancing these dichotomies becomes crucial for the success of your teams. On one side of the coin, you have budgetary and headcount strategies, on the other; you have security, infrastructure, and development top of mind.
Luckily, we’re here to let you know that migrating to Atlassian Cloud can remedy the top 7 common challenges CTOs face in 2024 and beyond.
One TechValidate survey of 320+ Atlassian customers found that 75% observed tangible returns from the advantages of cloud technology in a span of less than three months — 37% said it took less than one month.
Keeping data secure
With constantly developing threats to your cybersecurity, you want the safest, least impactful option to ensure the security of your data. When migrating to cloud, you can rest assured that your data is safe and secure on Atlassian Cloud with our enterprise-grade data protection features and practices.
In one study, 94% of tech leaders reported enhanced security after migrating to the cloud.
Whereas on-premise architecture relies on a single point of entry, Atlassian Cloud’s zero trust security leverages multiple stages of checks and re-checks of credentials. This significantly enhances the system’s ability to detect breaches and mitigate the impact of successful attacks.
Nearly half of polled developers (48%) admit that they don’t have the proper amount of time to focus on security issues, so there’s never been a better time to increase your tiers of defense.
According to Germany’s Software AG, Atlassian Cloud Enterprise met their strict requirements allowing them to take advantage of cloud benefits.
Many people think innovation and compliance are contradictory. But we have to do both of them. We drive innovation by being compliant and showing that we can adhere to regulations.”
Radoslav Danchev, VP of Collaboration, Workplace, and Support
TIP
Check our data protection white paper to learn how Atlassian can support you to team up with the platform and our Marketplace partners to provide additional security in the cloud.
Accelerating development
2024’s CTOs are no stranger to the pressures of maintaining a high-velocity environment for their organization’s software development. Of course, you strive to launch a high-quality product, but the flip side is how soon you can make it happen.
Cloud enables CI/CD functionality which helps expedite dev momentum like a well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to implement CI/CD when working on-prem due to its lack of scalability.
Among the CTOs polled, 83% attest that Cloud has saved their admins time. Furthermore, 30% told us that they freed up over 50% of their admin time.
Customer Spotlight
Lucid Software achieved a 25% reduction in engineering time through successful migration to the cloud – 30 days to increased innovation and employee happiness: Lucid’s cloud migration story
SREs are our most tapped team. They save 25% of their time in a given week by being on Atlassian Cloud now.”
David Torgerson, VP of Infrastructure and IT
Investment and maintenance in an era of reduced budgets
IT spending might have improved slightly since the massive budget drop of 2020 yet it continues to only plateau. Most enterprises remain cautious about committing to any investments unless they can prove to return savings in a short period of time.
This is where the cloud comes into play. In that same TechValidate survey, 65% of companies opted for cloud migration as a strategic move during tighter budget periods. This allowed them to redirect funds away from on-premise hardware expenses, ultimately paving the way for substantial long-term savings. Of the CTOs polled, 37% said they quickly cut costs by over 20% from migrating.
The savings go deeper than you may think. There are the upfront savings of no longer having to handle on-site maintenance, but there are also benefits such as continuous uptime, automatic scaling, and accelerated velocity that compound the returns.
Forrester, a tech analyst firm, projected Atlassian Cloud to return $1.1 million in productivity alone with an additional $653k in hardware and software savings.
CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
- CHG Healthcare saved $120K to date by migrating to Atlassian’s cloud products – How CHG Healthcare improved savings and service by migrating
All in all, our team and our VP were very impressed with the results and with Atlassian.”
Aaron Cook, Atlassian Administrator
This said, it’s no secret that the initial costs of migrating can demand a decent investment upfront, but you can easily estimate the rate of your returns by leveraging our savings calculator before making any commitments.
When to problem solve vs. when to innovate
With tighter checkbooks, shifting headcounts, and a climate of immediacy, the prioritization of projects, investments, and maintenance is an incredible challenge to the modern CTO.
Fortunately, balancing these priorities becomes much smoother by centralizing your infrastructure on a cloud-based platform. Improving visibility by unifying processes and tools across teams paints a clearer picture for decision-making and troubleshooting, especially in tandem with features like Atlassian Analytics.
The obvious value factor offered by migrating to the cloud is letting go of on-premise maintenance duties, which alone offers massive space for reorganizing priorities by putting trust in the security of Atlassian’s Cloud platform – that means far fewer late-night emergency calls.
Finding the right team for the job
Yes, the cloud certainly makes hiring easier in three ways: it expands the talent pool, creates a less tedious workflow for admins, and provides a convenient toolset that encourages retention.
As controversial as remote work may seem in the public discourse, a distributed workforce is favorable to both managers and employees. The right employee for the job doesn’t need to be in a commutable distance. This allows you to hire a skillset that is more aligned to your enterprise’s company culture. In the post-2020 world, the majority of the best talent will unequivocally prefer remote work for cost, comfort, and other personal factors.
Additionally, there are other nuances that contribute to improved hiring management. For instance, Atlassian Cloud can streamline workflows by significantly reducing the need for administrators to handle customizations. This improved onboarding process allows new hires to be productive faster with far less red tape.
One common thread amongst top talent with a wandering eye is the efficiency of their workday and toolbox in coordination with tasks and oversight. Equipping employees with modern tools, reduced obstacles, and minimized downtime elevates their satisfaction, enabling them to focus on more productive tasks while automation handles tedious and menial duties.
Expanding overall bandwidth
Balancing IT needs alongside C-level strategy in an “always on” climate can present a significant obstacle to innovation. However, migrating to the cloud is a total gift for CTOs focused on capacity.
Atlassian Cloud allows you to offload much of the security and maintenance work to us while automating tasks that were previously manual. Cloud also offers automatic upgrades, which, when compared to maintaining on-premise hardware, provide a massive relief
By reallocating your bandwidth towards business-focused objectives rather than day-to-day operations, you can significantly enhance your impact as a CTO.
Managing productivity across teams
Studies show that collaboration is key to productivity, so having a unifying collaborative platform with tailored processes is essential. The collaborative capabilities of the cloud enhance visibility among teams and projects, facilitating more efficient hand-offs. By strategically optimizing your platform for collaboration, your ability to innovate and deliver will dramatically increase.
One Stanford University finding states that remote workers who leverage cloud apps are 12% more productive than those who use more legacy methods.
Start planning your migration
From forward-thinking cybersecurity to accelerated velocity, reducing manual tasks to retaining talent, and achieving better innovation – migrating to the cloud could be the most outcome-focused decision a CTO can make for a modern enterprise.
To CTOs who haven’t migrated yet, what are the main obstacles you’ve encountered when considering the cloud? Let us know and we can help you strategize by setting up time with a migration specialist. Please keep in mind that the end of support for Server is just around the corner in February 2024. Make sure to begin planning your migration as soon as possible, as some migrations can take up to 9 months.
To dive deeper into Forrester’s studies, check out the white paper Why traditional approaches to technology are slowing you down to learn how to build a strong platform strategy for improved outcomes.